Day 61: Cosenza to Spezzano Albanese

April 17, 2023

Getting there before the Rain

“In one of the reviews for this hotel, bacon and eggs as part of their breakfast buffet was mentioned, that’s why I booked here,” Patrick says. “Bacon… it’s so nice to have bacon!” Rachel says chomping on a crispy thin slice of bacon. This is the best spread we’ve had for a breakfast in a long time!

We load our gear in the elevator, reload the bikes and we are off. The sun is shining, rain is in the forecast for the afternoon. Patrick navigates us out of the city, partly on a bike path. It takes quite a few kilometers before we lose most of the traffic. Eventually, the road becomes the frontage road to the interstate. We start musing about how cycle touring has changed over the years, and feel lucky to what we’ve been able to do before roads became so full of traffic. “Twenty years ago people used to be on mopeds or motorcycles and they are now in cars,” Patrick observes. Bikepacking does seem to be the solution to getting off the beaten track now.

Excuse the blurry picture, no flash, but this was in the lobby of the hotel.

“Seems like there could be a scale 0 to 5 for mountain avoidance” Rachel jokes as we look at the snow covered mountains ahead that we are avoiding by our chosen route. And how planning a route used be from paper maps “the Michelin maps used to have arrows to indicate how steep a road would be,” was the only way to know what the elevation profile of the road. Our route today is fairly flat decline with one 200meter climb before continuing downward.

“Bonjourno” Patrick says entering the café. The couple behind the counter respond with enthusiasm, “Bon-JOUR-no”. Patrick orders two cappuccinos and two croissants. We get a choice of over a dozen fillings. The man is interested in Patrick’s bike and Patrick goes to show him about the frame. The man then goes to get the gas station attendant next door because he is also a cyclist. “Go figure, we meet some friendly Italians,” as we leave the café.

Not far down the road is a Conad supermarket, we stop to pick up supplies for lunch. The road becomes a bit more rolling and we notice we are very briefly on the Ciclovia dei Parchi della Calabria that two different friends, Ewa and Bryan, and sent links to us.

The choice of fillings for the croissants

We reach the decision point where the hill starts, to take the smaller road that RidewithGps suggests or stay on the main road that looks like the gradient might be less because of a switchback. We go for the smaller road with beautiful views. At one corner, Rachel is ahead and 3 barking dogs come out from a yard. One of the bigger dogs grabs onto one of her back panniers and spins her around. “Lucky the dog didn’t grab my calf,” she says when Patrick catches up.

"We would still be down there," Patrick says. The main road below still following the valley. Both roads meet at the same place.

We still have some climbing to do through the town.

The climb goes well until we reach the town of Tarsi. The route goes through the town, with one road we have to push our bikes up at least 12% grade. We still have more of a climb above the town, but finally reach the high point. “I thought we are being robbed of a downhill,” Rachel says “The road surface is so bad.” As we descended sections improved.

The downhill is just around the curve in the road.

The final stretch to the Hotel San Francesco Terme the road has a bit of a shoulder. We see threatening clouds in the distance, “Think we’ll make it before the rain starts?” Rachel says, and we do. We check in, the hotel has an elevator for our gear, once in the room Patrick sets off to a supermarket 2km away and comes back with beer and wine and food supplies for tomorrow’s ride.

The rest of the afternoon, Patrick live streams the SpaceX starship launch, disappointing that at the last few minutes the launch is scrubbed because of a stuck valve. We watch from our balcony window the clouds build and occasional sprinkle and happy to be inside.

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Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,087 km (1,296 miles)

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Scott AndersonThat’s scary about the dog! Good thing he grabbed your pannier and not your calf.
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1 year ago

Frosene SaccoYeah, dog surprises are no fun. Glad you were ok.
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1 year ago

Rachael AndersonWhat a beautiful area to ride! You’re photos are beautiful!
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1 year ago