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.

The Holiday Coast

When we drove into Riccioni at about 10pm and crept along the beachside street looking for our hotel. We were struck by the...  the... the tackiness of the place.

The street seemed to go for miles.  On one side there was gaudy food shops, gaudy restaurants, gaudy bars, cheap clothes shops, ice cream parlours and hundreds of gaudy people walking up and down.  On the other side there were hotels interspersed with parks full of cheap amusement rides, more food shops, more gaudy trinket shops, loud thumping music... and our hotel.

Shit.

We parked in the driveway of the hotel Fedora and even before we'd started unpacking I was ready to go somewhere else.  We were all tired.  I needed a few hours sleep so I could drive back to Innsbruck to get the car back on time.

Two hours later with my ears ringing from the noise coming into our hotel room I was on the autostrada to Innsbruck planning a move to somewhere a little more us.

The next night I got to experience it all again as the bus meandered its way from Rimini station to Riccioni.  For the entire six kilometres it was one long strip of tacky tourist traps and it was impossible to know where to get off.  The bus was packed so no use trying to edge forward to ask the driver so used the faithful garmin to find a destination close to the hotel.

It was about 10 and I was greeted by Kim and a plate full of very tasty food that the restaurant had kept for me.  Nice.

We'd also had a room change and there was very little noise.

Slept.  Well.

The next morning at breakfast Justine, David and me were planning our move while Kim quietly listened.  We had a train ticket to Rome from Riccione, a lot of luggage and no car.  Didn't have much time to think more as Kim and I went riding with Paulo.

The view from our room

By half way through the ride, in a national park south, after threading our way along the busy roads and bike paths of tourist central I was starting to rethink the idea of moving.  I'd just had a good night's sleep, a fantastic breakfast and the riding was looking promising.

Looking north from the national park - and some wildlife

Everyone stops for coffee

Promising was becoming more positive by the minute after a huge lunch spread at the end of our 100 ks and some good coffee.

One of my least clever ideas

We had to get from Zell am see in Austria to Riccione in Italy.

The six of us could travel by train with a couple of train changes.  Cost: About 600 euros.

Or we could hire a van in Zell am see and drop it off in Riccioni  Cost:  About 700 euros.

If we picked the car up in Austria and dropped it off in Austria we could save a 300 euro one way fee.

So.  Why not hire the car in Austria, drive everyone down to Riccione, one of us drive the car back to the nearest Austrian town then that person catches the train back to Rimini.  Cost:  About 300 euros and a bit of lost sleep.  On paper that is.

Happy days

And we can get away with less dismantling when packing up the bikes.

Sweet.

I'm not sure where it started to come unravelled.  Probably after lunch when it became obvious that the seven hour drive from Zell am see to Riccione was a gross underestimate and as we wound our way through the narrow Italian roads through the alps at 6pm it was obvious we weren't going to give 5:30 pm in Riccioni a shake.  We still had to drop David and Justine off in Venice.

We did that at about 6:30 then drove back onto the autostrada heading for Bologne then Riccione.  The gps estimated Riccione at about 11:30 when we got back in the van after some dinner on the road.  Not good.  So as we hurtled along at 115, giving out toll money in 10s of euros and the bmws flew past at 145, we came across signs to Rimini - our turnoff.  I'd chosen the wrong town for the gps.  Luckily in the right direction.  We ended up in bed by about 11.  Me for a couple of hours, Kim, Cassea and Christian for the rest of the night.

At 1 I got back in the car to head for Innsbruck.  5 hours.  Autostrada from Riccione to Innsbruck (well all but a few ks).  Cost: 59 euros.

Got the car back to Innsbruck, had a swimming session at a huge pool facility in the city then caught the train to Riccioni.

Got back to Riccioni at about 9:30 after getting just a little bit lost between the station and the hotel.

The day before Dave and I had caught the train at 6am from Zell am see to Innsbruck to pick up the car.  We'd driven back to Zell am see, picked up the crew then arrive at Riccione at 9:30.  I'd driven back to Innsbruck during the night then caught the train back to Rimini and a bus back to Riccioni that night.  Day and a half travel with not much sleep.

