My first ride in Sardinia

Although the centerpiece of my trip to Sardinia was to ride my bike and take photographs while on bike rides, my research consisted of understanding that the Giro d'Italia had passed through Sardinia, so the cycling must be decent.

I didn't have a clue regarding the quality of the roads, whether the hills were long or short, or even where should I get lunch on a longer ride. To add to my ignorance, I was pretty unfamiliar with the new-to-me computational aids I had, including my Wahoo bike computer and the RideWithGPS app. And of course, I didn't know what I didn't know.

As I set off, I quickly realized that my bike computer - purchased back in Massachusetts at Belmont Wheelworks - was NOT loaded with maps from Italy. But the app on my phone had maps that I could see, and instructions seemed specific enough, including directives such as "turn left in 600 feet." This was not enough.

I went off course quite a few times in the first couple miles and the Wahoo computer was barking at me and blinking red lights in anger to show I was going the wrong way. Finally, though, I was headed out of the city and toward the countryside.

I soon encountered something that happened on every single ride in Sardinia - an unpaved road. I suspect that RideWithGPS has shaky information regarding what constitutes a "paved road" in Sardinia. Despite attempting to plan every ride to be 100% paved, invariably RideWithGPS would send me on a short or even rather long section of gravel. After a while, it became quite comical, because I was curious to see how soon I would be sent onto unpaved roads. While gravel bikes are a fast-selling category of bikes, the concept of them didn't even exist when I took delivery of my custom-built bike twenty-seven years ago.

A "paved road" according to RideWithGPS

Fortunately, way back in the day, I worked with Seven Cycles to attempt to future proof my bike and requested a special build to allow 28mm wide tires to be run front and rear, which was considered positively gargantuan even 10 years ago. This allowed a little cushion through the dirt, and when combined with the mountain bike pedals and shoes I was using actually made riding off pavement kind of fun so long as I didn't attempt to ride the bike like it was a mountain bike with a suspension fork.

After just a short time on the gravel, I was met with a set of stairs that RideWithGPS thought was a road. It wasn't bad idea to take them, as it got me safely above the Autostrada. Mercifully, RideWithGPS only attempted to send me on the stairs one other time during my month long stay on the Island.

My twenty-seven year old bike with a new modern bike computer and new top tube bag for my camera

On the back side of the stairs, I quickly got out into the countryside and saw a pretty dry landscape. The white dots in the foreground are just a few of the four million sheep on the island, which outnumber the million and a half residents of Sardinia by nearly three to one. I saw at a least a few of the four million sheep on nearly every ride that I took. This photo also gave me a preview of the types of medium-sized hills that I would be climbing on the Island over the next month.

Sheep in the countryside right outside of the capital Cagliari

After snapping a photo of the sheep, I kept riding on some dirt roads and had my first dog encounter of many. Nearly every ride had dogs quite intent on chasing me and I'm glad the overwhelming majority of those dogs were behind gates and fences. However, the first ones were out in the open. But, they were pretty relaxed and sleepy, and didn't start barking and chasing until about five seconds after I passed them. Although I was a little apprehensive about encountering them on the way back, they had settled into a nice nap, so when I went by them the second time, it still took them about five seconds wake from their slumber and begin a halfhearted chase after me.

And sorry - I don't have any photos of those dogs, or indeed of any of the subsequent dogs that chased me in Sardinia.