Gunn-Rita diary: Testing time

Last Sunday [March 16 - ed.] we went out and tested the new addition to the GunnRita Marathon race track. The track had to be lengthened due to the requirements for the marathon cycling discipline. Moreover, Italy is hosting the European Championships in Marathon cycling in 2010 and the Italian Championships in 2009. So this year you can go for the - Extreme- distance of 113 kilometres!

We met an enthusiastic group of over 50 cyclists at 10:00 am on Sunday. Weather-wise we had a bit of drizzle and fog, but with 10 degrees above freezing we were okay for a ride in the forest. We had a fantastic trip in exciting terrain, surrounded by beautiful nature. A bit of rain during the past weeks had affected some of the track, but we only had to push the bikes up one hill due to mud.

The new section of the course is in more open landscape than the rest of the GunnRita Marathon track. There's a bit more gravel road and grassy fields in the new section, and less of the exciting tracks where you get the feeling you’re cycling through a tunnel of green foliage and grass. Even so, there are a good deal of short, steep climbs and descents, all on really nice and exciting tracks. There's a lot of up and down, a lot of twists and turns, and very few long flat stretches. In other words no chance of getting bored and time flies by. We had the same feeling when we did the GunnRita Marathon race during spring last year.