Giovanni Lamieri and Simona Solla run SardiniaCycling.
As their website suggests SardiniaCycling is “Your best
reference for road and mountain biking tours in Sardinia.”
I can’t in any way disagree with this.
Cycling in Sardinia
is an experience to behold. But if you’re looking to ride on the flats, look
somewhere else. On the other hand, if you want to ride between history and the
natural wonders of fantastic Sardinia, this is the place for you.
We are three
Swedes and cycling is one of our passions. Our other strong and barely
controllable emotions are for us to know and you to find out. Each of us is 70
years plus so should you be interested enough to pursue the issue, let your
imaginations run wild.
We cycle
together on road bikes regularly in Sweden throughout the spring, summer, and
autumn. To put a cap on our efforts, we travel to another country, most often
in the autumn to somewhere in Italy. So far we’ve experienced Piemonte several
times, Chianti and Puglia once and Sardinia twice.
This spring,
the first week in May to be more exact, we traveled again to Sardinia where we
have developed a very rewarding relationship with Giovanni Lamieri and Simona
Solla. They are the couple that run SardiniaCycling. As their website suggests
SardiniaCycling is “Your best reference for road and mountain biking tours in
Sardinia.” We can’t in any way disagree with this. See: www.sardiniacycling.com/en/
Our earlier tours
in Sardinia were self-guided and in areas in the south, center, and north of the
island. We transferred our bikes rented from SardiniaCycling in our rented car
to places from which we took round tours.
This time, on
Giovanni’s advice, we focused on a point-to-point, guided tour in the Province
of Ogliastra on the central-eastern coast of the island. Together with
top-of-the-line accommodations including special Sardinian cuisine, we took
advantage of excellent rental bikes, professional guiding, and a support vehicle
during our rides.
Giovanni was
our guide. Not only is he a well-conditioned cyclist, but he also knows a lot
about Ogliastra. What he doesn’t know about this area probably isn’t worth
knowing about. He doesn’t speak Swedish, but his English is excellent as are
his accounts of the historical and cultural aspects of Ogliastra.
Ogliastra
is Sardinia's wildest and least developed province. It combines mountains
rising to over 1000 m within 20 km of the beautiful sea. It is also the most
mountainous province in Sardinia. When it comes to cycling, this says it all.
On a scale of five, Giovanni rates the difficulty level at three. Could four
and five include rock climbing on a bike?
In
other words, cycling in Ogliastra is nothing for the faint-hearted. On our
six-day adventure, we took six tours averaging a little more than 60 km per
tour. This distance could be regarded as a piece of cake given that we had all
day to cover it. But those kilometers also included elevation gains, on average
about 940 meters per tour. On four of the six tours, we climbed around 1200
meters.
But
what goes up also goes down. The payoff for a long, grinding uphill ride was
always an exhilarating downhill ride. Our final tour only went up around 600
meters, but down about 1450 meters to sea level, a tour etched forever in my
mind and I’m sure in the minds of my companions.
And if you’re worried about
the conditions of the roads and the amount of traffic on them in Ogliastra,
don’t worry. Most often the greatest obstacles on the roads were cows and
sheep, virtually no cars or trucks.
The
countryside in Ogliastra is magical. Observe it curiously and attentively. Take
your time there. Enjoy its varied landscapes and rare beauty, its history, and
archaeology. Ogliastra is full of remains from the Bronze Age.
Of
particular interest are the prehistoric Nuraghi castles, villages, temples and
tombs left by hunter-gatherers whose origins constitute one of the
Mediterranean’s great mysteries. We investigated two on our tour, one of which
is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
And! Enough can’t be said
about the people of Ogliastra specifically and Sardinia in general. The
hospitality you can experience there has to be rated among the best. I don’t
know how many good laughs we’ve had together with the locals in bars and
restaurants while enjoying a thirst-quenching Ichnusa, the beer of choice in
Sardinia, or a delicious Sardinian dinner. The wine there won’t disappoint you
either.
Where do I sign up?
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