Photo: Blissfully unaware of the recent controversy on the ICC Forum re sleeveless cycling jerseys, Maddalena shows effortless Italian style.

Every Italian town or city has it’s own Saint. Fano’s is Saint Paternian. The 10th of July is it’s Saints Day so most Fanese were on holiday. Following her first ascent of The Cippo Nadia decided another climbing challenge was in order to take advantage of the day off. She chose Monte Catria, an HC climb. Climbing 839m over 11.3km doesn’t sound too bad. The HC is awarded for a 3km stretch that accounts for 363m that includes a very short brutal ramp of between 25% and 36%. It accounted for two riders dismounting and walking up. I managed to stay the course but it was hard.

It was made a little harder by the decision to meet at 07:45. Unknown to my club mates I didn’t have access to the car today which meant an 05:15 alarm followed by a 47km ride just to get to the start.

My plan was to ride back home after lunch to make it a nice 143km round trip. It never happened. Too much beer and pasta meant accepting Marco’s offer of a lift home. Nadia was responsible for the early start, so the irony of her sleeping on the back seat for the ride home was not lost on me.

We decided to re-create the Catria climb with mountains of pasta. With apologies to Marco Pantani’s “Il Carpegna mi basta” – La pasta mi basta.

Year to date

8,355km / 77 rides / 108.5 km average per ride

82,807m elevation gain (9.3 Everests)