(for pt. 1 see here)

When riding, after a while, your daily life fades away. Things like chores, work or a row with your partner cease to exist. You just think about how to get up the next hill, what you will eat after … you play music in your head or cling to a good line you once read in a book, you think about the road ahead – or you don’t think at all. There’s peace and quiet and silence in the halls of your head, like an uninhabited empty, muted landscape, quiet, soothing, comforting, uninterrupted by the steady moving of your legs. That’s how cycling is for me and why I love it. It’s mobile peace.
After arriving in Firenze I felt nothing of this, just frustration and resentment, and so I took a day off to think about how and if I would proceed. My bicycle, a cyclocrosser was not really made for the rocky single trails and/ or I was physically not well equipped to do this. But, on day three, with a load of good motivating words from friends on Facebook and via phone I decided to go on, but with a compromise. I had heard from friends that were ahead on the trail, that there would be another part difficult to ride, similar to the one between Vinci and Firenze. So I decided to take the road to Siena, which is much shorter. I wouldn’t get a finishers badge now anyway, after having left the track the day before because of the blocked path.

Day Four – Firenze to Siena (65km)

The ride was rather unspectacular, yet a bit annoying with the steady sound of motor vehicles passing me by. Many drivers didn’t really keep a proper distance and, scary as it was, I sometimes wished I was back on the challenging yet silent trails.
I arrived in Siena in the afternoon and took the time to ride and walk around the town, something I hadn’t done in Firenze. Siena is a very beautiful medieval place, no cars in the centre, not too many tourists but lots of lovely old buildings and streetlamps – oh yes, those were really pretty (photos at the end of this posting).
I spent the night in an old monastery, which was lovely and quiet. However, I smuggled a beer in, which I later happily drank in my TV-less cell.

Day Five – Siena to Pienza (78km)

The next morning, after a decent breakfast (Italian breakfast, as I know it, is quite rich, with croissants, toast, white bread, all sorts of cakes, jam, salumi and ham, cheese plus all sorts of coffee) I went on again on the given Tuscany Trail track. It was much easier now, no steep hills, no stony roads, no crazy downhills, but the famous strada bianci! I met two French guys again, we had done a bit of the arduous part on Saturday together, now we teamed up again for a while, we talked about the obstacles behind us and took each others photos. After a while though, we parted and I was on my own again, which was totally fine. I took some breaks here and there to sit and look at the Tuscan landscape with its soft-looking hills, still green, with meadows covered with poppies, with butterflies happily dancing around. Never have I seen so many butterflies in one place. And the silence was beautiful, I could hear nothing but the wind and birds. No motor sounds or highways. Just the peace of nature as it is and always should be.
After a while the track took away from the strada bianci and onto some hills again and I resumed cursing and motivating myself. The area seemed quite lonely and uninhabited. It was there, just after I had mastered another steep ascent, when just in the middle of the road a dog showed up, and he was gnarling at me. I didn’t want to retreat because that meant a big detour and going down the hill again. But when two more dogs showed up, I gave in and turned around to find a way around them. I had read reports that in previous years, riders had had troubles with dogs and one had been bitten. On the way back my bicycle and I fell, but I hadn’t hurt neither myself nor my bike visibly, so I proceeded.
After an annoying detour I was back on track and met another rider from before – Tomek from Poland. We passed San Quirico d’Orcia with its beautiful ancient bridge bypass and downhill to Pienza. It was there when Tomek suddenly yelled: “Stop” and pointed on my back wheel, where the thru’axle had half slipped out. The mount must have loosened after my fall. Now, if I hadn’t noticed this could have ended really badly, if the back wheel had sprung out while going downhill. So I was lucky and really grateful to have met Tomek. He takes wonderful photos btw – see his instagram profile.
We parted ways shortly before Pienza.

Day Six – Pienza to the middle of nowhere (27km)

The next morning I went on to Monticciello and further on to Monte Amiata, a dead volcano and the biggest ascent on the whole track. Somewhere near Contignano I fell again, must have missed a bump or something, anyway, I hurt my shoulder quite badly and didn’t feel I could go on. So I called the folks at the hotel in Pienza and was picked up. Went to see a doctor, who told me I had a pulled tendon. So I decided, that that’s it, the end of my Tuscany Trail adventure, finito.

