Day 4: Lost in the hills

Another hot forecast so I was keen to head out and get some hard riding done in the cool part of the day.

After yesterday's long ride I wanted a shorter excursion today... but of course that didn't quite work out!

First was back up the hill behind Lecco for some intervals. I had used Strava's route creator to find a lovely looking climb with lots of hairpins and it did not disappoint. My garmin bike computer gives me 'breadcrumb' trails but I am reliant on following these correctly as I don't have maps. 

You can see the first climb on the strava link - amazing, beautiful. Starting to climb better. The gradients were a bit kinder but most of all it was easier to hit the higher wattages in the cooler air. 

I had forgotten to remove my headlight (from the Lake Como tunnels) but it came in handy!

Tunnel!

Beyond the tunnel lay a magical, quiet road laid out seemingly just for me. (Not really true - saw a bloke on foot, 1.2 metric handfuls of cars and some cyclists on the way back down). Here are lots of photos of views.

Looking right - Lecco from above (towards Como)

Looking south - there were lots of these.

I was promised hairpins...

...fantastic! Though I'm going to need spare brake pads just to get through this holiday...

I headed back down to Ballabio and headed further to the north east through the valley in search of the next climbs. On a particularly striking bridge I stopped for a photo of the view.

An older Italian lady generously offered to take a photo of me with varying degrees of success.

SO on through Moggio, stopping for blessed cool water, and up to the next climb, the Passo della Culmine.

Chinotto is the best! I heartily recommend the cans of 'Chino' soft drink but bought some lollies I couldn't eat by mistake and returned them. As an aside, here are my list of 'FODMAP' words in Italian:

• Aglio: garlic
• Cipolla: onion
• Senza glutine
• Senza lattosio
• Sorbitolo (the offending ingredient in the lollies)
• Fruttosio 

Incidentally I am indebted to this guide to step me through FODMAPs and sports supplements: http://www.nutritionstrategies.com.au/shop/ 

I wasn't the first cyclist to choose this spot for a rest!

Gulping down my Chino I had a good chat with a fine fellow who was evening out his tan (his Pinarello remained protected in the shade). We had a very one-sided but friendly conversation in Italian during which we agreed that Cadel Evans was a genuine champion, that Michael Matthews is an exciting talent and that this year's parcours of Le Tour might be too steep for Vincenzo Nibali. I said fairwell and continued on what I thought would be a nice loop to take me back around and down to Lecco for a 60km ride, home by 1. Here's the view as I set off over the other side of the hill...

At that point my accumulated Strava route creation success turned to spectacular failure. The GPS course I had plotted had picked up what could only be a downhill MTB run (including a 30% downhill stretch for 1km) so I turned to the only road I could see...

Lost.

And so I descended to the bottom but ended up in the next valley, slightly lost and after consulting my maps faced with a bonus 10km climb back the way I came. Costly mistake! But I was feeling much better than yesterday and beside, what choice did I have?

On the way back up I had a chance to take a photo of this car eating pot hole - occhio!

Back at the top of the last climb - a little detail I didn't catch before by the roadside. 

St Hubert, patron saint of hunters? 

Home again - after several hours lying like a slug I rolled down to the town for one last look at Lecco. It's not a 'beach' town - in fact, much of it is pretty commercial / industrial - but the waterfront is still a good spot to watch the hills change colour.