With tolls and fuel, which I haven't been game to add up yet, we would probably have been better off on the train.

We're catching the train to Rome.

The Grossglockner

When we were in Salzburg the maitre de where David and Justine were staying mentioned that her boyfriend was a cyclist and that he had ridden up a hill near Zell am see called the Grossglockner.  Kim and I were keen to keep our training hours up on the day after the race so while David recovered we headed south, slowly, up one of the valleys away from the lake.

We decided in Salzburg that this would be our race loosener and hadn't discussed it much beforehand - just headed off with our pockets full of food and our bikes.

All was well for the first 15 ks or so.  Gentle slopes and smooth road surface.  The dozens of motorbikes should have been a clue to what we were in for and if they weren't the toll booth at the 15 k mark should have confirmed it.

We went through the toll booth.  Bikes don't pay (money that is - they certainly pay in other ways).  The road went up.  That's ok its only for a few hundred metres it will level out.

It didn't level out for 17 kilometres.  Although there were a few easier breaks the average grade for those 17 ks was nearly 10%.  And we were on time trial bikes with gearing that was not up to the task.  There were kilometres where I was out of my seat because 39/27 was just too hard to keep pedalling sitting down.

Should have taken more notice of this sign.  The 33 ks includes a descent from Grosslglockner and another climb

Probably should have looked at this before we went too

I waited for Kim several times.  We still had no idea how far it went up at that stage so each time we conquered the snaking hairpins ahead another lot disappeared into the clouds.  So I stopped waiting for Kim.

The view on the way up on the other side of the valley to the road

Amazing road.  In some places the road ahead was directly over you, built out over concrete supports.  The Austrians are pretty good engineers judging from their railways, tunnels and roads.

Anyway I made it and Kim almost did.  We did discuss turning back on the way up but I would have found it hard to face other cyclists if I hadn't made it to the top.

I'm not very good at selfies but I had to have proof

And then we had to get down.

I'd been a little worried about heat buildup in the carbon wheels when braking on the steep roads we had been riding over the last week or two.  Let the brake off for  few seconds and your doing 70.  Which is great but the hairpin at the end of the short straight means lots of brakes to get around it.  I had noticed during the race the front brakes on my bike had been gripping unevenly so took it easy on the first half dozen corners because of this.  The unevenness while braking had turned into a distinct bump.  

I pulled up to check it out and to see how hot my rims were.  As I slowed to a stop a loud bang anounced a flat.  Front wheel.  Both my rims were scalding hot and there were two small buckles of my front rim, where the tyre pressure had pushed the heat softened rim out.

As I changed the tyre I noticed that the rim tape (which covers the spoke holes and stops the tube from disappearing into them) had melted and there were holes in it where the spokes were.

Shit.

I use the cut rubber tyre rings that were holding the spare tubes together to reinforce the rim tape where it had blown through and pumped the tyre up to about 40 to try to minimise the chance of the rim tape failing again.  Then proceed down 15 ks of steep winding road at less that 10 kph.  Trying to keep the rims from overheating and blowing another tube.  No sign of Kim.

All the while dozens of other cyclists were zipping by at high speed enjoying the ride down.  All that work and there I was ticking along at 10 kph.

To make matters worse the buckle in the rim was chewing out the brake pad on one side and if it got too much worse I'd have no front brake.

Took an hour to get down onto a road with a slope that didn't require constant brakes.  Now Kim.

As I was thinking this I got a text message from Justine to say Kim was home.  Seems I'd been waiting at the top for her and she'd been waiting a couple of ks down for me.  And finally given up.

Need a new wheel but at least we got the race day lactate out.  Then put a whole lot more back in.

Race Day

Temperature on race day was predicted to be 34 and by 10:30 in the morning, trying to find some shade for an hour before our start it seemed like it was that already.

