Abruzzo Cycling, Part 5 63 miles / 7,000 feet / 5.25 hours
If you've read Parts 1-4 of my Abruzzo cycling articles you will have seen just how remarkable the Abruzzo scenery is and how many different routes there are to enjoy it all on quiet roads. But though the scenery on this ride might not be as jaw dropping as for some of the others, the roads on most of this route are so devoid of traffic that on one stretch I didn't see a single car for almost a full hour, or even another person in fact.
These backroads of southern Abruzzo may actually be too quiet for some people to want to do this ride alone as I did, but most cycling tourists will probably not be coming all the way to Abruzzo by themselves and for a group this is a great ride.
As I've mentioned in previous articles, I always try to plan a ride so that it ends with a fast downhill or at the very least a flat section. The starting point of Cansano therefore chose itself because at 2,700 feet it's a full 800 feet below the alternative starting point of Campo di Giove.
Cansano is an attractive little place and an easy commute of less than 8 miles from Sulmona so you would think that the proximity would be sufficient to sustain it, but unfortunately Cansano has suffered the same slow population drain as many other Abruzzo villages, dropping from 1,550 people in 1950 to only a couple of hundred today.
That must be the reason why I saw nobody around when I parked the car in Piazza XX Settembre on a pleasant September morning and unloaded my bike. There were plenty of tables and chairs already put out in the piazza so I assume that some tourists were going to arrive from Sulmona for lunch, perhaps on their way to see the nearby ruins of the ancient Italic and Roman town of Ocriticum.
This 63 mile loop is a bit unusual in that there are just two quick descents and the rest of the time you're going uphill on a gentle gradient with only one moderately steep climb. Very little is completely flat but that is the nature of Abruzzo cycling away from the coast.
Casano - Campo di Giove - Valico della Forchetta - Valle del Sole - Pizzoferrato - Gamberale - Sant'Angelo del Pesco - Ateleta - Roccacaraso - Pescocostanzo - Cansano
The first climb from Cansano to Campo di Giove is about 900 feet in almost 4 miles and then a further 900 feet over the next 8 miles to Valico della Forchetta. Traffic on this road was almost non-existent for me, even mid-week, which gave me an opportunity to enjoy the scenery and look out for wildlife.
It's a very straight road that passes below Guado di Coccia on the Freedom Trail and then Monte Porrara before reaching Valico della Forchetta.
Once you cross over the main road that travels up the eastern side of the Maiella to Palena and Fara San Martino, you leave the core of the Maiella National Park and enter a wooded area where I saw no traffic for most of the 11 miles to Pizzoferrato, so the yellow and black salamander that is crossing the road in the warning sign (below left photo) is probably quite safe.
The road continues to climb after leaving Valico della Forchetta and crests at about 5,200 feet but there's no sign at the top and nor is there a descent, instead just an undulating road through Valle del Sole to Pizzoferrato.
Valle del Sole looks a bit out of place because it was designed to be a tourist village for winter skiers but the ski facility was never built so there is no village center and no commerce, just a collection of houses and seemingly empty apartment buildings. There are also no road signs so it's impossible to tell which is the direction for Pizzoferrato. After 15 minutes of cycling up and down trying to find one visible person I ended up asking directions from someone working in their garden. Off the beaten track in Abruzzo can sometimes feel like you're all alone on the planet.
Pizzoferrato is a good place to stop and refuel while you reflect on the history of this town because it was here in February 1944 that the newly formed Maiella Brigade began their illustrious campaign attached to the British 8th Army. Their first battle took place here against the Germans but did not go well and they lost their commanding officer, Major Lionel Wigram. However, these Abruzzesi volunteers would go on to perform great deeds and ended up liberating many towns a long way north in Veneto in the closing months of the war in 1945.
After Pizzoferrato the road skirts around Gamberale and then there is a fast descent dropping 2,000 feet to the main road and the Molise border, on the other side of which is Sant'Angelo del Pesco. The gentle climbing starts again through Castel del Giudice and back across the border into Abruzzo to Ateleta.
From Ateleta to Pietransieri there's a climb of 2,000 feet over a little less than 6 miles which works out at an average gradient of 6.6%. Nothing too much but at this stage of the ride you definitely start to feel the incline as some fatigue kicks in.
Pietransieri is a small village with only a few hundred residents but there's a very friendly well-stocked bar in the Piazza Martiri dei Limmari, so named because on November 21st 1943 the entire population was machine-gunned in retribution for the assistance they had given to Allied POWs escaping in the aftermath of the Italian capitulation on September 8 1943. Known as the Limmari massacre from the name of the nearby forest where the killings took place.
After Pietransieri there are 7 miles of forgettable undulating roads that take you through Roccaraso and past Rivisondoli to the lovely town of Pescocostanzo which is definitely worth a short stop.
From Pescocostanzo there are still another 13 miles left, starting with another gentle uphill gradient and typically also a headwind on this very exposed plain. It's not until you reach the Eremo di Sant'Antonio that you arrive at the second and final fast descent of this loop. The road back to Cansano is about 8 miles with 1,600 feet of glorious downhill and it's an exhilarating way to finish.
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