Whoa! That was a tough one. I had made all my plans during the time of winter frustration and half a year ago it seemed like a good idea. Assuming about the same conditions as on 1001Miglia I planned for a five day trip and booked hotel and return flight accordingly. Like many others I got this seriously wrong. The five day schedule for this ride made for an extremely stressful experience on this route in this heat and wind in this traffic on these roads.
Initially I had meant to ride along with veloboy, but we were separated in the Via Appia chaos right after the start. I never saw him again on this ride until after the finish. From then on I was underway in varying constellations, with some riders from Audax Schleswig-Holstein, quite a lot on my own and from Letino on with a Norwegian and a couple of Italians.
The heat was really intense and the phrase “burning sun“ got a very palpable meaning. It felt like an insect sting that just wouldn't subside until I realised the cause of the pain and applied some more sunscreen. Later on in the ride the dry wind got worse day by day, drying out my thorax no matter how much I drank. I am now afflicted by a sore throat and have been coughing up muck like never before. Apparently my body wants to get rid of residual dirt of Southern Italy.
But what really got to me were the “roads“ and the traffic. Ankles, knees, wrists and bum had to cope with a ceaseless pounding, the circumnavigation of Naples being the low point. I had to ride about half of this section out of the saddle. In mostly congested conditions. At eleven on a Sunday night. I do not want to know what that was like on Monday morning. And the drivers... apart from the two or three near death experiences a day those people have some annoying habits. Along the route there were a large number of side roads and car park exits. And out of each and every one of these invariably a car would emerge as you passed it, every single time. And every one of these cars would move halfway into the road, such as to test if you were serious about your right of way or whether you might give it up for them. About ten percent chose to simply ignore you and just drove on. In every village or town, every hour every day. The low clearance passing has already been mentioned, at one control Julian remerked that quite a few of the cars had their mirrors folded back so they could move in even closer. I really grew tired of that and just wanted the whole thing to be over. The final stretch back into Rome was a fitting conclusion to the whole affair, intense rush hour traffic on bumpy, narrow, crowded roads. HGVs shooting past within inches and that was only because you happened to be on the side strip at the time. Anything but triumphant.
As is common after these rides the exhaustion and sleep deprivation take their toll, general recollection is sketchy at best. Consequentially a fair and thorough assessment of the 999Miglia will have to wait for a few weeks. For the time being I am just glad I got through alive, even in reasonably good condition. I cannot recall any real fun bits and am not sure if I even want to visit that part of Italy again. But there were also good moments. Like the woman in Tricarico who got out her way to lead me to the control with her car as I was standing helplessly bowed over my GPS unit. The friendly helpers and the excellent local craft beer at the Melfi control which I had exclusively to myself for the entire duration of my sleep stay. The incredibly friendly staff at Montescaglioso who fed me, got me into the shower and handled my drop bag for me. And many others of that kind. Like when I was climbing out of Athena Lucana in a state of extreme desperation and suddenly the traffic got less, the air got cooler and fresher and entering the Basilicata this turned out to be a somewhat friendlier region.
I concur with my fellow riders, if you want to attempt this make no mistake, it will be some of the toughest stuff you ever try and tackle. Do not make my mistakes. Cutoff time was 13 hours on Saturday, so book your return on Sunday, not Friday, and get some leeway for an easier day in the middle or some hotel nights. Use the full time available and try to have some more fun.
As I am typing this I am sitting in Calfosch trying to recover enough for tomorrow's Maratona. After that I will definitely need some rest, worrying over LEL will have to wait for a few days.
