cronoscalata 'Castelnuovo Don Bosco to Albugnano'

Stivali !
When we first moved to Italy 5 years ago we lived in Moncalieri. I went out on a ride with a couple of guys who were pretty handy on the bike and made me earn my turn in their jetstream on one particular day. I suppose they were weighing me up and decided to take me up this hill I'd never ridden before. They said before we got there it was about 5km long and the record was 11 minutes. Well, I thought yeah, when you're fresh and haven't raced on the flat for 70km beforehand.
So we hit the climb and the speed didn't let up. The gauntlet had been thrown down and I was up for a challenge. After a few minutes racing together, Marco started to open up a gap. His pal Giampaolo then let on that it was Marco who held the record from a few years previous. Well, mentally that gave me the excuse to ease off. Or maybe I was just knackered.

Since then I've always held that hill as a test of form and never got anywhere near the 11 minute mark.
A couple of years ago we moved much closer to Castelnuovo Don Bosco and it's now our local hill climb and having learnt that 2nd June was to be the first of 2 events this year I thought I'd have a go and see if competition could motivate me to go that bit quicker, even though I hadn't done any specific training.
At the very least it would be a good experience and chance to spread the knowledge of the Clarion.
10€ to enter, not bad and prizes for the top 5 in each category.
5km to climb 250m, that's 1 in 20, not too bad, but in fact like any rider knows, it only hurts as much as you allow yourself to be hurt.

nice day for a hill climb - at the sign on

At the sign on I had to convince the judges that my Clarion membership card was sufficient to ride their prestigious event and that it was equivalent to their tessera - it wasn't and I knew it. After much consultation between the judges they decided that as this is Italy and I was British, their only International rider, and as it turned out, their most special entry, I could ride.
I was so special in fact that, when I signed on as rider No. 55 they had run out of saftey pins, the amateur riders fix it method for sticking your number on. We had ridden from home and definitely didn't think of bringing any with us.
Once again the organisers were most accommodating. Behind the signing on tent was the pizzeria who was laying on a little aperitivo. His wife had a needle and thread but only Paolo could sew the number on because he knew a little English. He worked in Brentford for FIAT between 1968 & 1972, the best 4 years of his life he said because it was the time of the Beatles, the mini-skirt & hot-pants.

a first time for everything

With an hour to spare before my ride we decided to ride gently up and suss out the finish. It wasn't where I expected on the minor road up as it crests to go down to Cinzano and Abazia di Vezzolano, but right up in the piazza of Albugnano, a vicious final 200m of 1 in 5 to 1 in 6. Ouch.

the start of the final 200m

trying to keep the front wheel on the ground  as the power is put through the back wheel

it hurt but I stopped it from hurting too much - feeble

passing a walking rider helped moral

cresting the top I remembered why I don't like hill climbing competitions

The winning time was 11'33", unbelievable. He won by over 1 minute and nearly broke the record.

The last 200m were a killer and equal to the gradient of any of the shorter hill climbs you might find in the Peak District.

The 1st Clarion rider and 1st British rider came in in 29th spot at 15'13" leaving a realisation how off form I was.

Even so, we came away with a prize. Two nice bottles of red & some inner tubes as 4th in the senior category and an invite to the next event on the same hill on Oct 20th

Speroni !