Cycling in Rimini

The whole area along the coast, north of the Monte San Bortolo National Park, is the region of Rimini - including the town of Riccioni.  As you go inland there are rolling hills and although there is an autostrada and a train line that run parallel to the coast there is hundreds of kilometres of regional roads that go up and down the valleys, over the hills and through villages.

The Adriatic coast north from Monte San Bortolo National Park.

The fields are green with crops or brown with ploughed earth.  Doesn't look much like they have embraced minimum tillage here as small bulldozers pull ploughs that turn the soil over from deep down, leaving rows of large clods.  The hillsides are so steep that normal tractors would roll easily, hence the bulldozers.

Ploughed land.

The villages range from San Marino with its seven castles to industrial towns like Tavullia - the home of Valentino Rossi and the place where his factory makes racing gear for motor cyclists and where his personal training track sits in the valley; to the university town of Urbino where students were celebrating their graduation day - posing for photos with mum and dad and singing mid morning beer songs as we sat drinking great coffee.

San Marino.  Seven castles and hundreds of tax free shops

San Marino.  Lots of tourists

San Marino.  Tax free guns too.

More San Marino.  Ancient city.

The steep side of San Marino

The University town of Urbino

Tavullia. Home of Valentino Rossi

Rolling hills and farmland

A small group of elite cyclists in the national park overlooking the Adriatic

Ivan the dancer

The university town of Urbino

Urbino.  Someone close to the pope is supposed to live here.

Along the cycle way just off the beach there is a series of  fountains.  In this one a ball of marble, supported by water, can be spun slowly.  It stays spinning for ages.

The rich end of town.

Although the scenery is great and the drivers are generally polite compared to Australian drivers they have a kamikaze attitude which is occasionally dangerous.  They don't really want to slow down so will overtake coming the other way which is not too bad because you can see then coming but they also want to squeeze past from behind which can mean there is inches of clearance on some of the narrower roads.

There are some good steady climbs and long sweeping descents but the fun factor is reduced due to the poor quality roads.  There is the occasional perfect surface but out of the blue there can be long cracks in the road, parallel to the roadway, that can swallow a wheel and destroy good carbon race wheels.  So the descents tend to be pretty steady.  Pity.

But there are bikes everywhere.  Not just along the beach strip.  Everywhere you go there are groups from hotels, locals out for a spin and people on their way to work or home.  Plenty of electric bikes too.

So would you come here for a cycling holiday?  The hotel where we are staying makes it pretty easy.  Lunch in the middle of the afternoon after the long rides, snacks to go with you, cycle guides for two or twenty who will take you where and as far as you want to go, cycling gear washed each day, gourmet food - more than you can eat, bike storage and basic maintenance kit, town bikes for getting around town.  Which makes it a pretty easy stay.

Getting out of the rush takes about 10ks but then you are rewarded with great cycling in picturesque countryside but on crap roads.  

Glad we came here but probably wouldn't come back.