Ok, we went to MARMÖL again. A small gravel event in Brescia, Italy. Through quarries and mud, this year it was cloudy. ALBA Optics didn’t run out of mulled wine and it was an assembly of nice people that had been there already last year.
The route? Basically unchanged from last year as well. So why would you travel 6h one way and return?
There is never a bad enough excuse to not go to Italy!
I mean come on? Who doesn’t dream of riding their bike in Italy especially in winter when we suffer from cold and icy conditions. Sure it’ll not be an amazing summer ride through northern Italy, but even the good and cheap espresso will absolutely give you that Italy feeling we all long for.
Plus Brescia is an actual gem for riding bikes! We don’t think about Brescia for being cycling heaven and not everything is picture perfect, but there is great riding to be had. The food and other Italian commodities make it even better.
Brescia has an amazing community
I am pretty sure that in most places where you would put up a cycling event in February in northern Europe you would end up with a very small and select (special) group of people!
Niccolò manages to gather hundreds of people for a gravel cycling party through muddy quarries in February.
It is crazy. And the vibes are quite unique. You will see familiar faces all day. It is nice chats, shenanigans, smashing each other up climbs, and having a nice mulled wine in between.
The whole event I saw familiar faces and friends, good chats all around and an overall amazing bunch of people!
It’s more a party than anything else
You will be greeted in the morning with a classic Italian breakfast. Espresso and Brioche. Perfect.
If you arrive at Alba Optics’ checkpoint in a “Cave” (quarry), loud music awaits you, people dancing, their bikes somewhere leaned against the marble walls, mulled wine and sausage and bread are served.
You have to have realised by that point it’s not a race! It’s hard to not stay forever and get back on your bike. You shouldn’t get too drunk also as the hardest part of the route is yet to come!
Go hard if you want, be prepared for the steep ramps
Not to make it sound like a completely easy social winter ride there are some really steep climbs in the route and some actually will have more than 20% gradient in parts.
Even in party pace you will have to push hard on your pedals when the gradient turns up.
And of course there are some technical sections with rough gravel and mud in between.
See it as one of your first challenges during the season!
I personally pushed some bigger numbers on the climbs, had fun in the downhills, caught with friends and had nice chats in between.
I am stoked for a season of riding bikes already.
The actual party at the end
After your ride you will find yourself at a giant party at the Mille Miglia Museo in Brescia. Again this year the sun greeted and warmed us. At least at the finish.
It was cold but the party at the end with beer, sodas and local food from the Alpini (great if you eat meat but also good if you chose vegetarian options) some small games like the cargo bike challenge, a little raffle and obviously the large set of a DJ getting people on the dance floor made an afternoon party really funny.
Credits to the enough cycling crew here, they really are the tinder for any party anytime. If you invite them to your event you have pretty much guaranteed good vibes at the finish!
As it was a long drive back we left around 17:00 with the fading light, but we had smiles all over and enjoyed a great pizza for dinner on the way home!
In the end it is not really far for people from Austria or even southern germany and Switzerland and it is such a great event to get a first big ride in for the season and have a great amount of fun with friends. A bit of basic italian will help but you will get through and people will be stoked you came.
We will be there again next year. For sure. Will we see you there as well?
