S8 Ep156: Kilometre 0 – Italy's other mountains

The Cycling Podcast

News, Sports, Sports News

4.7 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2020

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stretching over 1200 kilometres, from the knee of Italy’s boot to the tip of its toe, the Apennines are ‘il Bel Paese’s’ defining geographical feature - & yet many would struggle to point to them on a map.

Similarly, the range’s place in Giro folklore is underplayed or even ignored, despite glorious dramas on fearsome climbs like Blockhaus, Monte Carpegna, San Pellegrino in Alpe & l’Abetone.

With the dual threats of Covid & an autumn freeze looming over the Alps & Dolomites, could the Apennines of the Giro’s second week become the race’s kingmakers - & finally bring Italy’s ‘other’ mountains some overdue recognition?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Kilometer Zero by the Cycling Podcast, powered by Zwift. The fitness
0:09.2	app where fun is fast.
0:11.0	He's there, he's done it. Rubik Guerrero can barely believe it. It's a second stage victory
0:21.4	from the first nine for Eiff Pro Cycling. Guerrero takes the win on stage nine of Gerald
0:27.2	Italia. Whatever chills were produced by stage nine of this year's Gerald Italia on Sunday
0:32.2	maybe owed more to weather than drama, but in at least a couple of ways the 208 kilometers
0:37.5	between San Salvo and Noro Carazo contain the essence of the Corsarasa. Not only because
0:43.5	the day ended with a hint of controversy, a pizzicot of polemica.
0:47.6	Guerrero is riding like a real asshole today.
0:51.1	But also because, as it journeyed north into Abruzzo, the giro began its annual immersion
0:55.9	in the lands or amongst the peaks where the soul of Italy truly lies.
1:01.2	The apponines are known to Italians as their homelands, Colonna, Verete Berale or backbone.
1:06.6	An unbroken 1200 kilometer chain stretching from Ligoria to Calabria. Not so much a mountain
1:12.4	range or geographical feature as the country's very fiber and marrow. Almost 3000 meters
1:18.5	tall at the highest point the Cormagrande of Gran Sassol Italia, they are green but rugged,
1:23.9	increasingly deserted by humans but roamed by wolves, chamois and just a few dozen hardy
1:29.0	brown bears.
1:30.0	I'm Mark Obernolico, journalist at the Corriola, I say forget the odds, forget the pyrrines,
1:36.4	forget the charming resort, the chalet. It's something, it's like being in a movie of
1:44.8	the 17s. It's everything seems great, it's in wrath, it seems, it's not, they are not
1:49.6	charming, the first glance, you have to know the apponines especially, the apponines in
1:53.8	the south of Italy because they are tough land of shepherd, deserted because a lot of
	...

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