Wednesday, 23 October 2019
Fiona writes: I joined this lively group of 70 women for three days of cycling in Northern Italy. The ride was in support of Women V Cancer, the umbrella for the three charities Breast Cancer Care, Ovarian Cancer Action and Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust. It certainly lived up to expectations!
There was a tense moment on the day I left as the Extinction Rebellion protesters had decided to blockade City Airport. Undeterred, I booked another flight, set off immediately to Stansted, and made it to Milan!
RideWithGPS links: Day 1: Milan to Brescia. Day 2: Bresica to Verona. Day 3: Verona to Mestre.
High quality hybrid bikes were all prepared and ready for us on day one, and we set off with a team of excellent leaders. Northern Italy has a well developed network of bike tracks and much of our route was off-road, with tracks along canals and paths through woods. The most bumpy experience was probably the Italian cobbled streets! The scenery was stunning and the route took us along the southern edge of the Dolomites, to Lake Iseo and then to Brescia.
Scenic Lake Iseo
Day two included the beautiful Lake Garda, where we stopped for lunch in Lasize, right on the lake. There were no enormous hills, and the leaders stuck firmly to their description of 'undulations' to avoid any hysteria from reluctant members of the group! We continued to the historic city of Verona, with its first century arena, very reminiscent of the Colosseum in Rome, and of course the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Early morning on the towpath
Day three took us from Verona through Padua and followed many of the waterways bringing us to Mestre, just across from Venice.
Note the Italy shirts!
We were extremely lucky with the weather, which was cool and autumnal in the mornings and sunny and warm every day by lunchtime. Just while the UK had four days of appalling rain!
The total distance covered was 345km, and we all enjoyed a celebratory dinner on the last evening. Remarkably there were very few collisions or dramas. My Garmin would keep slipping round the handlebar during the juddering of the tracks and cobbles, but I did manage to record all sections of the ride. A friend and I then spent a wonderful 24 hours in Venice before getting the water bus to the airport.
This was a really enjoyable and well organised event. I am very grateful to everyone who sponsored me, and I know that the charities are all extremely appreciative.
The ride is repeated in October 2020.
See here for details.
Fiona Cornish
Grand Canal, Venice