The Tuscany Trail event is arguably the best way to see Tuscany by bike. The trail starts and ends by the sea and takes you via the beautiful rolling country side that is the back drop to the stunning hill top towns Siena, San Gimignano, Montalcino, Pitigliano and many more. The 2021 7th edition of this event was no exception and it was blessed with absolutely perfect sunny weather, both good and bad for a pasty brit like myself who never seem to be able to tan…..when exposed to sun we appear to go through various shades of pink to glowing red and back again each with varying levels of discomfort.
The 7th edition was 473km long with 6950m of assent with an almost perfect mixture of strade bianche, technical trails and road sections, so picking the right bike setup, bags and kit was important. There were a mixture of MTB, gravel bikes and e-Bikes, I took my 3T Exploro (details of bike, bags and clothing can be found below) which turned out to be a perfect choice and made me wonder if the 3T Exploro was dreamed up by the inventors at 3T while they were riding a previous edition of the Tuscany Trail. There seems to be a lot of talk about 3T’s aero gravel bikes, but I can definitely confirm their pedigree…..I was able to clock up over 45km/h on gravel and tarmac with a full pack. They definitely do what is claimed.
Day 1: Registration and Kit Compare (17km, -50m Ascent)
Taking a left out of the registration area, a right on to the street to head to the sea we passed a bar….so we stopped after just 200m of riding. Nothing get’s in the way of a cyclist and an espresso. I realised that my quarq power meter wasn’t registered as the battery seems to have died. I hadn’t bought a replacement, but Marco had and he proceeded to unpack his bag….we got chatting with some other riders who had stopped for coffee and I got the first “Che Bella!”. Realising that I didn’t know exactly what they were referring to they repeated…”Che Bella bicicletta che hai…e’ una 3T?”….I couldn’t have agreed more, the bike is really stunning in matte black finish and subtle 3T logos. This phrase was going to become a theme throughout the ride whenever we stopped for a break.
We would discover through out the ride that everyone had different ideas of how they wanted to tackle the ride. Some planned to rush through it at maximum pace trying to finish it in three days. Many wanted to achieve the ride in five days, starting on the Saturday and arriving on Wednesday which was a public holiday in Italy. Our plan was to set of about 7am each day, aside from the first, ride to lunch by around noon then set off again after 3pm to avoid the mid-day sun. For lunch we aimed to get to a decent restaurant to enjoy the infamous Tuscan cuisine. We would do the same each evening, but with wine. I had installed the guide Osteria d’Italia by Slow Food and had my eyes on a few places I wanted to visit.
The queue moved fast, registration was a very quick process and we were handed a little brown paper bag with a cap, small bag, some plastic bottle thing and a registration plate without a number on it. Marco got a spray chain oil, but not me. In any case we left everything except the cap and bag and we were ready to start the adventure.
Day 1: Massa to Castelfranco di Sotto (87km, 841m ascent)
Taking a left out of the registration area, a right on to the street to head to the sea we passed a bar….so we stopped after just 200m of riding. Nothing get’s in the way of a cyclist and an espresso. I realised that my quarq power meter wasn’t registered as the battery seems to have died. I hadn’t bought a replacement, but Marco had and he proceeded to unpack his bag….we got chatting with some other riders who had stopped for coffee and I got the first “Che Bella!”. Realising that I didn’t know exactly what they were referring to they repeated…”Che Bella bicicletta che hai…e’ una 3T?”….I couldn’t have agreed more, the bike is really stunning in matte black finish and subtle 3T logos. This phrase was going to become a theme throughout the ride whenever we stopped for a break.
So, first espresso downed, new battery in power meter, we say our good byes to the other riders and confirm that we’re also destined for Lucca as our first stop and to have lunch.
