Road bike routes
We leave from Fetovaia in the direction of Marina di Campo, and after only 2 km of almost flat road, we arrive to the village of Seccheto.
It is quite difficult to keep the concentration on the road, the beautiful sights easily distract us, but soon after going through the village the road starts becoming a little bit steeper up to the crossroad to the village of San Piero. If we only knew what was to come we would wish we could go back to where we started, but attracted by the gentle slope ahead we keep going!
Down to Marina di Campo, small town city, chief town of the commune Campo nell’Elba, where a lot of sport events, especially cycling ones, take place.
We take the direction to the ‘Monumento’, following the road that takes to Porto Azzurro. The road turns soon in a hard climb, and for the less trained ones we suggest to take it easy and not to waist precious energies, although as a last resource there is always the possibility of taking the bus for the journey back home.
Once at the top of the hill we can enjoy a marvellous view on the Lacona’s gulf with its wide beach. From here we can also see the ‘Calamita’, and on top of the hill above it the Mediaeval village of ‘Capoliveri’. After about 9 km we arrive at the crossroad, known as the ‘Acquabona’s crossroad’, from where, if we are already tired we can turn in the direction to Portoferraio.
After about 3/4 km we get to ‘le Grotte’, from where we overlook on the gulf of Portoferraio, from where ferries arrive and leave from and to Piombino. After a gentle and reinvigorating downhill slope we get to the Carpani’s roundabout from which we follow the direction to Procchio, that we will reach only after ‘climbing’ up for about 5 km the ‘Capannone’, with a gradient of 6-7% entirely exposed to the sunshine. Once at the top, we can see both the Biodola’s beach and the Procchio’s gulf, to which we easily get to, following the pleasant slope.
From Procchio we follow the direction to Marina di Campo, a 5 km stretch of road for real long-distance racing cyclists, where we can express all our power - beware not to go over 80 km p/h, there are speed control cameras on this road.Once we get to Marina di Campo, we go back from the same road we came from, swearing ourselves that we will never again be so mad to do it again. Once back at the hotel we will answer our wife and friends’ questions with the last breath we have left with a firm and strong tone saying: Beautiful sights, I might be doing the other half of the island tomorrow.
