Road Trips |
|||||
The Folgaria Experiment July 2003: two vbt co-leaders, and myself headed north from Florence and Trentino, (Northeast Italy, start of the Dolomites) to the small alpine town of Folgaria. Yup, I had not heard of it either. Folgaria (1168m) was significant during WW1 as it staged as a German cannon fort. The surrounding mountains are littered with war remains. Now the only bombing going on is fat tire fury rolling down the mountain. Linked together with Luserna (not the Piemonte Luserna) and Lavarone, you get a huge 100 km loop, very famous in these parts. Enrico and I left Firenze at 1:30 after a lovely plate of pasta, picked up Claudio outside of Trentino, and headed northeast towards Verona and then north towards Trento. Arriving in Folgaria about 5:00, I discovered our Hotel Paradiso (1652m) was on the top of the lift; paradiso indeed! Old school lifts, open steel cabins, room for one rider with bike half draped over railing. Our hosts Vittorio and Elle made us feel at home subito pronto. Down to BIZNAZ: ride ride ride ride ride! I feel for the riders who cannot find satisfaction from down hilling all day!?! Soooooooo much fun! There were a few big bikes kickin’ around, but the trails here are NOT insane, nutty at times, but doable by all team crumble members……….on a hard tail. I think some of the locals were a little surprised by what the ol’Parkpre was turning out. Ah yes, the ever fav BOMBACLAD hard tail. (Big ups to Kale and the crew for trickin’ it out for the trip). Enrico (riding a full on xc rig; ‘complimenti caro’) and I had a few good chuckles: hard tails rippin’ it up with the downhill rigs. Oh ya, representin’! The lift closes from 12:30 to 2:30, remember we are in Italia. Runs, with lift back up takes about 45-60 minutes. Morning and afternoon sessions are set up so you have time from the end of your last run and the last lift back up the Paradiso, to roll into Folgaria and have a birra, take in some local culture; the whites here are incredible. Che vitaccia! Then on your way back up you hear riders shouting from cabin to cabin on how the almost ate shit on this part and ripped up another. Wonderful lunch in-between sessions and lovely dinner at the end of the day, awesome sunsets, footage of the day’s ride…Paradise indeed. Can anyone say Italian MTB Getaway? This place has huge potential. The existing trails are great, but even in just three days I saw dozens of potential lines over some more difficult terrain. The Italians dubbed me air Canada (though never dropped more than two feet) as a result of some the overlooked lines I decided to take. Maki, you would be a mountain bike god here. They would erect a statue of you in one the piazzas. The locals are little conservative, so getting permission to have man made obstacles or build harder trials will take some time. But this place could rock… hard. At the end of three days, we were all still in one piece, no major personal damage to take about. The bikes on the other hand, well lets just say there was a scramble for bike parts as rear derailleurs were smashed, tires were being lashed, and hayes disc brakes were being mashed. Nock on wood, the parkpre came away clean, ready to roll for yet another European adventure. Baci a tutti. uncletoto
|
|||||