We headed to the coastal road, cycled along the sea for a short distance then headed south east onto small back roads and past residencies of Massa. Heading out towards the hills of Cararra, famous for the marble they chisel out to the mountains to be made into kitchen surfaces, we hit our first gravel single track which ran along a river. Pretty brisk section of gravel that made us realise that we were finally really starting the adventure. This was our shake-out section of the journey, the first bumpy terrain that shakes off any loose items on your bike and makes you revisit you set-up to check everything again. Fortunately for me everything seemed to be holding up well, but Marco’s bike shed his tool kit that he had mounted on the top tube. Quick stop, he put the water bottle on the top tube….this would prove to be a mistake later on…
Continuing along the single track which then starts to run parallel to the hills, we turn left and start our first climb one some decidedly more technical track with larger rocks and stones. The climb continues up Monte Ghilardona from where we start to decent through the town of Fibbialla and down to the river Serchio. On the decent I get to check out my new Superghiaia handlebars that I got fitted, by my friends at 3T, specially for this event. They are absolutely glorious! The top of the bars follow the standard handlebar set up so the hoods are set the same way as a normal road bike. Just after the curve down they flare out from 40cm to 49cm with the intention of giving more control on downhill when in the drops without compromising the on hood positioning. It works really well and I just loved the control and relaxed feel of the decent. By bringing your hands closer to the front on the drops you can get an index finger on the break lever. The decent ends at the river and there is a lovely wide gravel path all the way to the beautiful town of Lucca. I put my hands over the hoods and am powering away as if on road. The unchanged hood position of the Superghiaia means you feel right at home as if on a road bike and the Exploro acts like a road bike on the gravel flat too. Feeling smug about my choice of bike the gravel ends at the gate of Lucca where we arrive almost exactly as planned at 1230.
The main gate into Lucca is a stunning three arched red brick construction under which you pass to enter the town. We stopped just inside the town and I whip out my phone to consult the Osteria d’Italia. Two good options available for lunch: Il Mecenate, which was only doing takeaway; Osteria del Manzo, which had tables outside. So we headed over to Osteria del Manzo for lunch.
I chose the Aguglia for antipasto and fregola con ragu’ di triglie, which is a round pasta from Sardinia. No wine for lunch, but lots of water to wash down lunch. The obligatory espresso post lunch and we were ready to go and find a spot to rest before setting off again. I wanted to digest the pasta before cycling again, however we didn’t manage to find a suitable place to rest up so we just started to cycle at a rather leisurely pace along the town wall of Lucca.
We descended the wall, looped around under the wall and headed out of town. We crossed the local ring road via foot bridge and followed a beautiful via duct. We headed to where we planned to sleep which was the town of Castelfranco di Sotto. We arrived in the town, sat down at a bar for another espresso while at the same time trying to locate where our Agriturismo was located. I had been looking forward to staying in this particular Agriturismo which consisted of small apartments created from an old farm. Google maps informed us that it was more than 8km away, in the opposite direction from the trail and would require another ascent. Neither of us was up for that so a reasonably frantic search for an alternative accommodation ensued. Marco called the original place to explain the situation and they kindly offered to cancel the booking at no charge! I continue the search for a place that was close by. A nice looking agriturismo along the path was booked up, but they recommend a hotel in town they knew had accommodation. We called and managed to get two rooms there. It was 3km in the wrong direction, but at least flat. We jumped back on the bikes and did a classic roadie pull session along some flat straight tarmac.
The place was nothing to write home about, but they had a hose pipe for rinsing our bikes of the copious dust that had accumulated on everything. There was no decent restaurant around so we headed to the local Coop to stock up on water for the next day, breakfast and dinner. Whilst not an Osteria d’Italia we managed to get fresh sushi from Coop, not a terrible option.
The room was a good approximation of how 1950s Communist Russian hotels were depicted on TV in England, so a tad sparse to say the least. I got the luck of having a bedroom located over a room occupied by some friends of humanity who were watching football with the TV on full volume. Their window was open and for some reason one of the occupants was practicing roller blading in the room which had a tiled floor so you could hear a constant click-clack sound in-between cheering and screaming. Not looking forward to trying to sleep I set about what would become a daily ritual of cleaning cycling shorts, top and socks from the day and then making a construction from metal coat hangers to try and dry everything before morning. It worked!
