1001 Miglia Italia 2024

1001 Miglia Italia 2024

Summary: 1001 Miglia Italia was no less of an "Italian Job", here the heist was not about a vault but a medal worth the climbs and sweat. Have documented the preparations, experiences during the 1600kms cycle ride, some fantastic moments, struggle for Vegetarian food, nature at its best, lovely people we met and our learnings for future. Its a journey of 2 friends Prasad and me going through the tough terrains of Italy yet enjoying every moment while passing through some breathtaking sceneries. Thanks to Team 1001 Miglia Italia for such an amazing route taking us through a roller coaster ride around lovely Tuscano.

Training: 1001 Miglia Italia is a 1600kms endurance ride with 15000m+ elevation, Soon after PBP 2023 was done, we signed up Miglia Italia. While we had done Gates of Heaven 1200k with 14000m+ elevation in Feb’24, but we needed more practice closer to the event in Aug’24. In Jun, we did a tough Jog 1000k, but still more training was needed in July. We planned many long rides in Jul'24, but the Monsoon had other plans, so we had to restrict to fewer rides: Chamundi Betta-Basavanabetta 350k, Yercaud 480k, Hogenakkal 300k, Horseley Hills 300k and 3xNandi. Though it wasn't sufficient training but it did help in climb training and more importantly saddle time. Mohan Sir met all of us a week before and briefed about what to expect on food and how to tackle the weather conditions, he offered his help during the ride as well. 

Pre-ride: Sunil, Dhananjaya sir, Prasad and me booked a flat for entire stay in Rho, 9kms away from start point and with easy access to train station and landed in Milan just 2 days ahead of the ride. In 3hrs after we reached flat, we were on the road riding a 100k, we didn't want to waste any time. The practice ride helped us learn about the roads, food unavailability and even water being a concern, headwind plus hot conditions. Following day we all went for an easy ride passing through famous monuments in Milan. On the Ride start day we woke up late as our start time was in the evening (6:10pm), we chose registration time as 3:00pm so that we do not have to come back to hotel. 

Day-1 (16-Aug 6:10pm) - Flying Start

We reached the Start Point at 3pm for registration formalities and had 2nd round of lunch and waited for the ride to start at 6:10pm, and took a short nap in shade, a drone shot captured our cat nap. Timings were bit flexible by +/- 30 mins as the start time on QR scanner is what mattered instead of actual start time. Me and Prasad stuck to 6:10pm, we started off and quickly gained pace and were ahead in our group, about 5kms later, a peloton was formed with about 10 Italians and a couple of foreigners, the peloton overlook me. I saw an opportunity to join the peloton as I knew pelotons will take us much faster. Prasad usually has never liked Peloton but this time was fine to follow me into the peloton. 

The peloton was steady at 28-29kmph, we started enjoying the peloton ride, at about 45kms, the peloton broke as we approached the metal bridge, we had to be careful here as it could have caused punctures, we saw 2 riders fixing their flats. Out of the bridge, I signaled to Prasad to quickly catch up with peloton and it went on till 95kms, here the peloton continued at its pace and we couldn't maintain the pace and dropped off. 100kms was done in just 3hrs 30 mins, we were happy with this flying start. This is exactly what we needed to gain momentum into the big ride. I told Prasad we can reach CP2 at Catellania (112kms) in another 30 mins, but there was a surprise waiting, we had ignored a small hill of 4.5kms distance with about 350m elevation. All along the Miglia route, we were comparing the hills in Italy with an equivalent one in India. This one we compared it to Nandi hills, but the gradient was much higher making it difficult to climb. We reached 112kms CP2 at 10:30pm, a giant cycle welcomed us here, Control had fruits and bread. This was a surprise unfolding for us as we usually expect lot of food at Control. With no choice, me and Prasad ate ready to eat, fruits and were ready to go in 10 mins. We met Grinny here. After about another 50kms, I started feeling drowsy, but was keen on completing 258kms before we take rest break. But Prasad observed my swaying ride and immediately planned we must take a short break. The shops were well lit, with no security guards, we found many car showrooms which and found a corner to sleep, the Showers Pass jacket gave good warmth. A sound sleep for 20 mins gave us freshness and the energy was back, we were now pedaling hard. We had 2 more climbs before that we entered a valley. We thought its a small one but it continued on for 100kms, Prasad mentioned how beautiful it could have been to ride during the day. While we thought that the ride till 258kms would be mostly flat, we had 3 big climbs. While the 1st one was done before 112kms, next 2 were pending. 200kms was done in 10hrs 30 mins, though we expected a bit faster we were ok with the pace. 

