From Ticino to Tuscany: A Journey from Snow-Capped Peaks to White Gravel Roads
Embarking on a cycling adventure from Switzerland’s Ticino region to Italy’s Tuscany offers a captivating blend of alpine ascents and picturesque Tuscan landscapes. This journey seamlessly combines challenging climbs with the allure of Italy’s famed white gravel roads, providing an unforgettable experience for cycling enthusiasts.
Thursday: Valle Verzasca and Alpe di Neggia
The day begins in Lugano, where the early morning light casts a brilliant white glow over Lake Maggiore. The snow-covered peaks of Cima di Bri and Cima dell’Uomo, each towering around 2,500 meters, stand in stark contrast against the clear blue sky. The lake serves as the perfect starting point for the enchanting Valle Verzasca and the Alpe di Neggia, two spectacular climbs in the Swiss canton of Ticino.
A thick fog envelops the plains, dissipating as we ascend the steep, two-kilometer-long access road to the Verzasca Valley. Today, silence whispers through the greenery, a sparsely populated oasis of tranquility, where ancient ice masses once carved the granite, melting into the waters of Lake Maggiore.
The Verzasca River glides like liquid crystal over the smooth, polished granite. Small waterfalls cascade along steep rock walls, while stone villages cling to the mountainsides. Vogorno and Lavertezzo are jewels in this alpine theater.
The climb feels less like a mountain pass and more like a 25-kilometer-long connection between villages in this narrow glacier valley that winds through the Ticino Alps. A kilometer from the summit, the road turns to ice, impassable, and during the descent, we are challenged by a wind that blows harder against our faces than gravity pulls us downward.
Back at the lake, a fifteen-kilometer battle against the wind feels like another ascent, heading towards Italy, to the foot of the Alpe di Neggia, a 20-kilometer-long pass rising to 1,400 meters.
Ten hairpin bends lead into the mighty Veddasca Valley, to a first summit just below a thousand meters. An abandoned customs office stands deserted, a silent witness. Back in Switzerland, mist drapes over the mountains like a veil. And then, suddenly: a fox, barely a few meters away, trotting and fearless, and then slowly disappearing into the forest. A magical, almost unreal moment.
At the top of the pass, an alpine meadow stretches out, white and radiant. Monte Gambaragno towers to the left, Monte Tamaro to the right, and before us unfolds a dizzying descent of 33 hairpin bends, the perfect finale to a breathtaking ride.
Friday: Gravel Castello di Monteriggioni
Last year, I missed my Tuscan tradition of early March, but this year… sono tornato! To immerse myself from morning to evening in Tuscan landscape paintings, to raise the white dust, to enjoy coffee breaks in picturesque hilltop villages, and to end the day with a plate of pasta, the route Gravel Castello di Monteriggioni was a perfect choice.
The route is a gem of the gravel club Gravel Bike Siena. Since 2020, they have organized an annual gravel event in October around the centuries-old, walled Monteriggioni. The route is more challenging and adventurous than the Gran Fondo Strade Bianche, featuring both classic strade bianche and rougher roads.
From our accommodation, the medieval wine castle Castello di Poggiarello, an 8-kilometer-long climb over a beautiful asphalt road leads to about 500 meters in altitude. Three long climbs on the route are each followed by long, spectacular rollercoaster descents over asphalt and gravel. An amusement park can’t compare to this.
The rest of the ride flows in the Tuscan rhythm of endless hills, with an exhilarating racing feel that never subsides. After 33 km, Casole d’Elsa, one of the many picturesque hilltop villages, calls us to a terrace opposite the church. The Italian coffee tempts you to pause time, but there are still many kilometers ahead of us.
Monteriggioni stands imposingly on a hill. For three centuries, Florence and Siena fought over the city. The Republic of Siena built it as a fortified fortress in the 13th century, along the Via Francigena, a pilgrimage route from Calais to Rome, parts of which are on this gravel route. To get there, you ride over a plateau between Castellino Scalo and Lorna that extends at about 300 meters in height, surrounded by vineyards as far as the eye can see. This has been one of my favorite Tuscan moments for several years: the wide white gravel roads cutting through endless vineyards in the pink evening light. Sitting on a café terrace between the walls of Monteriggioni, with coffee, how else, we realized that there was one last climb waiting: Montemaggio. In 1944, resistance fighters took refuge in Casa Giubileo on this mountain during a fierce battle against the fascist army.
In 2021, I fought here on a hellish, steep 5-kilometer stretch on the northern flank. Now, the forest offered us a different, gradual, almost serene gravel climb. About 800 meters before the summit, it was pitch dark. ‘Would I miss something now that it’s dark?’ I wondered. Maybe. But descending in the dark, with headlights on asphalt and gravel, became a magical experience in itself.
Saturday: Race Day!
Minutes after the start, the men’s peloton whizzed by, after which we climbed at a snail’s pace to the Fortezza Medicea in the heart of Siena. There, we picked up our start numbers for tomorrow. We followed the women on the big screen in the famous Piazza del Campo, where we saw Elise Chabbey triumphantly cross the finish line first. Afterwards, we rode a leisurely 15 kilometers to Le Tolfe, the last gravel section where the men pass twice.
On the brutal 17% incline, the alien Tadej Pogačar flashed by at lightning speed through a roaring crowd of white dust. We relaxed in the VIP area at Le Tolfe (thanks to Italy Bike Tours) and rode back to Siena along the last 10 kilometers of the Gran Fondo course. Tomorrow, it’s our turn. My goal: to improve my personal record of 27.5 km/h.
Sunday: Gran Fondo Strade Bianche
Here is the result: Gran Fondo Strade Bianche completed in 4 hours 58 minutes, two minutes faster than my previous attempt in 2024. I finished 1,116th out of 4,263 finishers, the best result in five participations. Average speed: 27.5 km/h, the same as last year, but the conditions were much tougher.
The night before, heavy rain had turned the strade bianche into sticky beige mud. Sucking tires and splashing water on the chain were the result. Speeds dropped, energy consumption increased. Unfortunate? Not at all. Heroic. Epic. Everywhere, creaking bikes, muddy white faces, and for a moment, you felt like Mathieu van der Poel in the Tuscan landscape.
At 6 a.m., a gray, drizzly morning. The air still dripping from the night’s rain. A brioche, an espresso at Bonucci Boulangerie next to the Fortezza Medicea, and then, BAM! 8,000 riders, a new record for the 11th edition, exploded through the streets of Siena, ready for a sufferfest on the endless white gravel roads and the relentless rolling hills.
The first 30 kilometers in the peloton on asphalt fly by. Then the first white of the gravel sections appears. I find my groups, feel the speed, the rhythm. With my robust Trek Checkpoint, 45 mm Pirelli gravel tires mounted, I have the advantage over participants who descended to Siena with a racing bike. Every year, racing bikes are by far the majority. In dry conditions, that is also wise: the route consists of 100 km of asphalt roads and ‘only’ 40 km of gravel roads. But today, I speed past large groups on the sticky strade bianche.
San Martino in Grania is the longest, toughest section, deep in the Crete Senesi, the Tuscan desert landscape. White roads wind over rolling hills as far as the eye can see. Almost ten kilometers up and down, and each time you think you’ve reached the top, a new wall unfolds before you.