Monti Muri
Officine Mattio Lemmas. Finest Italian carbon. Lightweight wheels. SRAM RED eTap electronic gears. When our new fleet of rental bikes have arrived at the café in Nice, we had to give them a test.
Luckily we have a tame racing cyclist: French Masters Champion and pro-beater Kong Fùfù, bien sûr. But where?
There are long climbs and beautiful climbs in our back yard. But we wanted a sterner challenge, so we took an Officine Mattio home to Italy.
In Italy they build roads differently. No messing about: steep ramps, straight up. Walls. In Italian: muri.
Just over the Italian border, only 50km from the Café, we found some. Tiny side roads with signs pointing to villages you never heard of. Gradients of over 10% for 15 minutes. Ramps of 30%. Muri.
We took our human rocket, gave him the Officine Mattio and pointed him upwards.
Let battle commence: on one side gravity; on the other side, physical ability and the strongest of wills. Stomp down on the pedals, go go go.
No chance to appreciate the view. The olive groves or the greenhouses or the Mediterranean far below. Just darkening vision, lactic acid, the taste of blood in the mouth.
Out of the saddle, en danseuse, it’s almost like he’s running up the climb, rather than cycling. The bike and him are one. It’s an impressive sight. So we take another lick of our gelato.
