Last weekend Pomarance (PI) welcomed the gravel event created by Paolo Bettini for the second year, with great guests and almost 250 participants
Yesterday, Sunday 2 June, the event ended second edition of GeoGravel Tuscanythe gravel event created by Paolo Bettini to make the world aware of the wonder of Gray Streets.
Almost 250 participants they arrived from all over Italy in Pomarance (PI) last weekend to enjoy three days of celebration, music and cycling in the land of Tuscan geothermal energy. A three-day event that began on Friday 31 May with the inauguration of the GeoVillage, set up in the Piazzone of Pomarance, where the stands of the various partners of the event found space, kitchens ready to churn out local specialties and a tensile structure, the beating heart of the Pomarancine evenings inaugurated by local groups.
The afternoon of the following day, Saturday 1 June, 18 brave people set off to tackle the Ultra route – 250 km and over 5000 meters of altitude difference – while in the evening the big party was staged at the Piazzone, inflamed by the music of Saturninusit Jovanotti’s historic bassistwhich with its sound unleashed hundreds of people who came to Pomarance from all over Tuscany and beyond.
On Sunday morning, the over 200 participants registered for the three routes, Short (46 km), Medium (77 km) and Long (110 km), set off to discover the uniqueness of the geothermal area.
Among them the great guests of GeoGravel Tuscany 2024: Paolo Kessisoglu, Marco Bandiera, Luca Paolinialready present at the first edition, to which they have been added this year Giovanni Viscontithe coach of the national team Daniele Bennati and “the Lion of Flanders” Johan Museeuw. The participants were able to discover timeless villages such as Libbiano, Querceto, Canneto, Serrazzano, travel tens of kilometers of Gray Streets immersed in lunar landscapes between Mediterranean scrub and oak woods, and then of course the green power of geothermal energy of which Larderello is the world capital with its power plants and its sulphurous water springs which make this territory unique in the Italian panorama.
Returning to the “Piazzone”, the event ended with a pasta party, where old friends and new acquaintances toasted the success of the second edition of GeoGravel Tuscany after three days of celebration on the Strade Grigie. These are the words of Paolo Bettinicreator of the event:
“Having archived the second edition of the growing GeoGravel Tuscany, we are now certain that it is a type of event that is popular and increasingly successful. This applies both to the more strictly “gravel” part – a clearly growing movement also in Tuscany, the perfect region for this type of activity – and to the GeoFestival, where this year we had the extraordinary performance of the international artist Saturnino who made Saturday evening was memorable. I would like to thank the people and organizations that support GeoGravel and make it possible, starting with the municipal administration of Pomarance, the guys from Velo Etruria Pomarance and of course all our precious partners. What can I say, I’ll meet everyone here next year, for a new edition of GeoGravel Tuscany which will certainly be even more beautiful.”
