wonderful Veneto Italy website

I just discovered this English-language website dedicated to the love of
bicycling in the Veneto region in northeast Italy.
www.biciveneto.it
Lots of photos and stories about local riders, bicycling events, cute little
details, favorite places (really there's much more to riding in Veneto than
the Dolomites). I've long thought that Veneto has the best bicycling in
Italy, but it is a great surprise to find someone who loved it so much that
they created a website to show how wonderful it is.

(The story which most struck me so far was about a local cyclist who climbed
Stelvio on a bicycle with no handlebars or brakes -- and also rode back down
again, thru the 48 switchbacks.)

What it does not have is touring routes, but there's other sites for that,
once the vision is received.

Oddly, the author of the website got started bicycling about 100 km from
where Sharon and I live now.

Ken

On 24 Ott, 03:26, "Ken Roberts"
wrote:

Oddly, the author of the website got started bicycling about 100 km from
where Sharon and I live now.

Before I go back and look deeper into this site, let me tall you that
I personally know April Pedersen Santinon, a yearly commuter between
New Jersey and Castelcucco, at the foot of Monte Grappa.

By the way, Monte Grappa is well worth a visit on its own and if
people like Jobst or Ken are ever there I have good friends in
Castelfranco Veneto who can be excellent guides and buddies on the
road..
Just ask.

Sergio
Pisa

I just browsed through April's elegant site and dropped her a note to
say 'Hello!' and to submit a suggestion.
To add a page on a neighbor of hers, Franco Guidolin.
Hope you will read about him in the near future.

Cheers

Sergio
Pisa

Another person who has switched between New Jersey and Italy is the author
of this blog:
http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com
Until recenly he lived in Verona, and there's at least one reference to his
website from www.biciveneto.it

The way I found biciveneto.it was from searching for info about a
super-steep climb, and finding a brief reference to it on the Monte Grappa
page, and I was impressed to see that the page's info about Monte Zoncolan
was more accurate than its Italian or English-language Wikipedia entries. So
then I wanted to check the biciveneto.it home page.

sergio wrote:
By the way, Monte Grappa is well worth a visit on its own and if
people like Jobst or Ken are ever there I have good friends in
Castelfranco Veneto who can be excellent guides and buddies on the
road..

I have not yet climbed Monte Grappa -- and I'd gladly get some guidance from
somebody in Castelfranco Veneto.

I feel like I've only started exploring Veneto, but the exploring so far is
rewarding. One day back in September, Sharon and I were driving from Cortina
d'Ampezzo to lake Como, and we decided we had time for a short ride. So
after checking out Belluno as a possible future base, I got out my 1:200000
TCI map and marked a loop on roads around the Piave river southwest of
Belluno which I'd never seen before. We parked our car near Mel, and the
loop turned out to wonderful -- part was on a "balcon" road along the south
slopes of the Belluno Dolomites. We rode thru Cesiomaggiore and were
surprised to discover that it's a bicycling town. And we rode within 3km of
a favorite town on the biciveneto.it website -- if only we had known then.

A few years ago I _skated_ on roads I'd never seen before in the plain
between Padova and Venezia (including the "Brenta riviera") -- normally a
risky venture, since the little wheels on inline skates are much more
sensitive to road surfaces, and more strenuous to recover from
route-navigation mistakes -- but I had a feeling of confidence from checking
other roads around that area.

Ken

sergio wrote
I personally know April Pedersen Santinon, a yearly commuter
between New Jersey and Castelcucco

another connection between Italy and New Jersey, is that a woman who lives
in our apartment building is from near lake Como, and has a friend Carla
Figini who wrote a book about her _long_ bicycle tour around Europe:
A Capo Nord -- un anno in bicicletta lungo i mari d'Europa (2004:
ediciclo.it, Portogruaro VE)

Just a few weeks ago we were bicycling around Como, and we contacted Carla
and had dinner with her. She's much too strong a cyclist for us to ride
together with her. She said that we should climb mount Brunate next to the
city of Como for a great view. But really it's steeper than what we're
capable of riding. Fortunately it was cloudy the next day so we had a good
excuse for a gentler ride. (Cycling around the southern "legs" of Lago Como
and up to Madonna di Ghisallo I think are sufficiently famous not to need
any recommendation from me).

Ken

Ken,
the World is small indeed.

If I am correct, I know also that chap, Angel G., who lives in Verona
where he moved some three years ago.
I met him once just outside the railroad station. He is fond of
vintage bikes; that's how I got in contact with him.

There is another fellow who is almost a commuter, between N.J. and
Veneto.
Hi name is Steven M. who lives not far from Delran and is married to a
lady from Pederobba-Alano di Piave. He is a living encyclopedia about
vintage bikes.

Now, hold on to your chair.
I know Mel like home. Next time yoy are in the area go inside the
hotel on Main Square, in front of the church. Ask to look at the
photos of the (late) previous owner, a bike enthusiast. For a steep
climb, ride up to Rifugio Boz from Lentiai.
To lodge well and cheaply, stay at Locanda Marcador. They know me
well, although I haven't been there the last three years..

Monte Grappa? There are many different roads going up (I have
experienced only four of them) out of of which two are terribly steep.
Best piece of news for you: there is always zero traffic up there.

About Como (where my brother lives).
You mentioned Brunate: steep with a good view of the lake, but
descending is quite unpleasant, even more so because of traffic.I
would not do it twice. Beware, almost all roads along the lake are
unpleasant for that very reason, the area between Bellagio and Erba
being an exception, if not because of the tunnels. .

Well, there appears to be so much to talk about ...

Sergio
Pisa

sergio wrote
a yearly commuter between New Jersey and Castelcucco, at the foot of Monte
Grappa.

Which reminds of one disagreement with the website. On the page with lots of
helpful suggestions about Climbing and Descending, appears this statement:
"Being from New Jersey, I know how hard it is to train for miles-long climbs
when you live in a place where there are none."

Actually the state of New Jersey _does_ have a climb which is miles long (Rt
23 up the High Point ridge's east side from Sussex).
Much more valuable, it has a sizable number of short but interesting and
very steep climbs:
http://roberts-1.com/b/u/nj/hills/#c..._for_the_hills
Anybody who's training with repeats on Fiddlers Elbow or Breakneck in New
Jersey is not likely to find much problem with Passo Mortirolo or San
Pellegrino in Alpi.
NJ also has several "gangs" of steep climbs which make for more varied
workouts, such as the "Montana Ronda" in the western part. I've climbed 4000
vertical meters in a single day in less than 140km / 90 miles distance, not
repeating any climbs -- including about 1500 vertical meters averaging 12%
grade or more.
http://www.roberts-1.com/b/v/u/08a
. . (In some ways I like hilly rides in NJ better than most of Europe,
because the climbs are more varied, and because several short very steep
challenges can be more fun than one long grind.)

Like Veneto, New Jersey has both flat regions and steep regions, but lots
more people _live_ in the flat regions, and some of the flat regions are a
long long ways from the hills, so it's easy for lots of people to think of
New Jersey as flat. But actually it has lots of fun and challenging hills.

Ken