The 2nd big climb started at 205kms, the distance was 13kms with elevation of 800m. And then we reached Genova city around 5am. Passing through bike lanes, we reached the outskirts. It’s quite a big city and I felt good to cross the city in early hours since we didn’t have to wait for all the traffic and what better than an early morning for a big climb of 10kms with ~600m elevation. 

The 3rd climb was bit shorter, with 6kms distance and 500m elevation. The early morning climb was fun. 

We reached Deiva Marina (CP3) which is at 258kms around 7:30am, on the way i had observed a supermarket and was planning to stop to buy juice/snacks for the upcoming climb. Coincidentally the CP didn't have any better food: only fruits, bread and black coffee. Me and Prasad didn’t waste time and rather went to the supermarket and bought Yoghurt, energy bars and coke. For many CPs thus repeated until last 6 CPs when we started getting pasta, rice etc.

We had to climb back 2km from CP3 and we would see riders going into CP3, here we met Monish, we knew he would catch up by 258kms. The climb started easy but strangely there were insects flying which were troubling us. They were bigger and biting us. The rider in front had even bigger trouble, the entire swarm was behind him, poor guy, he was riding waving his hand to get away. 

Day-2 (17-Aug) - Climb Suffer fest with 5200m elevation 

Since early morning we had already done about 1300m elevation and we had another 4000m more climbing to do. 

Climb num 4, while the climb was bit tuff, we enjoyed the views, I was clicking pics on my mob and due to heat, my phone restarted, in desperation I entered wrong PIN thrice to unlock the SIM and it got locked that was the end of me using my mobile during the ride, hence the updates on Whip app tracking went offline. The PUK code needed to unlock SIM was at hotel and other alternative to reach Vodafone Customer Care didn’t help as I only got options in Italian and I couldn't get through to talk to customer care. If I had taken a pic of SIM card cover and sent it to Prasad it would have helped. 2 issues: 1) I couldn't send updates to Sushma, Mohan Sir and my parents. 2) If Prasad and me couldn't catch up then we didn't have a way to communicate. #1, I could solve by using Hotspot from Prasad's mobile, yes his phone was draining fast which meant he also had to turn off tracking. #2, we planned that if we don't see each other then we will just head to next CP and wait there. 

Climb num 5, this was a tough climb, but before we reached here, we ate pizza at a Pizzeria in a small village, so tasty. Pizzerias are very common all over Italy, easy to locate, only issue is, it would take at least 30 mins for order, preparation, eating.

On the way Monish caught up with us, and we 3 rode together, while we spoke we missed the sharp right turn, though Garmin alerted off-course, but we went ahead assuming Garmin isn't working fine could be satellite issue. After a while, I didn't see the climb metrics changing, so there was no progress on the hill climb. Both Prasad and Monish weren't sure why was it so. I opened up BikeGPX on mobile only to see we had drifted 3kms off-course. We immediately turned around and headed back to the village. The hill was quite steep with rare traffic, we enjoyed climbing in the night. This hill was very similar to Kollur climb as part of Jog 1000k.

