THE WHITE STUFF

When your road bike has laid dormant for six months through injury and you suddenly find yourself in the cut and thrust of an Italian gran fondo, a few pangs of anxiety are natural. How would I survive GFNY Italia’s 109km? Had I forgotten what it feels like to mix it with famously competitive Italian amateurs? And were my group riding skills intact after six months of not only riding solo, but riding solo in the computerised fantasy world of Zwift?

I was somewhat calmed on my flight to Italy after reading an article about the documentary film . The film is a story of rock climber, Alex Honnold, and his attempts to free climb El Capitan, a 3000ft vertical slab of rock in the Yosemite National Park. Looking at a photo of Honnold dangling, unsuspended, nearly 1000m off the ground, put my ride through Tuscany