The room was a good approximation of how 1950s Communist Russian hotels were depicted on TV in England, so a tad sparse to say the least. I got the luck of having a bedroom located over a room occupied by some friends of humanity who were watching football with the TV on full volume. Their window was open and for some reason one of the occupants was practicing roller blading in the room which had a tiled floor so you could hear a constant click-clack sound in-between cheering and screaming. Not looking forward to trying to sleep I set about what would become a daily ritual of cleaning cycling shorts, top and socks from the day and then making a construction from metal coat hangers to try and dry everything before morning. It worked!
Day 2: Castelfranco di Sotto to Voltera and then San Gimignano (89km, 1889m ascent)
Next morning we planned to meet at 7am to set off to San Gimignano. I wake up super early for some reason, prepare bags and head down to find an espresso, which I do at a local pasticiere. I head back to the Hotel, but no sign of Marco at 7am. He arrives 10 minutes later with the news that his saddle pack, the only bag is has, didn’t fair well on the gravel. The stitching had come undone and no longer holds the bag up so it ends up rubbing on the back wheel.
While strapping up Marco’s bag a couple of fellow trailers came down and start the obligatory faffing around with your bike and conversations about the pros and cons of particular set ups. Both of their bikes were heavily ladened gravel bikes. They had gone with traditional rear mounted panniers, thus putting all the weight on the rear-end of the bike, something that increases the chances of rear impact punctures unless you pay a lot of attention. These particular couple of trailers were attempting it in three days. I gave them directions to the local espresso stop and we wished them good luck on the ride.
We were still faffing around with strapping up Marco’s bag when the two trailers pasted us on their way, having consumed their espressos and brioche. We spend the next 20 minutes discussing and prototyping various strappings for the bag. Having agreed on the mechanics of what seemed the best construction we implemented our brain child strapping and we finally started the day’s cycling.
We headed south east along a fast road to rejoin the trail in the direction of Palaia. It was a chilly and humid morning and turning a corner a wild deer sprang across the road a couple of metres in front of me and darted off into the long grass. A punchy steep hill, on which we passed a couple of riders pushing their bikes, we breached the top of this climb and started a more steady ascent up to a beautiful agriturismo in Palaia. We stopped to snap some shots of the stunning house and discussed how we should have paid more attention in planning and we vowed to stay in this place next year…
From there we started a super fast gravel decent, we immediately passed a group of trailers faffing with kit. It looked like they were packing up camping stuff, but we could understand where they could have possibly stayed as there seemed to be only the gravel track that was flat enough! A mystery to be revealed later. I crouched down, firmly grabbed the wide drops of the Superghiaia, single index finger on the break leavers in case I needed to apply the breaks and I sped off down the gravel decent. Hair raising faster gravel with steep cambering corners. The Exploro handles this kind of gravel with confidence and stability enabling you to pick up speed. The big was egged-on by the WTB ridder 37c tires that have a square profile that helps grip on corners. The only thing to worry about now was ascending cars or the dust ladened disc breaks that would give out a screeching grinding sound as the pads ground the fine dust into the disc surface.
The gravel ended at a tarmac road, a quick left then right back onto a gravel hill climb up to a small hamlet of houses. From there another fast decent down a cypress lined track, quick hairpin corner and then up another ascent that was both long and grinding but not particularly steep. Here I got out of the saddle to use different muscles in my legs. The technique for climbing on gravel out of the seat is slightly different from climbing on road. You need to keep even pressure on each peddle stroke to make sure you don’t put uneven power through the back wheel and cause it to spin. This might be the only reason that you would laden all the weight of your luggage on the back wheel, but if the road gets very steep you’re more likely to have very light steering.
We entered the small hamlet of Ghizzano, which had a coffee shop and a couple of dozen trailers stopped for food and espresso. A gigantic blossoming jasmine plant was encroaching the door of the building that house a cafe on one side and a small delicatessen on the other.
“Che bella!”….a 3T owner, admirer and trailer came over to talk to me about my Exploro. He had a first generation Exploro that he was on. We started chatting about how great the bike is and comparing setups. Several other riders joined the conversation, a couple from The Netherlands on holiday in Tuscany to do the trail. An Italian who had just returned from The Netherlands after four years there as a post-doc and a couple of Germans. Mostly on gravel bikes with a couple of MTBs.