Day-3 (18-Aug) - Entry into Beautiful "Tuscany" (Toscana)

At Pontederra (CP5, 489kms), we had a good 1-hr sleep, but it was raining crazily, so we extended out sleep for another 15 mins, but it didn’t help. So we wanted to get started with all the rain gear. Showers Pass jacket came in handy here. I carry a waterproof cap which is easily foldable, and I use it when it rains. 2 polythene covers to safeguard power bank, cables. And a waterproof cover around the top bar pouch. This is tried and tested multiple times and has helped keep our gadgets safe from rain water. We were wearing water proof shoes, but the rain water soaked from socks into shoes, now thats even bigger problem, water wont go out easily. And even the insole was soaked. We removed both the insole & socks and rode without them for an entire day, the hard surface of shoes was hurting but we didn’t have a choice. 

With rain, we faced lesser road resistance and were riding faster, a good sleep was helping. About 8am, we turned towards a small village which seemed to be the entry point to Tuscany. From here we started seeing the beautiful “Toscana”, small hills, hundreds of them, either plain or with green grass and at times various fruits grown on these hills. It’s such pleasant sight, we were spellbound at its beauty. 

Hunger alerted us and we looked for a bar in the village. We found one which served “Vegetariano” food, 2 ladies were welcoming and quickly served us bread items with vegetables, we filled our bottles in the nearby tap in a park and off we went. The bar in Italy is almost like a Darshini hotel in Bangalore, you almost get everything. Coffee is usually given in a small cup like shots and its very strong, we need to ask milk. The coffee shot is similar to Espresso in Coffee Day! We used to get good kick after the drink!

The only gravel stretch:

We were already informed about this gravel stretch, it's painful and scary to ride here worried about the sharp stones which may cause punctures, we slowed down our pace until the stretch was over, it was about 6-8kms. Beautiful tree stretches welcomed us post the gravel road. 

We started seeing the blueberry farms. Since it was fruit season, thick bunch of blueberries hanging were welcoming. We had a climb of 6kms with about 400m elevation, it wasn't very tough with wind on our side, as we were thirsty, we stopped by a blueberry farm, we took a few pics and plucked a few to taste, it was yummy. About a km later, I found blackberries grown on roadside, it wasn't part of any farm, plucked a few blackberries washed,  ate and continued. 

About 20kms later, we started feeling hungry, we checked a restaurant but they didn't serve veg food, so we planned to eat ready to eat that we were carrying and stopped by a farm which had good shade. We parked our bikes, put water in the ready to eat pouch, and Monish flew past with a smile. Packed everything and started riding hoping to find a tap to quench the thirst. 

At 600kms first drop bag CP, we were quickly took a shower with hot water and changed over to new jerseys. Lubed the chains, ate lots of food (nothing was tasty). Here we saw Binu, Gnaneshwar, Galin and Monish and they all left about 30 mins earlier than us.

At night, it was terribly cold, we had not faced this severe cold over last few years in Europe, my jaws were twitching causing teeth chatter, this is despite wearing showers pass and covering head with bandana. This slowed down our ride and we could only cover about 70kms all night, early morning one of the volunteers was standing at Secret Control point to sign the brevet card. 

Day-4 (19-Aug)

Sorano and Pitigliano:

Early morning we started climbing the hill, and we saw this beautiful fort of Sorano. It’s built over tuff stone (formed from volcanic ash) and over the river Lente. The village has a famous church built in 12th century. We took a short break for restroom as a bar was open early in the morning, but since he wasn’t serving food, so we went ahead to Pitigliano, again its built over tuff stone, even the caves are formed with several openings. It's strikingly similar to Sorano with similar fort, same stones, caves etc. Offlate are being used to park cars or used as godowns! We stopped by a pizzeria and ate tummyfull. By now it was already 10am and we reached CP by 1pm. 

Cars everywhere:

Me being a car enthusiast it was a treat for my eyes to watch some of the luxury cars of Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Maserati, Alfa Romeo. At the same time, I enjoyed the work horses of: Dacia (Renault), Fiat, Suzuki, Citroen. The best among all was Fiat Panda 4x4, an evergreen machine, must be at least 30 years old.

