The day we rode Monte Carpegna (Chippo) 1410 meter’s climbing
Today we were to see the Giro way out on the Monte Carpegna or Chippo as the locals call it, I had rode this 3 times before so I knew what I was letting myself in for.
It’s a long ride so the idea is to blast out to the Chippo have a cuppa and ride it, so we set out at a nice pace with a good crew all lined up behind Glen our Australian guide for the day and made our way towards Chippo, not a bad route and reasonably flat taking the Valley route, as you get nearer you are climbing steadily until at the bottom of the climb you have already reached 750 meters above sea level we stopped about 7 km before the climb for refreshment, and I took on Espresso coffee and red bull, a combination that was going to drive me up that great climb.
So, the idea was to climb to the top then come down to a good position to see the peleton come up, the regroup at the bottom for a ride home, Ok that was the plan, in reality this is what happened, we finished coffee and made our way to the mountain and blimey this was steep and average of 10% for 6.5 km tree lined and road with pine cones over it, also people walking up in your way and at one point I hit a group of school children who just wouldn’t get out of the way! We ground our way up overtaking riders who were walking all the time being watched by spectators who were already in position, after many hairpin bends we found our selves at the top, and that’s when it all went a little pear shaped! It started to rain! We donned our rain capes and arm warmers but it didn’t just rain it hammered down and at that height it was really cold, so we descended the mountain the water overtaking us I pulled up after about 500 yds and went under some Italians umbrella he didn’t seem to mind, Ken came down next and I pulled him over to share the umbrella he was swearing like a navey (he doesn’t like the cold), after a while it was decided to head down again so off we went only to be pulled up by the others under the awning of a hut so there we were cuddling up to keep warm and by Christ it was cold! Singing our heads off to “always look on the bright side of life” much to the amazement of the locals.
All thought of watching the Giro on the mountain at this point were gone, Eric one of our new pals pointed out that the rain was easing so off the mountain we headed, really dangerous decent this but we all made it and I hoarded those with me into a café while turns out the others were down in a much posher place down the road, we ordered hot chocolate then coffee and when Donna and Perry came in they ordered triple whisky!!! I could see out to the south that the weather was slowly getting better, and then we heard the helicopter, meaning that the riders were coming, we were out of the café and shouting our heads off, all great fun, and then they were gone.
Funny at the Café to see who could and who could not take the cold all I’m saying is that Donna was in the strong camp.
All a little warmer now we headed down to the other café and met the others watching telle not quite how we wanted to watch the giro, but never mind, it was still raining and we were to head of home only 40 km in the rain, so we were stuffing news papers down our fronts, and off we went, and after about 10minits the sun popped out and we had the most amazing ride home hitting 27 mph for long stretches, looking back we had a great ride sunny all the way to and up Chippo, and most of the way home, and the bit in the middle well, certainly sorted out the men from the boys! That’s for sure, best day of the holiday.
Phil