Day 5 - Almond Cookie for Cappacino Joe?
The rain has stopped and we were back in the saddle again today. There were two rides today, one called the Almond Cookie Ride which I joined while Kim joined the No Crying Ride lead by April, another American gal who leads rides for George sometimes. Needless to say everybody was very happy to be able to ride today after being rained out on Monday. The group has steadily grown in size...John and Pam finally received their bikes so they were happy, Cary and Jenny, Micheal from LA, Joe who loves cappacinos, Jim the surfer, David the ICC repeat customer, Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Christine, Kim and I and our cycling leaders...a great group.
Today's ride included a great 6km climb near an old castle in Marostica. One of the previous visitors to the ICC summarized this ride very nicely. According to Len Colamarino:
The almond cookie ride. This ride covers about 46 miles, with some 3322 feet of elevation gain. There is one especially long stretch of steady climbing--probably 10 miles or so--but the grade is gentle enough so that the ride can remain social. The long, winding ascent takes you up and around the rim of the Asiago plateau. An exhilarating 10 mile descent follows. At the end of the climb we stop at a cafe with extraordinary almond cookies. The terrain and unique ambience of the area make a lasting impression.
Now this sounds great however we had a slight problem fulfilling the ride as above and missed out on the cookies. One of the riders took a wrong turn on the climb and went MIA for a almost an hour. We circled back, called his name, checked the steep edges but still no sign. We finally decided to circle the entire group back to find Joe and met him after descending two kiliometers down. When we met Joe he told us that he had taken a wrong turn and decided to have a cappacino....so no cookies but Joe had a cappacino! Relieved that he was ok a few of us started calling him Cappacino Joe to recognize his disappearing act. Despite the detour we managed to descend the 6km climb we had just done and that was very exciting. On the way down we passed many cycling groups flying up the climb...it was a great cycling day. No cookies though. To see what we did ride check out http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6060259
Castle in Marostica
Perfect weather for the ride. Montegrappa is in the background and we plan to climb this sometime this week.
Comments
Hi, fellow cyclists. I need to apologize to Cappucino Joe and have no other way of reaching him, so Joe if you're out there please forgive me if I offended you on this ride. I didn't mean to. I only stated the facts: we had to turn around and head back down because we spent so much time looking for you. We had a good ride anyway, so no hard feelings, OK? I promise to take any of you who return to get those almond cookies! Ciao, Pat
Posted by: Patricia Ennis | August 10, 2008 08:20 AM