Marco was still concerned about the stability of his bike bag and had managed to find a local resident who gave him what looked like elastic ripped out of a pair of underpants. He proceeded to add this extra strapping that I wasn’t convinced going to actually help anything at all.
Espresso downed, water refilled and we were ready to set off again. More saw tooth ascents and descents take you through different hamlets. The next stop was the beautiful town of Lajatico which is famous as the birth place of the tenor Andrea Bocelli. A delightfully arranged Piazza with elegant restaurant outside seating capped off with a large dominating sculpture.
We arrived in Lajatico at around 10am with Volterra just 20km distance, albeit with a rather intimidating 400m climb to surmount in order to get to it. We had already reserved a hotel in Volterra, but having arrived so early in Lajatico we realised that we should probably stay in San Gimignano which would add just another 17km, but another 400m steep climb. While deliberating what to do a group of 4 trailers turned up and we started chatting about their plans. Their idea was to go to Siena that day, which was more climbing than we wanted to do that day. We discussed the area, the fact that Lajatico was the birth place of Bocelli and how nice the ride had been so far. There was a women in the group who had the official map which we studied for a bit to determine how hilly the ride would be to San Gimignano. The discussion had decided it for us so I started to look for a place to stay in San Gimignano and cancel the hotel in Volterra. We found two rooms in a hotel in the main square of San Gimignano and another set of Google searches surfaced the fact that there is a 1 star Michelin restaurant there too. Reserved that for dinner at 7pm.
Adjusted plan was now set, now to find an espresso which we failed to do. Disappointed by the lack of espresso, but newly energised with the new accommodation and Michelin restaurant dream we pushed on to Volterra for lunch.
Leaving Lajatico you enter a world of Tuscan beauty with rolling hills all around you. It’s as if the landscape had been curated just to look at rather than to test us trailers and produce food for Italy and the world. It is immaculate and you’d be hard pressed to reproduce such beauty even if you tried.
The gravel track continued it’s undulations in synchrony with the rolling hills. After one undulations I almost ran over two Swiss trailers sitting in the shade having a snack and looking at the scenery, for some odd reason! Father and son duo had decided on MTBs and rucksacks, possibly one of the least obvious set up for a ride, but they seemed to be really taking it well. Based in Zurich the son had just finished his 2nd year at ETH and was now on summer break. ETH runs a rather odd schedule which means the year end exams are taken one week before the next academic year starts in September, which seems like it might dampen ones spirits through the whole summer.
They were finding the trail quite challenging, personally I think that was due to the set up they had chosen, but their preference was for doing one long steep hill followed by a long downhill….very Alipinossque for obvious reasons. The undulations were taking their toll. Marco grew up in Bern so how could speak the local schweizerdeutsch, so they continued the conversation. Imparting our philosophy that the trail is all about riding slowly, enjoying the scenery and most of all eating and drink the local produce, we set off for Volterra.
Breaching the next steep undulation we sited Volterra on the other side of the valley. We would have to ride along the caps of the hills, descent into the valley and then climb up to Volterra. Seeing your destination and knowing that there is a precipice between you that you have to surpass doesn’t really fill you with joy, but the scenery soothes the mind.
The hill is very steep and all concentration is required to get to bring it to heel. I get to the town, but Marco is nowhere to be seen. I continue the climb into the town, pass the Hotel where we had planned on staying, and head into one of the squares where there are dozens of bikes stacked up against the church. Evidently the lunch stop for everyone.
Marco calls me, he has just arrived in the town, however not knowing exactly where he is I descend back along the route I take and meet him. I have do the climb again up to the town centre, but feel up to it as I had spotted a decent restaurant for lunch. We arrive, sit down, order litres of water and wait for some delicious pasta pommodoro which we devour. Espresso for me, double for Marco and we relax for an hour or so before setting off.
