Paying homage to the Patron Saint of cycling

La Madonna del Ghisallo - spiritual home of cycling

A quieter day today with only two small climbs, but also a visit to the Patron Saint of Cycling, a cycling museum and grinding up a 25% climb. It was just nice and relaxing cruising around the picturesque Lake Como.

This morning I headed out for the ferry terminal at Verenna, a flatish ride along the waterfront of Lake Como. Until then I had not actually seen the lake, as where I was staying it was a bit more industrial and the train tracks had priority over the waterfront. The lake itself was as I was expecting, but the hills surrounding it are just massive. It does remind me of the Marlborough Sounds or Fiordland a bit, but with the addition of centuries old villages dotting the water's edge.

The ferry timetable and ticket buying were very easy to understand and do, thankfully as I was a bit apprehensive as my very poor Italian stretches from "can I have (insert whatever)", "do you have a room free" and "can I pay please". The ferry took Rose and I over to Bollagio where we were to start our climbing. First though, I had a wee bite to eat and a beer for energy, and an excuse to take in the surroundings.

From there it was up to Ghisallo. The climb is reported as having an average gradient of 6%, but what they don't tell you is that there is a downhill included in that too so the figure is skewed. I didn't really see Mr Garmin say anything less than 8% for the majority of the climb. The climb itself is fairly entertaining, with the surroundings going from village, to switchbacks, to lake views, more villages, and then before you know it 10kms are over and there is a little church popping up over a hill.

The ride up to Ghisallo

So the story goes that during medieval times a traveler was running away from some bandits. He ran to a shrine of the Madonna and prayed as hard as he could. She materializsed and scared the bandits away. To thank her he had the chapel built, which then became legendary for travelers to visit. Then in 1949 the priest at the time, who loved cycling, recognised the amount of travelers coming on cycles so asked the Pope to make her the Patron Saint of Cycling. as the Pope was also a keen cyclist at the time he agreed. Now the chapel is a shrine to cycling with memorabilia from all sorts of dates and events.

Inside the chapel

Next to the chapel is a conveniently placed cycling museum, in which I visited also. It was quite interesting in there to see the evolution of bikes over time, and there was a lot in there!

I am happy brakes have evolved. 

From there it is a quick downhill before you start heading up again for Sormano and the start of the Muro di Sormano. This is one of those climbs where you feel cheated as you have to climb (this time around 7%) to the start of the actual climb; ripped off! The Muro is a short 2km climb, averaging 17%. It is tough! So tough that at times when the gradient was at 25% Mr Garmin auto stopped (stopped recording the ride which it does when you are going slower than 4kmph).

The ride is quite cool though. They mark out ever metre of elevation you gain as you go up, and they also have lists winners and their times from previous years to keep you entertained.  At thee top there is a nice viewing platform where you can see the surrounding peaks and villages below.

From there is was a nice downhill all the way to Nesso where I am staying for the night. Only a short day today as I didn't know how long I would take to sightsee, and I also wanted to prebook a place to stay in case it was all booked out because of the regatta that is on. Turns out it was pointless booking a place last night as the lady had no idea of it, but luckily she had the loft available - a bed is a bed!

Highlight: Couple today. Firstly the chapel with all the memorabilia was quite cool and worth the trip. Secondly, as
Lowlight: To be a little weird, I was a little gutted when the Muro ended. Don't get me wrong, it was really very hard going, but I was into a grove and then suddenly it was all over. Maybe just another kilometre tacked on the end somehow?
Lesson Learned: As I new it was a short day and my legs were feeling good I decided to just try one gear harder up the Ghisallo. Normally at a certain gradient I am in a certain gear - not consciously, but just something I noticed. So today I just went one gear harder than I normally would do for additional training, more than anything, and my legs and heart coped fine :-) So the lesson is that I have been really thinking that I have not got any stronger, but I think this proves otherwise.