We had been warned about the oldest republic in the world. "You won't be alone in San Marino," cycling tour guide Jörg Schnitzler told us in Gabicce Mare, our tour location on the Adriatic. And he was right. The eponymous capital of the republic, a small town of 4,000 inhabitants, is fantastically beautiful on the 756 metre high Monte Titano and attracts masses of tourists. At the town gate, you have to dismount, push your bike and walk through the crowded narrow medieval streets. The shops sell cuckoo clocks, snow globes and other souvenir kitsch. A group of buses jostles behind us and a mother in front of us tries not to lose her two offspring in the crowd. In front of the Palazzo Pubblico, we can breathe a sigh of relief: less crowds and hustle and bustle, and a dream view over the countryside, the Marche region, where the foothills of the Apennines sweep hill after hill down to the coast.
You can find these tours in the PDF download:
TOUR 1: Wave ride
88 km, 1,300 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of 14 per cent
TOUR 2: Pantani's favourite
138 kilometres, 2,180 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of 20 per cent
TOUR 3: Renaissance city of Urbino
104 kilometres, 1,550 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of 14 per cent
TOUR 4: Montefeltro
96 kilometres, 1,660 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of twelve per cent
Downloads:
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