This region offers some of the best cycling in Sardinia — just one of the reasons we bought our flat in Porto Frailis in 2003! This was our first step towards moving here and opening The Lemon House. All our friends agree that the cycling here is fantastic and that it’s perfect for gran fondo training. There is also a busy programme of road races from the end of April to the end of August in which visitors are welcome to participate. The Giro di Sardegna for pros in 2009 had one of the five stages finish in Tortolì (see photo on left) and the next day’s stage started from Arbatax. See the official web site.

We can show you roads where you will find hardly no cars for many, many miles. You may find some wild animals and there may be nowhere for a snack but you cannot have everything.

From sea level at Lotzorai, within 20 km the terrain climbs up to 1100m to the edge of the Gennargentu plateau, offering a superb range of granfondo training rides for road cyclists with hardly any traffic on mostly-perfect roads offering

• rides from 1 to 5 hours: you can easily cycle in the morning and go to the beach in the afternoon!
• from undulating roads, steady 5% climbs, ideal for interval training, to long (500-800m vertical height gain) climbs with up to 10% gradients, for instance to Talana,  to short 10%+ gradients, for instance from Pedra Longa
• swooping descents back to the sea and stunning scenery—practise your descending skills!

The area is ideal for groups where some prefer easier rides. There are plenty of easier rides, along the coast or in the fertile inland basin before you have to start the serious climbing.

We can help arrange bike hire (road or MTB) from €75 a week from our friends Clait and Melina; they also help us with maintenance. Our cyclist and osteopath friend Mattia can give you a great massage. We can also organise for your participation in a local race. These are small races of about 40—100 people, all very friendly and great fun. Worth going even just for the lunch afterwards.

As the map shows, within 20 km of the coastal zone of Ogliastra near Tortolì in eastern Sardinia, the land rises up to 1000-1100m, creating a “bowl”. It’s this orography that creates some of the best cycling in Sardinia here, ideal for granfondo training (prepare for the Giro of Sardinia!), with routes starting from our front door, five minutes from the beach! The described routes climb up through the villages of Baunei, Urzulei, Talana, Villagrande and Lanusei which are at an altitude of between 500 and 700m amsl. , before progressing to the higher ground over the “rim” of the bowl. It’s also possible—either by extending these rides, which are of 2-3½ hours’ duration for Peter, or driving to a suitable starting point—to explore the area around the Sardinian national monument Perda Liana, a very prominent limestone plug or “tacco” (the Italian word for heel).

Maps: we recommend the 1:200 000 Touring Club Italiano  map of Sardinia as the best and suggest you buy this, but note that this doesn’t show all the roads we cycle on—even some newish modern roads aren’t shown. We can give you a detailed briefing for each ride.

Green route: Baunei and Genna Coggina

If you have just 60-90’, the climb to Baunei is a steady 8km @ 5% and offers stunning views back down to the valley. Peter uses it for interval and strength training; for Anne, it’s an outdoor spinning class. The road then levels before a short climb to the first of several passes, Genna Coggina. On the descent, remember that if you cross the solid white line in the middle of the road with a police car behind, they may stop you as they did with Peter(“There was nothing coming…”).

Red route: Talana and the plateau 88km, about 1100m total ascent

This is Ogliastra and Sardinia at their wild and savage best—it reminds us of the west coast of Scotland, but is warmer (see Sardinia’s climate for more climate information)! After a series of ups and downs, this route features a 6km 8% average max 10% climb to Talana at 670m—stop here to get water from the fountain—before continuing, slightly easier but still with sections of 10%, to the pass of Bucca e Tomanu at 1070m. You then cross the plateau, seeing the odd cow, pig or goat and very few cars, to join the old road from the provincial capital Nuoro towards Lanusei, before turning left to come back down past Villagrande. Note that in a couple of places the road isn’t asphalted after damage from the December 2004 rains hasn’t been repaired (bridges missing…), but is perfectly passable. Take a mobile phone.

Blue route: Lanusei and Cantiere Sarcerei 75km, about 1100m total ascent

This also climbs to about 1000m but more gradually than the red route, so it’s easier. Click here to open a PDF and review altitude, distance and temperature information from Peter’s HAC4Plus when he did this ride on 1 January 2006.

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