Now that I have a few days at home without the need to travel I’ve been following the Giro a little. Andrea mentioned that Friday’s stage will go over the Mottarone, which brought back a flood of memories for both of us. We went to watch the Giro and ride some of the route through the Dolomites and Alps in 2008, and we spent a week before the organized part of the trip exploring Stresa on Lago Maggiore and the surrounding area.
While we were in Stresa we did some of the touristy things like going to Isola Bella and the sister islands that were part of an estate and are now preserved for people to visit. It was certainly beautiful, and we enjoy it a lot. And shopping, dining, walking… all the usual stuff.
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| Stresa |
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| The Mottarone Profile |
We also used the time to get our legs ready for riding in the mountains and our first good, hard ride was a loop that took us around to Lago d’Orta on the west and then a sharp climb up the Mottarone. I took this photo at the bottom…
The Giro will tackle it from the other side though, the part we rode up was very steep at the beginning while our ride down was very scenic and part of it was through a forest. I think the way we rode it was the harder route! One thing we both remembered right away was the hot chocolate we had at the ski resort at the top, it was a very well received treat as we were damp and cold from the effort to get up there.
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| An amazing cup of hot chocolate, on the top of the Mottarone |
Tomorrow’s stage will be one I will make a point of watching…