Beautiful towns of Italy:

Houses and streets so well decorated, it almost felt mini resorts next to each other:

Water points in Italy:

Fresh, clean uninterrupted water supply is done through taps, such astonishing that every town/village will have 1 more taps near a park or a square.

Connecting with People of Italy:

Ciao - (pronounced as chaav, Chaavu) is Hello, it’s a mgical word we could connect with People. Almost everyone would respond when you say Ciao, they wud respond with Buongiorno (Good Morning or Good Day). That’s it we could not talk anymore! So we would say Ciao Ciao (for bye bye).

My Food craving during long rides:

While we spend so much effort during cycling, food becomes really critical and we start dreaming about food all along a long ride. And with each ride I get a food craving and I ensure to fulfill the craving soon after the ride. Interestingly I got craving for Ginger Tea, and we planned to drink a full cup of tea once we complete the ride by reaching to apartment and preparing full cup of tea for all of us, which we did at the end :-). 

Lago Di Bolsena

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bolsena)

At 800kms, we reached beautiful city of Bolsena which had a very big lake and also a small beautiful castle. We were closest to Rome from here, and we then moved towards Matassino.

Day-5 (20-Aug) - Running Late and the final climbs 

We reached the 2nd drop bag CP (Matassino) by 2pm. The CP was about to close, we were lucky to get drop bags and volunteers asked us to bring back the bags in 15 mins. 

When we asked for "Vegetariano", the cook laughed for a minute and said nothings available in Veg. He offered me Aqua (water bottle), I jokingly asked if it was Veg? :-) Finally we settled with Fanta and Chips!!

We wanted to take a quick bath. The bath rooms were far away behind the school. Most of the riders had already left. Me and Prasad were one of the last few to get the drop bags. We reached the bathrooms, it was in dirtiest condition, but we didn't have a choice. The toilet didn't have tissue paper. I had to think of a quick alternative, I found a big shampoo bottle, emptied it and fetched water. A 1-min bath and we changed into new jerseys, we restocked the ready to eats, candies, power bank and lights. Right then we remembered about Sunil and Grinny and asked Volunteers if they can wait a bit longer, but they were about to leave. I was bit surprised as to why they are packing off so early while there were so many riders behind us. We messaged Sunil and Grinny that they won't have access to drop bag. Unfortunately both of them didn't see the message until an hour later.

The final climb as we assumed was to be done in the afternoon at 2pm, it was 11kms distance with 1050+m elevation, we completed it in close to 2 hrs. While it was a hard one, the feeling was wonderful.

Regello (CP10):

Vallombrosa forest on top was amazing, it’s a famous picnic and camping spot. We found a band of Oz musicians playing their instruments here: 

. 

I messaged Sushma, Nakul and Mohan Sir that we were done with all the climbs, and from now on we will recover time. I loaded the gpx file for next stretch. A big surprise was waiting, when we saw the number of climbs in this segment, i realized there is a 21kms climb with 1200m elevation. I told Prasad we somehow missed noting this hill, and while we were already running late, this came as a big shock. While legs were ready, but we had lost so much time. We were already running behind by few hours. 

Prato All'Albero, the beautiful Hill (1086kms):

Prasad and me thought of a short nap before we start the "final" climb, a good 30-mins sleep was much needed. Hot sun, we stopped by shadow of a tree and rested there. As usual Prasad woke up first and woke me up, in next min we were on the road. At about 20kms from CP, Sunil called up, he was at the CP and was planning to catch up with us while we climb, we told him the exact distance so he can meet us. We started the climb, as we had seen already the gradient was very high, the actual climb was at 6kms later, so the elevation came down to 12kms with 1200m elevation, this is insane, literally 100m elevation for every 1km. It's a beautiful climb. Plush greenery, neatly maintained gardens, it had just stopped raining so the weather was perfect. I haven't seen such beautiful hill. At about 9kms there is a deviation and a hotel at this cross. We didn't want to stop so we went ahead climbing even harder. We met Payu (Thai rider) here riding alone, I joined him for a fun chat while Prasad was enjoying the hill climb. At the top we were now truly ecstatic that all the climbs are done, we stopped for a quick snack of yoghurt and juice. We took some beautiful snaps here as the clouds were hitting this hill. The pine forest here was unique, had not seen such tall pine trees.

