POMARANCE (PI) – He describes it as a parallel world, that of grey roads between the Val d'Elsa and the Val di Cecina, on the Colline Metallifere where the inhabitants of this part of Tuscany feed on the energy that comes from the heat of the subsoil, that of geothermal energy. We spent a day with Paolo Bettini for a reconnaissance of the Geo routesGravel Tuscany, its event which this year will see its fourth edition taking place on 6-7 June (opening photo ATCommunication/Miriam Terruzzi).
"A parallel world because," he explains, "during the lockdown, we cyclists were lucky enough to be the only ones allowed to go outside our municipal boundaries. I didn't like being seen on the asphalt too much." I started cycling my territory but looking at it from a new perspective, from the woods, from the grey roads. And I realized that, beyond the world of asphalt where I trained and where I built my entire career (remember the Olympic gold in Athens 2004, two world road championships in addition to Sanremo, two in Liège and Lombardy, ed.), there was even more dirt, even more gray roads, parks... The GeoGravel Tuscany was born like this."
Libbiano, first grey Road
The meeting point is at the "piazzone" in Pomarance, the old sports field that still has its 2.000-seat stands and will be the start and finish point for the June event, which will consist of four routes: the ultra route of 230 kilometers and approximately 4.000 meters of elevation gain, the long route of 126 kilometers, the medium route of approximately 70 kilometers, and the short route of 40 kilometers.
After a coffee where one of his autographed jerseys hangs on the wall, and after asking him about the final Milan-Sanremo sprint between Pogacar and Pidcock, we leave Pomarance to start pedaling toward Libbiano ("The village of cats," Bettini emphasizes), a village reached after 5 kilometers of a steep climb, common to all the routes. The sixteenth-century bell tower of the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Pomarance stands on the hill behind us, a few kilometers away as the crow flies. We're still on asphalt, but right here in Libbiano the first stretch of dirt road begins.
"But I'd like to run the trail through the village square because I want to organize not a real refreshment point, but a coffee break... What can we call it? 'Coffee on the go' okay? "
Bettini tracer
Watching him meticulously manage the various aspects of running such an event, we understand that his passion for cycling shows no signs of diminishing, but rather, it increasingly involves him in various fields. So we're curious to know what Paolo Bettini the route setter is like...
He replies as we pedal side by side on a dirt road about ten kilometers long inside the Monterufoli Reserve. "I like tracking, I use the usual apps. But you should know that, when I had that wonderful experience with Lorenzo Jovanotti last year , they assigned me the role of tracker, that is, navigator. And we always got lost," he jokes, "so much so that they nicknamed me 'the worst ranger.'" But here you can rest assured: Bettini knows every single meter.
«A few years ago I was about to participate in the Paris-Dakar – he says – and I had an idea for the future: to give the participants of the GeoGravel not a track, but a roadbook with turn-by-turn directions, it would be a kind of orienteering-gravel. I'll study it up." We point out to him that local participants would have an advantage… “I and two or three other people know the roads I would take them to anyway…” he cuts him short.
The heat of geothermal energy
As the kilometers pass, we can't help but notice how the landscape is dotted with columns of steam rising from the cooling towers of geothermal power plants. The story begins in 1904 , with the "Valle Secolo" plant in Larderello, the largest of its kind in Europe. Tuscany has 33 others with a total capacity of 915 megawatts, contributing 35 percent of the region's energy needs.
"See these pipes? They're for district heating. If you wanted"—Bettini quickly points to the edge of the road next to a house—"you could heat houses all the way to the sea, so minimal is the heat loss. This area is called 'the warm heart of Tuscany.' Here, the ground boils, there are pockets of steam that are exploited by drilling: the steam escapes from the subsoil at high pressure, is fed to turbines and alternators, and produces electricity: it doesn't get any cleaner than this..."
The tires? 38s are better.
In two weeks, on April 12th, the Green Fund Paolo Bettini, for road cyclists (and on 25-26 April you can ride with him in Greece, at megalopolis), while the GeoGravel It is also open to MTB and e-bike and will take place on wide dirt roads. No single track or technical sections.
«But it has nothing to do with the dirt roads of Chianti – he points out – which, as even the professionals teach us, can also be done with racing bikes. Here is gravel True. I recommend tires that are at least 38mm wide for comfort. Some people have done it with 34-inch tires, which is a bit on the limit in my opinion. You'll be riding through the woods, so come organized, and bring a bit of a snag. In June we should find hard, not muddy, ground. at least we hope so."
The routes are mostly defined, but, as Bettini points out, in this type of event, continuous reconnaissance is required, especially close to the event to avoid last-minute delays. The ultra route, 230 kilometers long, follows a first 100-kilometer loop that reaches the Valdera, the Teatro del Silenzio , beloved by Andrea Bocelli, and Volterra with its splendid Piazza dei Priori. It then returns to the Pomarance square and continues the same 130 kilometers as the long route, towards Sasso Pisano.
"The ultra is for the more… daring, and I recommend doing it in a day and a half. There are those who, upon returning to Pomarance, decide to rest a bit and enjoy the party and music we put on in the village. And then there are those who go straight: that is, they never stop, not even at night. Last year," he recalls over a coffee in Serrazzano, before returning to base, "some of them started on Saturday and returned at dawn on Sunday, just before the other three routes started..."
