Blogs
Fri, 18 Mar 2011
Cycling Italian style
By Penny Rowson - Horizon Fitness Racing Team
After a good winters training it was time for my boyfriend to make it big in cycling doing it the Italian way. Although this means I will miss him alot now he’s living in another country, it’s not a bad excuse to go visit him. He lives in the mountains of Strosa, a lil village near Bergamo in the north of Italy, not far from the busy city of Milan yet surrounded by the beautiful mountainous views of lake Como. I’d say He’s got it pretty sorted out there, almost as good as our Horizon team. But as we know a men’s team can never be as well organised as us women! Basically he’s living the dream, has no troubles just gets to sit in the sun, lives in a team house for free, where a lil woman is running around cooking and cleaning for him.. oh yeah and he rides a bike too.
Anyway i decided to visit him and see what the world of josh was like so I woke up at 4am to catch a plane.. now that’s some commitment! On arrival I made to the lovely hotel Ventolosa, and waited in the room whilest Josh finished his 6hr ride, though if not hard enough, he kept going on the front to keep the speed up, attacking his team mates, and eventually they clocked on as to why he was soo eager to train, i mean get back to see me ofcorse!! We did have a mini fridge in our room which soon got full of rubbish.. chocolate, cake, biscuits, sweet, cola, pretty much everything josh wasn’t allowed! However, Lucky for me this rule doesn’t apply.
So next day, we rode to the Magazino. The team warehouse where all the bikes, wheels, campervans, cars etc are all stored. I was pretty impressed, some people say.. got all the gear no idea. But i reckon these Italians knew what they were on about. The team DS was Antonio – a very respectable guy, who was pro for 10years and the Milram DS so an ideal guy for knowledge and class.
I think when they met me, they were just happy I was a cyclist, oh and not fat.. so i think i just about go away with that! See the Italians seem to have a thing for being very slim and quite strict on diets. They’re also very religious, and whilst climbing up these long mountains I began to noticed these small praying stations at each village. Whilst climbing with josh’s team mates i was very tempted to get off my bike and pray to god i would make it to the top, but with the odd sneaky push from josh i made to the top fine, without giving him all the credit!. It’s amazing how long and high up they go, you can see for miles and can start at the bottom quite hot then make your way to the top and your riding past snow.
So once at the top as you do just casually turn back around and ride back down to the bottom. Oh! If i’d of known i’d of stayed at the bottom!! Nah only kiddin I’m from Yorkshire remember!
Now then, on our way back through traffic, no rules apply. Bergamo’s quite a busy place just because its fairly close to Milan. But just cause there lots of cars it doesn’t mean you have to ride cautiously.. no you just pull out in front of cars, ride through red lights, dive bomb round corners, carry speed down the sides of cars. It was carnage at first, but we had to keep up with the group!
On the Sunday Josh went to do a national race close by, however it wasn’t safe from me to ride there because it involved going on the motorway which is a big no go. So I set off on my own lil adventure like maybe i’ll do an hour or two on the flat see where it gets me, or maybe not, let’s just keep riding up a mountain! I reckon i did about 3hrs till I realised this road was never-ending so i pushed the ‘return home’ button on my Garmin and made it back to the hotel. I don’t really see the need for all these fancy gadges but i was pretty grateful my dad lent it to me, because it was great knowing i could never get lost.. so long as the battry doesn’t run out!
Back to the hotel, the food was lovely, you cant fault Italy for its renound pizza and pasta. It had its own restaurant where we could have 3 main courses. First you’d be given the pasta, then once thats eaten, your meat and vegetables arrived on 2 separate plates. I suppose stops you from rushing your food down i guess. It was also a very family orientated place where they to go out to have large meals together instead of cook at home.
One the last day we checked out, and it was nice of the owners to give us such a huge discount, it might have been because we couldn’t communicate we just smiled at them all the time so might have come across as actually nice people or it might have been because the guy who worked there loved josh ever since the day he walked into the glass window and not through the door!! Classic!
I really enjoyed my time over there, in such a beautiful country. I suppose I could of almost moved in then and there but i’m just as happy back in England.. so long as I get to ride my bike J
For more information on the Horizon Fitness Racing Team, visit www.onthedrops.com.