The last time I did the ride we did today, I wrote on this blog a post called Solo-Alone In this post, I wrote about how this ride was one ride of many that is inevitably the solo ride. This time, I had Kristen to share the ride with. Last time it felt like a long ride; today we rode even more miles that my previous route and it went by as quickly as any other 70 mile ride. Riding alone is part of cycling training, but I was glad to have company today... and everyday, really.
We started in a roundabout way (no pun intended, there are tons of roundabouts here), heading towards the scenic panoramic road just for variety. We rode through Intra, made a few turns, and I realized we should be going a different way. An awkward turnaround later, we were headed in a better direction, and of course uphill. In an effort to find a little quieter roads, we avoided the lakeside Strada Statale, in favor of a little road parallel to it, up on the ridge. The scenery is better, there are less cars, and the little climb to get up there is a good warm-up.
About 10km later we were back down along the lake, on a beautiful section of road, heading north towards Cannobio, where our turn north west into Valle Cannobio awaited us. Seeing as how we were already 30km into the ride and we had a 22km climb ahead of us, we stopped for a quick snack on a park bench under some pine trees, and then carried on for 22km of mild grades through the valley while passing a half dozen villages along the way. There could of been a hundred times that we could have stopped to take photographs, the scenery was that beautiful, but once you’re climbing, you don’t really want to stop.
At the summit of the pass, we stopped to admire a monument placed in rememberance of Marco Pantani, wherein one of his local fan clubs dedicated the pass to him. From there we descended quickly to a little town called Malesco. Malesco is one these beautiful places that let you know quickly that you are practically in Switzerland. The architecture is half Italian/ half Swiss. Especially notable are the stone roofs that you typically see on mountainside huts making their way into larger buildings in town. I got a little lost in Malesco last time I did this ride, which while beautiful, is especially challenging because most of the town is paved in stone. Not really cobbles, actual stone. It’s tough to ride on, especially when you’re lost and making lots of turns while staring at the Garmin map. Today, we make the correct turns and were out of it all too quickly.
We likely would have stopped there if not for the impending rain between us and Domodossola, which was our destination for a late lunch. Mountain weather is very strange. It’s very hard to read where it’s raining, where it’s going to rain, etc. With that unpredictability’s in mind, we pressed on, up a painful false flat uphill before the remaining descend began.
Just as we started heading down, the rain started, I think. I say “I think” because I’m not actually sure it was raining much, but it must have just poured. The roads were soaked. It was a bummer for two reasons. First, this descent is one of my favorites I’ve ever done. It’s not really technical, the road is a State road so it’s wide, and the pavement is everything you’d expect from a bigger road on the Italian/ Swiss border. Unfortunately we had to take it more gently since we were pretty well soaked. Secondly, the giant Swiss Alps just beyond Domodossola were hidden by a curtain of thick clouds, and that view was one of the most memorable from my previous trip here in 2014.
One of my favorite things about this descent is the 700m tunnel that we go through. It’s probably a 8% grade downhill through it, and it’s very well lit. Today we couldn’t zoom through as quickly as I did last time, which was a bummer because I was really looking forward to it. I almost want to do this ride again just to do that descent. Once we exited the tunnel, it was like it had never rained. The roads were dry, but now we were stuck behind some cars. I hate getting stuck behind cars of descents. Ruins all the fun!
We stopped in Domodossola to eat lunch as planned. Domodossola is a railway hub for trains into and out of Switzerland through the Simpson Pass, which is of historic significance. Domodossola has existed in some capacity since before the Roman Empire. It’s an interesting town because so of it is so historic and well preserved, while a lot of it is modernized. That’s Italy really. It’s not just a tourist attraction, people live and work there every single day. I wouldn’t mind living there.
We visited Piazza del Mercato which is beautiful. Less beautiful, but equally interesting to us was a quick stop in at Barale Ciclomania bike shop. When Michael at Wheelfine says he has a European-style bike shop, he’s not lying. This shop is exactly like Wheelfine except the ceilings are higher, which allows for even more inventory stacked sixteen feet in the air. An older husband and wife must own the place. It’s filled with Italian everything. I wish we could visit it without our bike so we could really browse. One of the most interesting things about the shop is that the service portion and the sales portions are in two different shops across the street from each other. I guess they ran out of space. It’s a little nutty but after spending so much time at Wheelfine, I felt very at home there. Apparently they have another store in Verbania Intra, so we’ll try to visit that at some point too.
Our ride home was flat as anything gets here. We were flying for the most part. First though the “Italian Suburbs” which was very strange. It’s weird to see individual houses on flat land with their own yards all grouped together. It’s not totally like American developments, but it’s like nothing else we’ve seen in Italy anywhere else. We zoomed through one town then the next until we arrived in Mergozzo. Mergozzo is a really lovely town on Lago Mergozzo, just south of Lago Maggiore. We stopped there for one final snack after trading some tough pulls on the flat road. We stayed a while to watch a guy and his very happy dog play fetch off the dock and into the lake. The dog had endless energy. Since we didn’t, we cruised back the last five miles into Pallanza and the day of riding was done. A nice 70 miles in the books.
The big event of the evening was Kristen cooking her own dinner. I helped her a little bit, but she did it mostly herself. She really wanted Spaghetti alle Vongole but since lupini di mare were priced better, she prepared them instead. Basically the same as clams, just smaller. Being a vegetarian, I know only one thing about cooking shellfish, which is that if they don’t open, you don’t eat them. Kristen did a great job of cooking them with white wine and while a few flew like popped corn when we added the shelled meat to the olive oil, Kristen said it was pretty succuessful. Since she prepared a half pound of pasta she’ll have some leftovers for another meal. Seafood can be expensive but if she gets two and half meals out of it, not bad. Cooking from a recipe is tough, especially for a person who doesn’t cook. There is a lot of intuitaion that comes from experience and a lot of finese that can be lost when having to read a recipe, so I think the next time she ventures into clams it’ll come more naturally. Regardless, her meal turned out better than mine. My meal got away from me. At least the bread and salad were really good. My pasta... not so much.
After a little evening walk down to the lake, midnight is here and past. Tomorrow we’ll take a rest day and do some tourist activities. We’ll visit the Borromean Islands and maybe Villa Taranto. I’ll try to take lots of pictures. I did bring my real camera.
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