Cycling Holiday In Beautiful Italy. Mixing Power & Performance with Relaxation & Pleasure!

In today’s video from the Italian Lakes, I ride out with Jiusto & Sebastiano from Garda Bike Hotel, to train on a couple of intermediate climbs in order to build my climbing skills at VO2 Max / Zone 5 power followed by a Threshold / Zone 4 ascent. Also Jayne and I enjoy a ride out with Davide, covering 50 beautiful kilometers at 50W, enjoying the sensational local countryside and a little gelato! It’s Jayne’s first time on a bike for some time – and the electric Pinarello Nyrto makes life easy!

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And one of the great things about the garda bike hotel is that it is family friendly so you can get your ride in but also there’s plenty going on for everybody else in the local area but also we have a range of different bikes and here is an electric pinarilla it’s the nitro

Isn’t it david yes right the nitro and this is going to be jane steed for the day she’s quite nervous and natalie oh yeah no clip-ons here right anyway thank you so what do you think jane i think that i haven’t ridden a bike for a long time

I’ll get on it and just have a little ride down you’re gonna let’s have that little first ride just down the uh with the flowing loss i am reminded of sagan here More fine-tuning can you help me okay sorry can i help rather than film tba the engine department sorry for powers yeah white is zero yeah normal bike so that just turns it on but it’s zero yeah more power less power okay more power red faster okay

So jamie will be going full gas with red the whole time go get go okay that was nicely done better than me on my first attempt it truly is glorious isn’t it [Applause] it’s like bambi taking her first tentative steps after about 20 odd years not riding a bike

Now while i haven’t been focusing on this in some of the earlier videos around the entire area are loads of really beautiful safe cycle paths perfect really to kind of rediscover i guess how to ride a bike hey jane that’s good alright so far it’s gonna write so far there’s borgetto I think this is a pretty spectacular way to have our very first cycling coffee stop together 46 kilometers on the clock how are you feeling uh i feel like i haven’t cycled 46 kilometers for many years i’m doing all right you’re doing more than all right

Not far to go now and now you’re feeling in terms of safety on these beautiful obviously cycle paths but also you’re on some spectacular back roads how was that it’s all been really good it’s been very quiet people are very careful considerate of others and yeah the tarmac’s lovely and the

Cycle costs are amazing what about a pinorino it’s been lovely to ride it’s um i thought i was doing some stuff under my own steam which it turned out i wasn’t because it turns itself on without you turning on on occasion so when i was going a bit slower it was

Obviously bolstering me up some of the hills but you can turn it on yourself if you want it a bit easier or it turns on as you go up the hills as you need it which is good and give it two thumbs up i can’t don’t

Go with the handlebars no i’m not the best then go there we go nice nice and i have to say i did have to lay down 150 watts at one stage to keep pace of jane on the hill coming in give it the beans here we go engine is engaged

You on full power it’s excellent it makes it so easy and we crest the kom just cruising in to garda bike hotel here we are after 50 watts for 50k jane’s needing a little bit of i guess her time i’m not even sure we’re going to get a all the way back

Down to three a bit stories time in the sun lounges the kindle has been deployed there is two three though i spy there’s another bit that’s all From an amazing gardener bike hotel we have sebastian in front leading the group sebastian hi i’m going to do my best not to get dropped these guys these guys looking at their calves know what they’re doing we’re on route to the climb i think we might be able to see it just

In front of us yes it is just hitting the first climb now justo and sebastian have set off ahead gives me something to try and catch gonna set off right now hit the power overlay hopefully So Ciao So Okay So what’s happening with that decent 10 minute power just over three and a half kilometers of climbing uh we’ll look at the data later oh proper difficult what’s up saint georgia in ghana petron sensational romantic church dates all the way back to the 8th century this is actually from roman times here

But how about this for a day full gas on the climb but culture beauty perfect that’s the only way you can describe it perfect cheers now justo tells me that to pay and to die is always on time so we drink first and enjoy and pay after cheers

That’s right for marnie cavello is the climb that’s on the agenda six kilometers and we end at bell tower that even i can’t miss have we started the climb okay up to four keys Okay see them spectacular yeah see two minutes felt tired So Look i had a spectator watch me come over the top of the kom at cavallo and even i couldn’t miss the bell tower anyway for the climb itself in terms of perceived effort and energy expenditure i’ve been budgeting for about six kilometers when i got to the six

Kilometer mark and i could see the bell tower quite some way off in the distance and quite some way up as well i realized that the um well i was in a fair bit of trouble but i kind of dialed it back a little bit recuperated and definitely finished kind of the

Final 800 meters are so strong and so averaged overall 290 watts for 22-23 minutes i’ll see exactly what the time was when i get back but really happy to have a nice threshold effort under the belt on the back of that first climb which is very much a vo2 max effort

Now back down to find justo and sebastian so we’re going through the vineyards where the grapes for the amarone wine have produced a slightly larger grape the harvest is just about to commence a little puncher here mr petter in the big gear foolish cadence 30. yeah rt was in a big gear

Ah what do you do for pizza typically now that you’re small oh really okay so yeah hey the capers yes the pieces didn’t realize they’re growing on such beautiful plants justo has a top tip here look at this if you’re a fair weather rider as we all know i am

This is the perfect thing to keep the beautiful you’re bold i’m bold so i save it from the shower ah but also if you have a very nice haircut and all that kind of stuff it’s the perfect thing uh to keep the rain off now jane has procured something very

Special for post ride more of that in just one second battery ran out during a ride so now for a very quick summary very happy with the two climbs the first was a vo2 max effort just under 11 and a half minutes at watts and it included a strava segment posted now

Um san ambrosio vivio carlapella san ambrosio bibio carlapella basically 2.9 kilometers 199 meters of climbing and 6.7 average gradient my time 9.44 and um that put me 171st out of about 342 that have attempted and a top 10 in my age group by 45 to 54

So very happy with that and then on to the threshold climb and we actually commenced the ascent before i am as even aware that we’d started the strava segment and that was fumane mazurga cavallo fumame mazurla cavago 7.5 kilometers 414 meters of ascending 5.4 average gradient my time 23 minutes and two seconds

Um average power 289 watts so pretty happy with that um unfortunately the gopro cut out in the final i guess quarter of it but um it was a good climb as i say i budgeted for only six kilometers it ended up at 7.4 7.5

Um so i had to dig in a little bit and finish very strong but most importantly now time for the post ride carbs jane has been into town disaster nearly struck sorry i really can make life unnecessarily difficult oh my word we having to peel oh because someone held it Oh my days this what is this jane i don’t know it’s a sugared cake thing is bakery unknown but it did have a name there we go it’s very very sticky but slightly harder on the exterior you can see the hard nice exterior and no currents

I gotta say i think i prefer panettone i’m sorry i’m just gonna put that out there it’s nice but is it worth the calories and in all the excitement regarding those fast digesting carbs that are actually fast disappearing i forgot to mention my time on the segment and where that put me

23 minutes and two seconds um placed me 147th out of the just under 2400 that have attempted it and uh 13th in my age group so pretty happy with that i’ve definitely got a tab more in me on both of those ascends if ever we come back well i am coming back

You coming with me i am coming back yeah we’re coming back um so very happy with that overall