Day Seven – Pienza to Montepulciano Stazione (31km)

However, I had to get back to my car in Massa, so the next day I set of for Montepulciano Stazione, it wasn’t too far away and so I thought, my bike and I could make it, even with a detour to the medieval town of Montepulciano, situated on another steep hill, all in all a 25km ride or so I thought. However, after a few kilometres on a main street I had enough of the near-death-experiences, caused by drivers overtaking me far too close. So I went back to telling Komoot (navigation app) to lead me on MTB tracks, which meant, that it took me a lot more time than riding on road. My hurt shoulder was complaining, too.
Montepulciano is very beautiful (but very crowded, too), so I just went to the piazza on top, sat for a while opposite the museum, where they had filmed one of the famous scenes from “Twilight – New Moon” and then, in a hurry, made it just in time down the hill to the train station and travelled back to Masssa.

And that’s about it.
All in all I can say, at times I was pretty frustrated, annoyed and even mad as hell. The whole thing had been far more difficult than I had expected. If you are not an experienced gravel rider or mountain biker, don’t do the Tuscany Trail with a cyclocrosser! Even if Bombtrack (cyclocrosser manufacturer) is a sponsor. There were so many parts on the trail where I wished I had a mountainbike with a good suspension fork, so the difficulty really was the much discouraging downside, for me that is.

On the other hand I saw so many beautiful places and landscape, and I met such good and friendly people, who cheered me up at times – that still means a lot to me, it really does! And – at least I have tried!

Something about my gear and ‘mental’ stuff

Bike: Lapierre Crosshill 500 (with a punctured carbon fork, happened two days before start and my bike mechanic told me, if I keep an eye on it I should be safe from breaking it – anyway that was one dark cloud above my head during the whole ride indeed)

Tyres: Schwalbe Marathon Plus (I know, lots of eyebrows raise now. In the weeks before I had several flat tyres, three times the G-One and twice the Kenda H-Block 1, so I didn’t want to find myself mending another flat on the road, hence the Marathon Plus).

Bags: See initial post with packing list

Camera: Panasonic TZ71 and iPhone SE

Apparel (something not to be sneezed at!): Bib shorts by Café Du Cycliste (perfect), bibs by Biehler Cycling (lucky bibs given to me by dear Lisa, worked fine as well), 2 jerseys also by Café Du Cycliste (as with all their stuff, you wear it and it just fits and sits right with everything and all pockets in the right place, superb clothing they do, really!), another jersey by Trikoterie (not so fond about that one, too short, no zip pocket, fabric didn’t feel comfortable, when sweating, which I did a lot, however it looked cool, but that’s not what I’m asking from a jersey in the first place, sorry to be blunt, but I just didn’t find that jersey very comfortable), bras by Craft (great stuff, too), socks by Smartwool (Merino baby), and shoes were MTB ones by Specialized (I walked a lot in those shoes while pushing along those arduous tracks and even though they are not made for walking in the first place they were comfortable).
Seriously, clothing does matter a lot, when taking on such adventures, and clothing works best if you don’t have to think about it at all.

‘Mental Stuff (aka Songs I played in my head)

“Chocolate” by Snow Patrol
“Post Punk Progression” by Snow Patrol
“Road leads where it’s led” by The Secret Machines
“Bow your head” by Anna Ternheim
“Don’t sit down, ’cause I’ve moved your chair” by Arctic Monkeys
“Wasted years” (Cover) by Beth Patterson
“An olive grove facing the sea” by Snow Patrol
“Swim until you can’t see land” by Frightened Rabbit
“The River” by Bruce Springsteen
“The thrill is gone” by Chet Baker
“Return of the She-King” by Dead Can Dance
“The Moon and St. Christopher” by Kate Rusby
“Lippy Kids” by Elbow
“Dead Things” by Emiliana Torrini
“Per Te” by Josh Groban (maybe because it’s Italian)
“The Little Things That Give You Away” by Linkin Park
“High Hopes” by Pink Floyd (the bloody fantastic guitar solo from Pulse)
“Alive” by Runaway Go
“The River” by Sally Barker (buy her CD)
“Get On The Road” by Tired Pony
“Little Earthquakes” (the live version!) by Tori Amos
and of course
“Planets” by Snow Patrol

Some Photos …

The mediterranean sea in Massa