Veronica Santandrea, known on social networks (and not only) as Cara Biga tells us of her incredible experience on the saddle of Adlar on the Marche Trail, a 400 km trail with an elevation gain of 8000 metres.
"Cara Biga,
Where did you bring me this time?
How far did we go, together, without ever giving up? How much elevation gain did we tackle with the music blaring? How many amazing people did we meet in three days filled with sun, smiles, breaks and good vibes?
They say that you never forget your first time and ours was at the Marche Trail, beginning 13 October, 2023, from the seaside of Porto Recanati. A trail that turned into an unforgettable journey, the crowning of a never-ending summer and the best way to get to know each other and spark a deep and everlasting love.
You, with that bright lime colour that transmits joy just by looking at you, and me holding on to your wide handlebar, all sweaty, but with an immense zest for life. The sensation of getting on the back of the new Adlar #meraWilier was that of never wanting to get off.
And so we chose the Wild course: 400 km and 8000 metres of elevation gain; 22 hours moving at an average pace of 17.3 km/h; 28°C by day, 15° at night; two nights where we set up camp in the municipal school's gym and the final 54 km at 29 km/h to return to Porto Recanati on Sunday afternoon from Cupra Marittima.
The Marche Trail has been one of the most beautiful bikepacking experiences I've ever had, and it's no wonder it won the award for best trail of the year, in Milan. The Marche region is spectacular to travel by bike: you start at the seaside and it always stays with you. You reach perched villages where time seems to have stopped: Rotella, Offida, Crispiero, Santo Stefano, Castelaraimondo and stunning village of Elcito. At the grocer's in the small square, you can get a sandwich as big as your face filled with local delicacies like ciauscolo sausage and casciotta cheese for just 4 Euros.
You have a coffee at the café and hang in balotta** with the locals, who are playing cards and smoking in the billiard room.
Then you climb, and climb, and climb up breathtaking white roads and arrive atop the Sibillini Mountains at 1200 metres. There the panorama changes and you find cows grazing, horses running free, flowers bursting in colour and wild plant life.
Then you think back to the songs by Camila, you see the solitary hill that was always dear to Leopardi, you imagine the son's room depicted by Nanni Moretti in those mid-October days that almost seemed like July in an unending summer.
We wore short bibs and dreamed of swimming in the sea when we arrived - which we did, diving into the water at sunset.
The true magic of trails like these?
I left Bologna with a couple of friends and after just a few hours we had created a tuned team of almost 10 people from different backgrounds but with the same goal in mind: sharing a cycling experience. Not a race, but an unforgettable adventure.
We bonded immediately. We had dinner together the first night in San Severino Marche and the second in Comunanza. We bunked in the gyms made available to us by the organisers, with sleeping bags and mattresses. Close-knit, as if we had known each other forever, ready to take care of and encourage one another when things got hard along the way. A family that still today, even after a couple of months, continues to be united and organises cycling weekends away, all together around Italy.
Bikepacking for days makes you realise that the bike is your home and your friends become your family.
You learn to appreciate the simple things and carry with you only the essentials, to love the roads far from traffic, where it becomes easier to have a chat and get to know each other.You start out one way and find yourself changed when you return: perhaps slightly more tired than before, but definitely much happier."
* "biga" is Bolognese slang for bicycle
** "balotta" is Bolognese slang indicating a group of friends, having fun together