La Maratona

What is La Maratona

Ah, Italy! The home of pizza, pasta, (apparently) good coffee, history, stunning landscapes and one of the homes of cycling (yes, there's Belgium too).

Italy is also home to one of the sportifs second on my bucket list: La Maratona dles Dolomites.

(Those curious about my bucket list: Haute Route, La Maratona, Flanders, Paris Roubaix, 3 Peaks in Australia. (No, I still have not done 3 Peaks even though I used to live in Victoria! It always seemed to be snowing when I wanted to do it.).)

The Maratona is an epic sportif in the Alta Badia valley in the Italian Dolomites.

It is similar to Etape in scale and difficulty.

Routes

La Maratona is cool because it's pretty accessible for everyone. There are three options:

• Hard – 138km, 4190m climbing
• Medium – 106km, 3090m climbing
• Easiest – 55km, 1780m climbing

The route is pretty imposing for the longer ride. Some fearsome climbs beckon with 4190m of climbing over 135km. Yikes.

When is Maratona

La Maratona is typically held in early July and thus can clash with Etape and La Marmotte (forcing you to choose).

In some years however (like 2013), it is possible to do La Maratona AND Etape.

(This might be too much for some people, but for the fit amongst us who train, this would give you some hefty bragging rights with your buddies.)

Taking your bike

Taking your bike overseas can be very convenient, but also a hassle in many respects. Your decision on whether to take your bike will hinge on:

• Whether your trip is cycling focussed, or a holiday with “some” cycling
• Whether you want the comfort/familiarity of your own bike
• Who is going on your trip
• Who you’re flying with (excess baggage charges)
• Whether you can get insurance for your bike
• How you’ll be getting around
• The cost and imposition of hiring

Check out the article on Taking Your Bike Overseas or download the comprehensive Guide to Taking Your Bike Overseas.

How to enter

Entries are via online registration and usually open September the year before.

If entries are sold out, you can sometimes get entries from tour operators who offer entry-only as well as packages.

How to get there

There are a few options for getting to the Alta Badia valley, depending on how much driving you are prepared to do.

The easiest way is to fly into Milan. Milan is approximately 380km/4 hours drive from the area.

Other airports include:

• Zurich: 4h41m, 420km
• Munich: 3hrs, 291km
• Venice: 2h40m, 186km

You could fly into Paris or Rome but it is a huge drive.

Gearing

Riding anything but compacts on Maratona means either:

• You're daft
• You're elite

Unless you’re a pro, uber-pro or very fit (have trained for this – get Maratona training plans here), don’t be silly. Ride compacts.

(Seriously).

Click here to read a post about gearing for Etape. Etape is similar in difficulty to Maratona.

Where to stay

There are lots of little towns in the area, however most places will book out fairly quickly as there are a lot of riders, family members and event support hitting the area.

Towns to look at include:

• Corvara
• Badia (San Leonardo)
• La Villa

Tour companies

Listen: organising a cycling trip is a time consuming process and potentially a pain in the bum.

This is especially true when we're talking about the sportif logistics part of our trips.

One way to make sure your trip is as hassle free as possible is using a tour company for some or all of the trip.

If you'd like all aspects of your trip planned there are a few tour companies doing Maratona packages.

Many tour companies offer short tours (3-5 days) that cover La Maratona.

Typically they will provide accommodation before and sometimes after the event as well as transfers to and from the registration. You'll also often get support on the day along the route.

You can also get a bike included in the package in many cases. Taking your bike overseas can be really convenient but can also be a drag in a lot of cases. (Click here to read the Taking Your Bike Overseas article or download the Taking Your Bike Overseas guide.)

So, if you have the budget, it's worth considering a tour company.

(If you need a great tour company, check out CycloMundo and tell Bruno that Tim from VeloNomad sent you).

Do I need to train for La Maratona?

In a word yes.

If you're already racing at a decent level, with good volume or very effective training, you will probably be ok.

(Although to be honest, I turned up to Etape 2011 with 36 weeks of training and racing in my legs and still blew up (read my Etape 2011 report) – I didn't have compacts (52-36×11/28). So in my case, probably still wasn't good enough)

This all depends on what base of training you have and if you've climbed big mountains (i.e. anything about 1800m) before.

• No experience racing or training: 6 months minimum, 12 months preferable
• Some experience racing or training, no experience in mountains: 6 months +
• Higher end racer: probably a short top up of 8-12 weeks.

Where can I find training?

VeloNomad has a range of training – click here to check all the options out.

• 8 week elite top up
• 16 week mountain sportif specific training (good for Etape, La Maratona, La Marmotte, Haute Route)
• Ongoing training 6-12 weeks.

These plans are all for the cyclist with time to train 4-6 days a week.

If you're time poor and only have 2-3 days a week on which you can train, and have minimum time (1 hour on week days and 1 longer ride on the weekend), check out the interval based plans over at Cycling Fitness (disclosure; I have an interest in CF). The site is launching end May 2013, check it out at CyclingFitness.com.au.

All the CF plans are low volume but high intensity. (These are the training plans I use as I don't have 4-6 days a week for training).

Start and Finish Logistics

Getting to and from the start and finish and registration can be a nightmare (unless you have support from someone) for sportifs like this.

Not so for La Maratona.

Fortunately the Maratona start and finish are in the same area so the start and finish logistics are straightforward if you are staying in close proximity.

If you are staying quite a distance away it will pay to stay uphill from the start so you can ride downhill.

When to arrive

You'll want to arrive with plenty of time to shake off jetlag (if flying intercontinentally) and get your riding legs back.

My personal preference is to arrive a week ahead of time and give me a taper week of riding (click here for some rough tapering ideas) to shake the cobwebs out, ride a couple of big mountains and adapt to the weather (if flying from another hemisphere, which many of us are!).

Fuelling for La Maratona

Although it's likely that the food available at refreshment stops will be adequate and suitable, there are a couple of things to consider with the food and drink stops.

1. There will be a lot of people at each stop, so if you are treating this as a race, you'll lose time.
2. You'll lose time stopping anyway.
3. The stop might not have the food you need = waste of time.

VeloNomad's personal preference for events like this is to take his own food and use water stops where needed (but only if needed). Remember though, you will probably need to add an electrolyte mix to water to help prevent cramp and maintain condition.

VeloNomad uses and recommend Sukkie, SIS (SIS gel and powder review) and Hammer electrolyte and hydration stuff. Sukkie is probably the most tooth-friendly, and the other two do work effectively.

Recovery

A 135km ride in the high alps with constant climbing is a significant ride.

Most riders will incur some sort of degradation in body, which can be mitigated through proper nutrition before and during the event, as well as proper food and self-treatment (massage and stretching) post event.

The VeloNomad Self Massage and Stretching guide shows you how to apple self massage and stretching so you can recover fast. It's also awesome for day to day treatment of niggles and knots.

After La Maratona

There’s so much riding to do in the Dolomites and surrounds.

I'd personally just spend 1-2 weeks in the area riding, then head to Tuscany or something.

Here are some rough ideas:

• Ride the Stelvio – make sure you contact La Genzianella in Bormio for accommodation (I'm told it's a cyclist's paradise).
• Stay at Lake Como (only 2 hours from Bormio)
• Head into Switzerland
• Head to Briancon (only 3 hours from Lake Como) and hit the French Alps
• Chamonix is only 3 hours from Lake Como

Summary

La Maratona is a sportif you ought to definitely consider adding to your bucket list.

If you're wondering whether to do Maratona or Etape or Marmotte first, it's up to you. All of them are equally worth doing.