We leave Volterra and head around a corner to see San Gimignano on the next hill. A steep valley is the only thing that sits between us….
A steep and fast decent is followed quickly by an equally steep but far from fast ascent in to San Gimignano. It’s an out of the saddle climb, but worth all the effort when you lay eyes on the gates of the town. Marco is with me this time and we enter the town via the main gate.
Immediately on the right after entering there is a Gelateria, so we stop and get two medium sorebetto di ciocolato fondente and devour them on the spot. In the meantime the Swiss father and son duo arrive and do the same, but with espresso chasers. A brilliant idea in hindsight.
The town is quite busy so we decided to walk up into town and look for our accommodation where we find the main square. They have a small room to store bikes so we de-robe the bikes of their bags and head up to our rooms.
Showered then washed the cycling kit and hung it up to dry. Took a quick nap and then headed out to find the restaurant we’d be having dinner at.
The restaurant was beautiful both inside and in the small garden at the back where we ate. I had asparagus to start, accompanied by a local white wine. This was followed by a delicious stuffed rabbit accompanied with a Chianti Classico. Both plates were delicious. Espresso with some small deserts from the chef finished off an excellent meal.
Back to the hotel to sleep. The plan for the next day was essentially a rest day, we would cycle to Siena at just 46km away with no dramatic hill climb although the region doesn’t sport many flat areas so we’d still be doing climbing along the way. We’d have lunch and dinner there and spend the after walking around sight seeing. We’d also look for a bike shop so that Marco could get a new bag and junk the old one which was proving to be holding up, but swinging around a lot when climbing hills so not much fun.
I was starting to have rider’s block from having taken on nutrition rather poorly through the ride so I was looking forward to something easier and a bit of a rest and see if my stomach would sort itself out.
Day 3: San Gimignano to Siena (46km, 644m ascent)
Woke up at around 6am, showered and packed the bags. Headed downstairs and loaded up the bike. Marco arrived and we headed out to the other side of square to find a cafe to have breakfast. I selected some local cake made from chocolate, dried fruits and nuts with a cappuccino to wash it down, hoping that this would be a good boost for the morning.
An extremely fresh start which for a downhill is going to be chilly. I start out with a gilet on and a long sleeve top. We leave San Gimignano on the opposite side of town to which we entered we immediately start a decent first on tarmac, but then straight onto dusty gravel road. Looking all around I immediately stop to take a photo of the town.
The gravel is so smooth that I hurtle down it at full speed, switching to the big front ring and hands on the wide drops. The Exploro takes it all in its stride giving an extremely stable ride all the way down to the tarmac road. We pass by three cyclists who are still packing up their camping stuff, with my eyes watering from the cold air I concentrate on the gravel road ahead and start to move my hands closer to the breaks. I really start to feel the cold air but don’t want to stop on such a fun descent.
While descending this almost perfect strade bianche it occurs to me that I’ve started to become sensitive to or even obsessed by camber, the inclination and curvature of a road surface. Both on ascents and descents you start to care where you are position on the road as you want to avoid as many bumps and pot holes as possible. The general rule is to stay on the higher part of the camber as the rain run off creates estuaries in the road surface, some can be really quite large, which make climbing hard as the road is irregular and on descents will give you and your bike a real shake out with the chance that you’ll lose some loose items from your bike. This happened yesterday with Marco who lost a bidon on the road and unluckily a fellow cyclist ran over it, fortunately without crashing.
So I started to look for the best line to cycle on all the gravel tracks. You have to be really careful on downhills as switching line on loose gravel can be very dangerous. Also the rule of high on the camber doesn’t always work and you find yourself high on a steep cambering corner bumping along. This seems to be related to if the road is particularly steep as vehicles seems to be creating the estuaries rather than rain run off. One thing I still can’t understand is why there are always large pot holes at junctions between tarmac and gravel. Let me know if you have any thoughts.
I get to the tarmac road and Marco is not far behind, also frozen. I switch my gilet for a rain jacket with hood and then continue on the tarmac descent at full speed.
