check out the tour operator at
puntotours.com
Today is our first cycling day in Italy. With 15 cyclists in our large group, we’re starting from the little town Bellagio at Lake Como. Bellagion is about 1 & 1/2 hours drive north of Milan, or two hours by public transportation. Bellagio is an ancient city, where it existed even before the Roman Empire. The population is only 3,600.
Our tour operator is Punto Tours. We’re so happy that Vince, Andrea and Laura are our tour guides, with two large mini van support vehicles.
The cycling route is 33 miles with 4,400 ft of climbing. All of the climbing is done within the first 15 miles, climbing two steep walls: The first climb is Madonna Del Ghisallo (gi-sal-lo), total 1,500 ft over 5.3 miles averaging 7.5% gradient . The second climb is Colma da Asso, 2,000 ft climbing over the next 5.8 mi, averaging 6.7%. It’s going to be a beautiful and scenic ride with views over Lake Como.
Lake Como is a huge lake covering 56 squared miles, not quite as large as Lake Tahoe, but it’s a busy lake with boating, kayaking and other water sports. There are also ferries taking people across the lake in a very short time without having to drive around the lake.
[Music] it’s a 21% 22% [Music] good morning from Rajio Italy right at the Komao Lake it’s beautiful place look at this place uh it’s a small town but it’s also old town in Italy and this town Braio only has a population of less than 3,600 people local residents and it’s a beautiful vacation place we are so lucky here to be able to have this hotel for two nights and we’re starting from here the weather looks good no rain not too cold it’s a beautiful i mean how can you say no to this place it just look at that i never biked here before so you have to stay tuned and keep on watching and it’s going to be a beautiful ride going to be amazing i just took a 5-minute walk though man the air smells so good just amazing i just feel so good up here um relax and people are so nice and right now at 7:00 a.m in the morning hardly anybody’s here all these beautiful Italian bikes here we’re going to get a chance to ride all these beautiful Italian bikes and then thanks to Vince and Andrew picking putting everything together for us it’s awesome all right Vince is fitting us all the bites and we got this goodie bag ready to go exciting you look so excited you are yes i catch you by surprise always a surprise exciting nice bank nice bank and you’re ready to go right yeah ready to go cannot wait super Lola ready for this right not super okay keep Keep it low profile very low profile today is our first day in Italy with 15 cyclists in our large group we are starting from the little town called Bellagio at Lake Ko bragio it’s about 1 and a half hour drive north of Milan or 2 hours by public transportation braio is an ancient city where it existed even before the Roman Empire the population is only 3,600 local residents our operator is Punto Tours we are so happy that Vance Andrew and Laura are our tour guys with two large minivans supporting vehicles the cycling route is only 33 miles with 4,400 ft of climbing all of the climbing is done within the first 15 miles and we’ll be climbing two steep walls the first climb is called the Madana Diserel totaling 1,500 ft of climbing over 5.3 mile averaging 7.5% gradient [Music] hey my favorite group’s here ali ali smile yay look at these strong and beautiful riders no how’s it going easy easy oh no too easy oh that’s about right we’re almost at the heading spot all right looking so strong come on we started over there uhhuh good job thank you hold on you needing water are you okay i’m okay i’m okay another viewpoint okay oh okay wow look at this place what a wheel people realize everyone okay go go go [Music] that black jersey looks very good on you huh yeah i know i was like and Jun is our expert tour guide today on Italian bicycles look at these pictures i’m going to show you the museum yeah thank you i feel so blessed today look at this antique bicycle you like the seat here come do you like the seats here oh that’s my favorite and you may sit here too yeah i think you have a very hot ass saddle bag very old-fashioned and durable right it’s like World War II style we have when I was little in China yeah more than 100 years of cycling history in Italy is here but we have two more minutes and I have to get going so so much to see in Italy just came so you have more time more time i got one more minute to go whoa whoa what’s going on hit me hit me stop the bike stop the bike hi Eric hi having fun yeah definitely how do you like about biking here in Italy so far oh the road is perfect but the most important is the bike the bike they they make it so smooth it’s much much better than my own bike better than the bike all right you need to buy it and bring it back home ciao ciao all right thank you R nice good guys looking strong all right we’re going on this very steep climb muro averaging 17% gradient for 1.7 kilometers some are steep as 25% and I know Quan’s going to attack it like it’s nothing this follows God leadership up the wall of Somano the the goal is not to fall when you uh when you’re suffering we suffer together okay all right let’s go that’s the best thing I could ever ask for there you go good luck well the key is not to fall don’t fall was supposed to be on my day off wrong it’s 18% gradient right now the shortcut to the top that’s 1.1 mile route with an average gradient of 17% but many sections are at 20% to 25% it’s one brutal continuous climb some of us are taking this a shortcut but many others are taking the wrong route averaging roughly 6 to 7% gradient my god this spot look at so steep it looks like 25% gradient right there holy moly oh god my back’s hurting already and halfway [Music] i told you i told you it would be no kidding huh no kidding average 19% and main this place has 22% that was a good challenge yeah that is a good That was a good challenge wow that’s cool super fun is this Francis it is Francis he did it he did it man can’t believe he did it oh my goodness i was I stop at exactly 999 hey hey hey where you going careful careful just can’t remember cheers oh good oh man this is good look there’s nice peach i keep coming for the last last 100 easy easy on the side hey the girl in black what a beautiful bike love that color look at that [Music] right yes wait wait for the green light the boss said no go this is not California it’s also not okay in California in Italy but we are not like in the in the jokes not always all right we’re back y good job [Music] [Music]