October, 27th 2013
Arranging and shots: Enrico and Marco
Report of the day
Sunday…beautiful day for biking!
We are 5 tough wolves me, Federica, Cristina, Stefano and Marco, which today dream to ride into the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines.
At 6.00 am we meet at the Hippodrome of Cesena and after a short briefing we decide to start with the Bulgarno’s bus rent by Marco…very clever! The feeling between us is good and during the trip we speak about mountain, sport, life, and over, thus discovering that we are similar because we like the mountain all-around, especially today for cycling!
After 2.30 hours of driving we reach the beautiful village of Corniglio, a small city in Val Bratica under Parma district. The landscape is beautiful and the sky is colored of a gorgeous blue, the Autumn has arrived because the leaves fall from the trees making a beautiful red carpet above the road.
At 9.30 am we start to ride initially trough the ex-colony and then into the woods along a hard path covered with a mud. After 5 km we cross the road and continue for the next 7 km trough many nice villages such as Sivizzo, Grammatica, and finally the lovely Riana. Here it starts the really hard track up to Mount Navert, our final destination.
After a brief moment of relaxation we go ahead in a beautiful forest road (classified MC/BC) in a mixture of colors from red to yellow, and of animals from horses to cows. The fatigue is felt by Cristina and Federica, however we go straight and finally we arrive at one of the most fearful place of my life: the ridge which connect Pian del Freddo to Mount Navert (1653 m). In fact, a terrible wind made of rain and fog start to cover the valley at a breakneck speed. We only have time to reach the top of the Navert and to take some shots, that our bikes are pushed down from the strong wind making impossible to continue along the ridge. So we decide definitely to go back to Riana along the same beautiful way.
It was just a day of great cycling-adventure, a day of hope and friendship between five bikers, just a day for real Tough Wolves!
Thanks to CAI Parma for helpful suggestions!
Enrico Macrelli