BAC Piedmont - 2014
May 26 - Saluzzo Crissolo Loop
I did not take any photos today. I was concentrating on riding. I substituted a photo that I found on the internet. It shows the town and the mountain behind it. We rode toward that mountain.
Hotel Antico Podere Propano had a healthy buffet breakfast. The granola that I ate tasted home-made. There was fresh fruit and different kinds of bread. I don't remember anything filled with chocolate, but I will look again tomorrow.
Our riding group of five from yesterday left at 8:30 this morning. We were joined by Tim Presar, a BACer from Ohio that Margie and I know from previous rides. The first 15km was through the same flat farmland that we rode through yesterday. The next 25km was uphill along an origin of the Po River. We could see and hear the stream as we climbed a very steep (at times) 4000 feet of elevation gain. The road was narrow with a few spots of crumbling pavement which should be expected on a mountain road which has a lot of snow during the winter. There was not much traffic. We were in a forest. There were blossoms of little red flowers at the side of the road and plants that Deb identified as wild strawberries. Lots of little brown slugs and some snails were trying to get to the other side of the road. Most of them did not make it.
My bicycle got me to the top at the town of Crissolo, but I could have used about four more cogs in the cassette on the way. I lost my Bay Area friends along the way, but I spotted Ron Guidotti and Tim Presar in the town. We stopped at a bar and had panini. There didn't appear to be anything else open. The town is near a small ski area so I think that visitors must be seasonal. This was not the right season.
On the screaming decent, I gradually rounded up the Bay Area friends and we made it back the the city center of Saluzzo. I think that we might have found our own route because it didn't match the instructions on the route sheet. The important thing, though, was that we found a gelateria that was open. I had licorice, creme and zabaglione. The women went shopping after that while Ron and I headed back to our hotel.
After Happy Hour, it was raining and too wet to walk to town for dinner. Julie proposed that we order pizza. Jean, the hotel owner, was going to the grocery store so she got us plastic plates and salad mixings with wonderful tasting tomatoes. Julie picked up the pizza and we had a pizza party. Afterwards, Jean gave us a talk about the area the the history of the hotel. She also told us that the guard goose is a female who is best friends with the other goose who is nesting. No eggs are expected.
Here is today's ride: