June 18, 2025
Edolo
Bormio is one of the several overnight towns that we didn’t want to leave. We were welcomed and taken care of by some of the best people in hospitality and the town itself is a real gem. But, it was someone else’s turn, so we said ‘caio… and grazie mille’ to the staff after stuffing ourselves at the breakfast buffet. Today, we moved on to Edolo in the Carmona Valley.
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Among the brochures at the front desk was a detailed map of the Valtellina valley, showing a cycleway that travels all the way down the valley. You can even ride to Lake Como on the cycleway if that’s in your plans. We had arranged to ride to Tirano, then take the bus to get up the steep pass to Aprica, so Tirano was our target for this morning, just 37 km away. The Transalp riders were on their way to Aprica too, but their route was much more complex than ours. They took on not one, but two, much more challenging climbs than the one we were planning to get a lift on.
We had no difficulty finding the cycleway and were soon cruising downhill on a beautiful, quiet paved path next to the Adda river. And the weather? It was perfect. We had the cycleway to ourselves, so we couldn’t have asked for anything more. The stuff of dreams.
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Our path meandered through the meadows and the woods and, occasionally beside the highway, where the Transalp riders flew past in singles and large peletons. At this point, they had already climbed two passes. I felt sorry for the singles as they didn’t have the aerodynamic advantage of the group riders. I only saw three women today in the race, all the rest I saw were men.
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The SS38 highway here was significantly upgraded on 2002 - 2003 to relieve congestion on the local roads in this highly touristed region. The picture below represents one of the four massive tunnels built for the highway, which are 1000m, 1570m, 2000m and 2050m in length. They also built four large viaducts, like the one in the photo below. This was diverting a lot of traffic from the smaller highway in the Valtellina valley.
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1 month ago
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We cruised into Tirano and located the bus station beside the train station. It was a chaotic scene as the trains were out of commission and were being substituted with busses and the train station itself was undergoing a major renovation. Most of the busses were headed to Lecco and there were large groups of travellers getting off incoming busses and switching to the Lecco busses. We never did figure out where they were all coming from, and it was a bit of a wakeup call since we have been blissfully enveloped in the mountain culture. We could have each had a bag of popcorn to go along with the gong show of dazed and confused travellers staggering here and there while a very kind transit person herded them from one bus to another.
Our situation was so simple: wait for the bus to Aprica, load the bikes in the rear compartment and wait for the bus driver to let us on. It was actually a tad more exciting than that because, even with a confirmation from the bus company that they would take our bikes, we were told a different story on arrival. It would all depend on the bus driver whether he would take our bikes or not. So, we crossed our fingers as we waited. The woman who confirmed the bikes for us by email went to bat for us when the bus arrived, whether or not it was necessary, and we loaded up the bikes. We thanked her profusely.
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In the end, a nice comfy ride for you both over the pass.
1 month ago
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For the record, what we were skipping was an 11.5km climb of 790m in the afternoon sun. I had hummed and hawed about this climb when I was planning the trip and are we ever glad we chose this option. First, it was mid-day and about 30degrees, and second, we knew we'd have cafè legs, this weird thing that happens to your cycling muscles on long downhills. They cease to function on the uphills without a lot of coaxing and it feels just as though you’ve just lost all your fitness.
The picture below give you a sense of what almost 800m looks like, and we haven’t even reached the summit here. The village in the foreground is situated on a mountain top. The valley floor is far off in the background. The road was a long series of blind corners. The driver honked his way up the mountain to warn oncoming drivers of his presence. That alone confirmed we had made a good choice.
We hopped off the bus in Aprica, loaded up the panniers and were off to find some lunch. We found a bar for a soda and panini. They were streaming a music station called ‘Ocean Beach’ from California which we really enjoyed on the outside patio. We’ve never heard such great tunes in Italy. I suspect it had something to do with a local bar owner who had planted himself on the patio, looking like he had no intention of leaving anytime soon. He was thrilled that we commented on the music and is a musician himself who sings, plays guitar and piano. When I asked what is favourite band is, he didn’t miss a beat, and said, “The Cure”. David commented to me that he had the exact same hair style as the lead guy in The Cure, Robert Smith.
The bar guy told us his bar was closed because he was drinking at the bar up the street where he was grooving to Ocean Beach. There just aren’t enough travellers or regulars for everyone to stay open, so why not support your fellow bar owners? We stopped at his bar for a peek. It’s quite unlike any other bar we have seen in Italy. There will be live music tonight, featuring... Guess who? Not, the Guess Who, but guess who. I suspect Aprica is going to rock tonight.
We moved on down the road and found the Transalp crews who were still getting organized. Quite a number of riders had finished their ride and were ambling about.
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We were impressed with Aprica and commented that an overnight here would have been a great stop. We still had a good part of today’s ride to complete, so off we went. It was a stiff downhill and it went on like this all the way to Edolo. We hardly pedalled, but we sure did use our arms and hands to keep everything stable and safe. With a continuous downhill like this, photography took a back seat. We didn’t stop for photos at all.
I had booked an apartment in Edolo, our first of the trip. We had instructions on how to access the keys in the lockbox and were soon inside, enjoying a cool breeze in our spacious suite. We rested, then got cleaned up and went to a local restaurant for dinner.
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1 month ago
Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 775 km (481 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 7 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 6 |
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