GranFondo Maratona del Deserto

The first granfondo date for 2011 is the GranFondo Maratona del Deserto in ! Sharm El Sheikh !, Egypt. One week of cycling along the inspiring landscape of the Red Sea will conclude with the granfondo on Janaury 28th. The event is being organized by the WORLD BIKE A.S.D. club. This will be the first first edition of the event. Certainly a unique opportunity for a winter vacation and to prepare for the new cycling season.

Participants will stay at the Domina Coral Bay Hotel, Resort, Spa & Casino - Red Sea, located in Sharm El Sheikh. Departure flights from Italy are Saturday, January 22, and Sunday, January 23. Vacation packages of flight + accommodations for 8 days/7 nights are available from the organizers.

There will be daily cycling workouts and plenty of time for swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving.

The granfondo will be 155 km in length.

The Sharm El Sheikh area is very popular with Italians, and other Europeans, owing to its dramatic landscape, year-round dry and temperate climate and long stretches of natural beaches. Its waters are clear and calm for most of the year and have become popular for various watersports, particularly recreational scuba diving and snorkeling which some consider to be among the best in the world.

Details, in Italian, of the week long event can be found here. The details state that you must have a FCI or UDACE license.

I have no relationship of any kind with the organizers, or the event.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,600 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also an Italian weather widget along the right side and a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page. What I'm riding.