Palazzuolo Senio (1096kms):

We descended at brisk pace and reached the CP12 at foothills Prato All’Albero.

Day-6 (21-Aug) - Timing surprise and the race begins

We reached Lugo CP17 by 10:30pm, we wanted to sleep for 30 mins which extended to an hour and with food we could only start by 12:00am. Since we had good sleep, so we were hoping for a strong ride from here with last 450kms remaining. After about 2hrs of non-stop riding Prasad felt hungry, we ate ready to eat and searched around a park for a tap for drinking water. From here the ride was smooth, but Prasad felt bit dizzy, so we took a nap for 20 mins. By early morning, we were super hungry, Prasad noticed a bar in the corner at 5:30am. We bought croissant and donuts and 2 coffee shots. We used the restroom here to freshen up. Soon the route led to banks of river Po (Longest river of Italy). 

High Road (Really very high!!)

The river bank road was at least 40ft high on both sides. So we called it a High Road!! The longest river of Italy “Po” is so big, we kept riding on left and right sides of the bank. The road was most boring, with no shops nearby, no shade and roads weren't smooth as well. 

At about 7:30am, while riding on the high road on the banks of Po river, my watch showed that we have done 110hrs completed. Our timetable showed the end time as 11:40am (22-Aug), which would have been 138hrs against the allocated 134hrs. I thought it's just my imagination and 11:40am is accurate, but this bug didn't get away, I checked with Prasad, he mentioned 11:40am is correct. I wasn't convinced, so ended up calling Mohan Sir. Coincidentally he also had noticed same issue and mentioned we had 330kms to cover in 22hrs. So the target was 7:40am and not 11:40am as we had written. That blew our head, until then we were a bit relaxed and riding with ease assuming the target is easily achievable. But not really. 330kms in 22hrs at 15kmph is difficult ask specially when you have already done 1270kms with about 14500m elevation. We were too tired to take on this ask of 15kmph which we usually wud expect 10-12kmph. Nevertheless the task was cut-out, the ask was super clear. It was hot sunny day on the high road and absolutely no shade. The roads were a bit rough. We both planned that we must ride hard now than expecting a tough ask like 100kms in 5hrs. So, we planned a 20+ avg ride for next few hrs, take very short breaks and take 1 sleep break for 30 mins every 12hrs, eat quick at Bar and spend very less time in CP as we weren't expecting any food as well.

We reached CP with 200+kms still left. Since it was night, we planned a 30-mins sleep, but unfortunately it ended up with 1-hr break. Most of the CPs were schools with a small indoor stadium, so we could sleep with a thin blanket, it was warm enough for a god sleep. I told Prasad, thats fine we got longer rest, our bodies got more rest so we can pedal harder. At some of the CPs we would get rice so we ended up using tomato sauce and cheese with rice (Vegetariano!)

 

We rode first 70kms non-stop at a good pace of 20+, it gave a lot of confidence. We were exhausted riding fast on a sunny day, at the CP17 we were lucky to get pasta, fruits, we packed 1 egg and 1 boiled potato for the road as we again planned to ride non-stop for 68kms. But, after about 25kms we were crazy thirsty but we couldn't locate a single shop/bar. Another 5kms at a turn we found 1 bar it was like finding an oasis in a desert. Payu joined us and a few more riders stopped as well. We drank coke and bought few candies and Gelato for the road. Almost 150kms with no sleep break, so we wanted a 30 mins break, and found shade and grass, slept there and woke up to realize we are losing the buffer. We had to push harder again, but Prasad's gear issue wasn't helping, riding on 1-10/1-11 and still generate a pace of 20+ isn't easy. Prasad was incredible here, he was frustrated with the gear issue, so he went all out on low gear ratio and was way faster. This hurt his hips without proper gear. Even then he was determined to keep up the pace. Prasad ended up riding 1300kms on his 1st gear in front, this is unheard of! We had even been to a bike shop to get this issue fixed while riding, but it didn’t help much.