Dave started 10 minutes before Kim and I so I had to try to stay ahead of Kim and not lose Dave.

Not much to say except we drank everything we took with us plus whatever we could get on course, rode hard enough to make the run a challenge then ran till we stopped.

The hill and long transitions seemed to rule out a sub five hour race for Dave and me (in hindsight anyway) but there were no hiccoughs or breakdowns although Dave's foot would have taken a few minutes off his run time.

In our age groups Kim was 8th, me 9th and Dave a few places further down.  To be fair Dave had hundreds in his age group, I had nearly 100 and Kim more than 50.  Kim was second Aussie in her age group, Dave was about 4th or 5th and I was first.  Did I say I was pleased?

Young Christian, in his first international race, represented Australia in the kids event.

Dunno what I was thinking

Christian in the kid's race

David running down another Aussie

Kim keeping us honest

Support crew - Justine, Christian and Cassea

Kitzsteinhorn Glacier

Zell am see is on a lake.  Around the lake the mountains tower above.  Zell am see 700 metres in altitude, Kitzteinhorn glacier a bit over 3000 metres and the Grossglockner is nearly 3900 metres.  Serious altitude and it seems like a skier's paradise in all but summer.

To get to the glacier it is a bus to the town of Kitzsteinhorn then three gondolas/cable cars to 3000 metres.  Lots of work going on at the imtermediate stations in preparation for the ski season.  And the views get better as you go up.  All vehicles up there are brought up by cable car as there is no road.

Although in late summer the glacier looks a little worse for wear and tear the views from that altitude are pretty good (its hard to keep thinking up new superlatives).  The alps look like they stretch forever and although you are not at the top of them it seems like you are.

Zell am see and the town of Schuttdorf at the south end of the lake

The Alps go forever

 They are set up well for tourists with viewing platforms and a small slope with toboggans for the kids.  Well worth the trip up.

Us at 3000 metres with Grosslockner over our heads

Although at that altitude it is cold, there is a tunnel through the mountain that runs for about 500 metres.  Inside it is freezing.  Hard to see it being more that a couple of degrees above freezing - if it was.

So enough altitude training.  Back down for the race.

Coupla days before the race

Should have split that previous post.  Too hard.

We came to do the half ironman and after a lap of the bike course we were wondering how we were going to run off the bike.  The roads in Austria are pretty smooth in general - they just go up and down a lot if you leave the valley you happen to be in.  And during the race you have to leave the valley.

On the climb.  Did I mention the scenery?

Top of the climb

The descent after the steep bit

More descent

Country roads on a beautiful morning

Its hard to emphasise how green it is

On any day the ride for the bike course would be on anyone's list as a great morning ride.  The main loop is 65ks and includes two long steady downhills separated by a serious climb with a killer last two ks.  The first couple of ks of descent from the climb are steep and include four fast open hairpins.  It calls for some serious braking - so serious that I overheated my front carbon wheel either on the trial run or during the race, but enough to put a couple of warps in it and cause it to fail on the long descent of the Grossglockner the day after the race.

There was over 200 athletes from Australia, the third greatest number after the US with over 600 and Germany.  Hard to see how all the US athletes get in.  Could be something to do with Ironman being a US company.

Because the next 70.3 "World" championship is in on the Sunshine Coast there were representatives at the trade expo from Triathlon Australia and Queensland Tourism to promote Australia and encourage athletes to try to qualify.

Australian competitors and supporters were given t shirts to wear in the parade in the days before the race.

The athletes of each country wander through the streets under their flag.  Our t shirts were blue.

Went to the athletes's dinner where one Ironman official made a speech followed by another and yet another.  All congratulating us for making it and congratulating each other for being great supporters of the company.  These were followed by a short list of Austrian tourism officials who each made the same speech thanking us all for coming.  During this there were several types of pasta served but no serious food for anyone on a gluten free diet.

Being a day or two before the race we had time to be tourists - so went to the top of the world to the Kitzsteinhorn glacier.  More in the next post.