{"id":255,"date":"2012-09-15T20:06:38","date_gmt":"2012-09-15T20:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=255"},"modified":"2013-08-20T22:08:37","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T22:08:37","slug":"day-7-ascola-piceno-to-pedaso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=255","title":{"rendered":"Day 7 \u2013 Ascola Piceno to Pedaso"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Clouds on the mountains<\/p><\/div>\n

We debated plans for Day 7, slated to be a short easy ride to the Adriatic\u2014a recovery day prior to Fondo Leopardiana.<\/p>\n

First, we considered transferring by van back to Old Baldy and riding 75 miles to the Adriatic by a new route.\u00a0 On the plus side, that would indisputably connect the final dots in our Sea-to-Sea journey, allow us to take in the \u201cmost unbelievable scenery\u201d of the trip and get us to the Adriatic a half-hour north of where we had intended (i.e. closer to Recanati, site of the condo).\u00a0 The drawback would be that it required an early start\u2014something we were not good at–, 2 hours of van-loading and transfer, and jeopardize our arrival at Recanati by 5 PM to register for Sunday\u2019s Fondo Leopardiana.<\/p>\n

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Rich riding through a town along the way. We became ho-hum about the beauty of these centuries-old towns because there are so many of them.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the end, we decided to just get on our bikes in Ascola Piceno and ride to the Adriatic.\u00a0 Who wants to spend two hours driving to ride?\u00a0 We came up with a new route to the Adriatic though, a longer, more scenic route that included a major climb.<\/p>\n

It continued to rain during the night, punctuated by a fierce storm around 5:30 AM.\u00a0 The weather report called for 50% chance of rain until noon, then diminishing probability, and the rain had largely stopped by the time we mounted our bikes at 10 AM.<\/p>\n

We began climbing as we left the city limits, 22 km (13.5 miles) and 700 m. vertical (2,300 ft.).\u00a0 Clouds hovered on adjacent mountains, while microscopic raindrops danced around us, dampening us but never quite amounting to rain.\u00a0 Views back to the valley were magnificent, but the gang was focused on getting to the top of the mountain and away from the threat of rain.\u00a0 When I stopped to take a picture, the others kept riding and I fell far behind. \u00a0‘No more rain–just get to the seashore!’ seemed to be the sentiment.<\/p>\n

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Todd gazing over Umbrian valley. We had begun the descent in rain before arriving at this small town.<\/p><\/div>\n

We regrouped briefly at the top, then promptly rode into a rain shower as we started to descend.\u00a0 We began to cross frequent mud and gravel washes from the night\u2019s heavy rains and we had to roll cautiously.\u00a0 Mud turned out to be the defining theme of the day, and before long we looked like ditchdiggers.\u00a0 Intermittent showers would clean our shoes, helmets and bikes up a bit, then we\u2019d hit more mud across the road and revert to the ditchdigger look.<\/p>\n

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Mud washes across the road were common due to heavy rains the day and night before.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Amid all this, the surroundings melded from high alpine to long hill vistas to rolling Marchi farmland, all dotted with small towns, all very lovely and scenic.\u00a0 This was turning into a varied and spectacular ride.<\/p>\n

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And mudslides……<\/p><\/div>\n

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which made us dirty…..<\/p><\/div>\n

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as well as our bikes….<\/p><\/div>\n

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Marchi countryside as we near the Adriatic<\/p><\/div>\n

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Around 1 PM we arrived at Carassai, a small town 400 m. above sea level, and got our first glimpse of the Adriatic about 8 km. to the west.<\/p>\n

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The Adriatic on the horizon<\/p><\/div>\n

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The sun was breaking through the clouds and the temperature was up to 70 degrees.\u00a0 Life was beautiful again.<\/p>\n

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One last town on the way down to the Adriatic….<\/p><\/div>\n

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We glided the winding road down to the Adriatic, admiring the frequent vistas to the blue sea.\u00a0 At 1:30 PM, we began arriving by ones, twos and threes in Pedaso where we met the Adriatic and our important photo op.\u00a0 Sea-to-Sea, with only a short break in between!<\/p>\n

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and the Adriatic again, as we descend to the shore<\/p><\/div>\n

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Self-photo at the Adriatic. Pedoso doesn’t have a nice beach, and we arrived in ones and twos so we didn’t get a group picture. But we were there!<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Pedoso town fountain proved useful for muddy bikes and riders.<\/p><\/div>\n

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We washed our bikes in the Pedoso town fountain while waiting for the others to arrive. \u00a0 Then we loaded up the vans and drove to Recanati to register for the Fondo Leopardiana.<\/p>\n

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Ride Summary:<\/p>\n

Distance: 47 mi.<\/p>\n

Vert: \u00a04,062 (Charles on-bike Garmin)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We debated plans for Day 7, slated to be a short easy ride to the Adriatic\u2014a recovery day prior to Fondo Leopardiana. First, we considered transferring by van back to Old Baldy and riding 75 miles to the Adriatic by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","tag-fondo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QqGi-47","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}