Day-7 (22-Aug) - Final Day climax 

We reached Fomio (last Control) at 10:10pm, the control was a beautiful castle, it was almost celebration mode with music, food, drink, we were treated very well here. A good 30-mins sleep and we had requested Dhananjaya sir to wake us up in case if we forget and turn off the alarms. We were fresh, food was delayed a bit here, which meant we could only start at 11:30pm against the plan of 11:00pm. 123kms in 8hrs was an achievable target, so we divided into 71kms and 52kms, at 71km there was a secret control, but nobody was around so we just took selfie with a board. Bad part was, we had taken 5hrs for 71kms against the plan of 3.5hrs. We got slowed down due to night and fatigue. The roads weren't helping as well. 

Finally the equation came down to 52kms in 3hrs. On a normal circumstance it's doable, but we were worried about the city traffic, roads, uncertainties like punctures  etc. So, we decided to go hard with 20+ avg, that did help a lot and we came down to 30kms in 2hrs. 

Sleepy South Korean Rider - he was riding along with the Italian gang, but he was so sleepy he had to stop, we were right behind and asked if he was doing alright, he mentioned that he is not doing good and might fall anywhere due to lack of sleep, he wanted us to talk to him, he had 11kms and 40 mins left, and any slip here would mean he won't make it. We had lot of time but thought of supporting him so rode with him for next 8kms talking to him non-stop. For every question he would answer very loudly so he would stay awake. I asked him about his life, work, family, and then went out of Questions, so he started asking me Qns!!

With almost 50 mins left out of total time of 134 hours, we comfortably reached the end CP. Monish and Dhananjaya sir welcomed with a hug. Gneneshwar, Galin cheta, Binu and Chandana wished us congratulations and we took a few group pics for memory. Medal and Homologation Certificates were given. And the amazing ride around Italy came to an end. Thanks again to the wonderful organisers of Miglia event, its a top notch route and they supported in best possible way they could.

Ciao ciao Miglia! 

Thank you Note: Thanks to Sushma for all the support to me and at home managing 2 sick kids. To my parents and in-laws, my sisters for their support. Thanks to all the inputs by Mohan Sir. Thanks to Bangalore Randonneurs (BR) whose best wishes before, during and after the ride and the camaraderie shown is inspiring. They motivate at every moment to ensure we complete the ride. Thanks to Dhananjaya sir for taking good care of us when we reached back ensuring food, sleep, drop bags, Indian flag, he arranged everything.

What worked well:

1. Thanks to Biju (Cycling Boutique) for the thorough service and packing the bike to perfection
2. Installed new gear train: new Chain rings and new chain
3. New tires: Continental Gatorskin (rear) and Continental GP5000 with tyre liner (front)
4. Ready To Eats and plenty of them in the drop bags
5. Fast paced first 100kms ride to set the right pace
6. Very less time at CPs
7. Good training rides involving multiple hill climbs
8. Believing in ourselves when we got to a situation of 330kms in 22hrs and thats after 1270kms of hard climbs

Key Learnings: 

1. Need for Speed: Cleats cud be a solution, we will explore, we were the only 3 people who wore shoes and not cleats 

2. Better fitness level: Not being consistent on my rides, ita been sporadic long rides, i need more regular routine 

3. Better bike: Cannondale Synapse is 5yrs old and has done quite good with about 8 LRMs (1200+) and 6 1000k rides with multiple SRs, but need an upgrade for next few yrs

4. Cold weather handling was bad, we should have used Merino wool thermals to protect ourselves