We turn on to the Via Francigena which is a path that we have been following on and off for some of the trail. It is well sign posted and there are small stone markers along the trail with the initials VF on. The gravel and tarmac have now turned into a trail with large rocks and stones, ascending is more technical and more attention is required.
Aside from the bags bumping around on the handlebars and seat the going is not so difficult if you choose the right line. We struggle along path and at some point have to get off to walk as it is very steep and very rocky. To our relief the trail turns off the to the left leaving the rocky path to walkers. We emerge onto a tarmac road and the take a left back on to strade bianche, which is heaven in comparison to the trail before it.
In the distance we see Monteriggioni an epic looking castle on a hill so stop to take a photo with a beautiful field of flowers. The trail continues perpendicular to the castle so we have it ahead of us most of the time, but then turns left and we cycle parallel at the foot of the hill with the castle out of sight.
We emerge at a bar so stop for an espresso and we are able to see the castle much more closely. Consulting my Garmin I see that there is an extremely steep ascent to get to the top. Espresso downed and we set off on tarmac and then turn left on to loose gravel for the ascent. I manage about 80% of the climb before my back wheel starts to slip and slide so end up having to walk the rest.
We enter the castle and inside it is effectively a small town with hotel, restaurants, bars and gift shops. A handful of fellow trailers are taking a break after the hideously steep climb. We press on as there isn’t much to see and we already had our espresso at the bottom of the hill.
Shortly before Siena Marco spots a garage with self-service car washes so we stop to clear the dust from our bikes. It is a non-stop battle to keep the bike and chain clean so any opportunity to give the bike a rinse is welcome. While jetting the bikes down a big group of trailers arrive with the exact same need and idea.
We push on to Siena which is around 1km away and flat. Spotting the gate to enter the town I stop to check where the nearest bike shop is as we have to get a new bag for Marco and some oil for the chain since it starts to sound like a tank track. We set off for the bike shop which is just 500m away and when we arrive two other trailers are there seeking assistance for a broken rear derailleur cable which has meant that the rider has been in a fixed gear for quite a considerable time.
The shop owner can fix it, but will take the rest of the day and the rider doesn’t want to wait so cycles on!
Marco manages to get a new bike bag which he is delighted about. The contents of the old bag are emptied onto the street, scissors cut away the make shift strapping we constructed. New bag gets strapped in and filled.
Meanwhile I check for an Osteria for lunch. Again a couple of interesting options and I pick the most interesting and closest to us. I use the Osteria d’Italia app to direct us to the establishment only to discover that it isn’t there. Concerned that it has had to close I call the second option and reserve a table. It is further down the same street and we set off, but shortly after we find the first osteria very much alive and open! The app had completely miss located it and stupidly I hadn’t double checked on Google Maps.
We decide to stop at my original selection and cancel the other table. I have a Torta di Fiori as antipasto and Tagliatte di Manzo con Fungi as a second all washed down with a couple of glasses of Brunello di Montalcino……we’re resting up here for the rest of the day so don’t need to be concerned about drink-cycling offences.
Espresso ordered and downed we head off to see the main piazza, famous as the location of the Palio. The piazza is absolutely beautiful and the bars and restaurants are packed.
We head to the hotel which is slightly out of town. A fairly uninteresting establishment, the only redeeming feature being the view of Il Duomo.
I take a shower, wash my kit and take a nap for an hour or so and then we head out to stroll around the town and have dinner.
The Bike
- 3T Exploro LTD (M size)
- 3T Discus 45|32 LTD mounted with WTB Riddler 700x37c
- 3T Superghiaia handlebar
- SRAM eTap AXS Red – 48/35 quarq power metre front chainrings, 33/10 rear cassette.
The Accessories
- Garmin 830
- Apidura Expedition Saddle Pack (9L)
- Apidura Expedition Handlebar Pack (9L)
- Apidura Expedition Accessory Pocket (5L)
- Apidura Expedition Feed Pouch
- Knog Pwr 1100lm front light (not used as light in the end, but used as a power bank to recharge Garmin head unit)
- Knog rear led (also not needed)
- 2 Rapha Bidon Large (750ml)