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THE TOUR OF SICILY
2-13 May 2006
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Stage Eight: Giardini
Naxos - Mt Etna - Giardini Naxos:
(84km)
Despite it trying to hide
itself in the clouds during our rest day, we knew that Mount Etna waited
as if in ambush for us. On the morning of what felt like the day of
reckoning, we wasted as much time as possible consulting maps, checking
tire pressures, packing extra energy bars and providing much needed
encouragement to each other. We could delay our departure no longer and
after some last minute group photos, waved farewell to our support crew
and set off on what our fearless leader airily described as a day trip
to Mount Etna. The first few kilometres took us along the coast before
we turned inland to immediately commence climbing. We toiled steadily
upward through the towns of Piedimonte Etneo which, translated, means
"foot of the mountain" and Linguaglossa. We climbed from sun drenched
coastal plains, through open rural farmland, lush green pine forests,
and eventually into the mist shrouded lava fields high on the side of
the mountain. In all, we laboured upwards over varying gradients for
more than 30 continuous kilometres to finally reach our objective - the
snow line at 1,700 metres. It has often been said that age, experience
and cunning will always defeat youth and enthusiasm. Our youngest
rider, Richard Heath quickly disproved that theory as he powered up the
mountain to be first to arrive at our misty rendezvous point. One by
one, the other members of the bunch arrived in varying states of
exhaustion. Rocky and Warren worked particularly hard in a joint
attempt to suck all available oxygen from the mountainside as they
contested last place. At this altitude it was bitterly cold so we took
a lead from the local riders we had earlier encountered and donned warm
clothing for the almost 40 kilometre descent. We swept down the
mountain for the second time - the swirling mist forming ice on our
bikes. We continued our downward spiral to where we knew the sunshine
and blue Mediterranean waited. After what seemed only minutes, we broke
from the clouds and eventually levelled out on the coastal plain.
Having survived our second attack on the mountain, we felt justified in
immediately claiming the reward that cyclist the world over covert -
coffee, Italian style in this case, at a roadside coffee shop on a sunny
day. We never did defeat the mountain, however we felt that we had at
least de-mystified it having now been up and down twice in three days.
As we made our way back to our hotel in the now familiar chaos of peak
hour traffic, we couldn't help but observe that the hills around Sydney
would never again present quite the same challenge.
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