Is there no end to this? For half an hour, we have been cranking our way up bend after bend, but the summit of Monte Béigua is still a long way off. It's only six kilometres as the crow flies from the Ligurian coast up to the mountain, one of the highest peaks in the region. In practical cycling terms, things look very different: For more than 14 steep kilometres, the little road winds its way up almost 1,300 metres in altitude.
Okay, you know that if you study the topographical map well. We did, and we also saw the two symbols marked on the map summit. A little black house shows that there is not only a summit cross up there, but at least a "Rifugio", a mountain hut or even an "Albergo", a hotel, the map translates. There is also a "chiesa", a church. How beautiful! - we thought.
The cartographers probably lacked the symbols for the antenna forest that grows on the head of Béigua. All the local television and radio stations have planted their transmitters on the summit, and the mountain is also an important base for the military and research teams. There's only one thing to do: turn your back on the masts, look south and take a deep breath. A fresh breeze is blowing, it smells of forest, the sea shimmers blue - and the island on the horizon is Corsica. How beautiful! - we think.
If you lower your gaze a little, you will recognise the ribbon of a road deep down on the coast. 2,000 years ago, the Roman censor Aurelius Cotta had the Via Aurelia paved along the sea in order to bind the region more closely to Rome with this military and trade route. The cobblestones gave way to asphalt, on which cars now line up one after the other. Even the motorway, which was mercilessly driven through many a coastal town in the 1970s, was unable to keep the traffic on the Via Aurelia at bay for long. A pity really - the old road was a great training route after the war.
You can find these routes in the PDF download:
1st detour into the Middle Ages
(134 kilometres, 2,650 vertical metres, maximum gradient 11 percent):
Borghetto -Toirano - Balestrino - Castelvécchio di Rocca Barbena - Zuccarello - Martinetto - Castelbianco - Alto - Colle Capraúna - Colle di Nava - Pieve di Teco - Colle San Bartolomeo - Passo di Ginestro - Téstico - Alássio - Albenga - Borghetto
2. hilly hinterland
(93 kilometres, 1,380 vertical metres, maximum gradient of 10 percent):
Finale Lígure - Loano - Boissano - Toirano - Bardineto - Calizzano - Caragna - Murialdo - Borda - Osiglia - Melogno - Finale Lígure
3rd Tuscany feelings
(103 kilometres, 1,300 metres in altitude, maximum gradient 10 percent):
Varazze - Pero - Madonna del Salto - Sassello - Mióglia - Spigno - Dego - Giusvalla - Madonna del Salto - Varazze
4. summit happiness
(126 kilometres, 2,800 metres in altitude, maximum gradient 14 percent):
Varazze - Pero - Alpicella - Monte Béigua - Piampaludo - Urbe - Rossiglione - Campo Lígure - Passo del Turcino - Passo del Faiallo - Urbe - Sassello - Madonna del Salto - Varazze
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