September 13
After breakfast we saddle up and head out for our first day of Corsican riding. Leaving the hustle and bustle of the city we head out on a stunningly beautiful coastal road. The main part of the day will be spent riding around the ‘Cap Corse‘, the island’s largest and most prominent peninsula.
Beyond Bastia the road rolls gently through small settlements and pretty fishing villages and the coastline is peppered with numerous Genoese towers in varying states of disrepair. If we’re blessed with a clear day we will enjoy views of neighbouring islands Elba and Monte Cristo to the east.
We’ll regroup for coffee in the village of Maccinaggio close to the tip of the peninsular before we begin the first and most significant climb of the day. It’s not a major climb by anyone’s standards, topping out at just over 350m, but we’ll wait until we’re over it before preparing lunch. The afternoon will be spent exploring the coastline further as we head south down the western side of the cape. The western coast is more dramatic than the east and the riding is a little more challenging although the final stage flattens out again and takes us through Corsica’s prime wine growing region and delivers us to St Florent where we can rest up and sample the local specialty of sparkling Muscat.
That was a spectacular day! Blue skies, stunning coastline all day, roads were pretty good; thankfully more motorcycles than tourist busses. And there sure were a lot of motorcycles!
We had a late start - about 9:30, I think. All the bikes had to be prepped this morning, and our "welcome meeting" was conducted just before taking off. Gary, Kerr, and I rented the upgraded model of the Scott road bike with electronic shifting. I'm pretty happy with mine. Kerr didn't sound all that happy today; hopefully that will change.
The first 35 km were, indeed, quite mellow. After our first break, we turned inland to go up and over the mountains to the other side of the peninsula. I thought I had finally come to terms with being the last one and holding a guide back. Now - they want our whole group to re-group several times during the day. So - now I'm holding all the other riders up too; ugh! Oh well - I'm slow and I'm not giving up taking pictures (even though I can't get them on the blog right now).
As mentioned above, we did indeed see many of the old towers in various states of disrepair. Many villages and lots of beaches. The road itself was very good in most places and was incredibly situated right on the edge of the cliffs to the ocean for most of the day.
One interesting site we went by at about 80K was the old Canari Asbestos Factory. This was once the heart of the largest asbestos mining site in Europe. The mine and factory operated from 1948 until 1965.................................................
We had quite a bit of climbing today, but at least the hills were gentle. Looks like a fairly similar day tomorrow - distance and total elevation. But - we will be away from the coast for most of the day. We have two start times tomorrow - the slower riders at 8:30 and the faster riders at 9. I'm sure the second group will pass me pretty quickly; we have a few really stronger riders in our group of 10.
Dinner wasn't until 7:30 pm. Back to the room about 9:30. Not much more to add here. .
Stats for the Day:
Garmin: 103.5 km. 1285 m up. 1342 m down. Temp was in the mid-30s C most of the day.
RWGPS: 104.4 km. 2474 m up. 2537 m down. Not sure why the wide the discrepancy. Maybe my phone (RWGPS) bounces around too much in the handlebar bag.
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