From the Adriatic to the Med
Ride into Adventure – Italian style, with 3T Bikes! (Work in Progress)
When you look at the shape and the width of Italy, including across the vast mountainous northern regions around Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont, the country is literally made for adventure – and made for the creation of a classic cycling route, from coast to coast. Then of course, travelling further down into Tuscany, you get the famous ‘white roads’ of Strade Bianche, twisting like fallen ribbons across the beautiful rolling hills of Tuscany. Add to this, the world-renowned Italian culture and the nation’s passion for cycling, and it seems obvious to develop a world leading gravel biking route from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean; a classic Italian gravel bike coast to coast cycling route… or two, or three – 3T!
This idea had been burning within our hearts for some time here at Pedalnorth, and we just needed a spark to initiate it. Thankfully, the spark came from Carlo and our cycle industry friends at legendary Italian cycling brand, 3T, who produce what is probably the very best gravel bikes in the cycling world. Yes, if you’re looking for real adventure, then a 3T gravel bike is the bike for you – and Italy is the best place to ride it!
C2C route profile
Recommended halts
Work in Progress
Take a Ride on the Wild Side
Chatting with Carlo at the recent Euro Bike festival in Frankfurt, where the topic of our recently developed U.K. gravel bike C2C cropped up, it renewed our enthusiasm to try and develop a similarly challenging route, taking in the history, culture and beauty that lies between the Italian Adriatic and the Med. Our initial conversations also discussed how we might also develop our own epic Italian road cycling coast to coast route, tackling some of the famed passes, and maybe taking riders into the beautiful cycling roads of the Italian lakes and mountains – with a vineyard or two along the way! In effect, we talked about numerous adventure rides, and for me, the best way to move this project forward is to develop it as the 3T – 3 Trails of Italy project: tarmac, trails and Tuscany.
As of August 2024, we have the first draft of the proposed route in a state where we will be ready to ride and check out the detail of the various roads and tracks. It’s still a work in progress, but if you’d like to help us out by riding sections and emailing us, we’d be extremely grateful. Our plan now is to ride the route in its entirety as soon as possible, and to make the necessary changes. If you do ride the current mapped options, then please bare in mind that we haven’t yet given these a final ride and check over. The decision to ride it at this point is down to you alone. Hopefully, we’ll have it all finalised quite soon.
Anyway, these initial thoughts and ideas have led us to what you’re reading now; the details of what we believe will become a classic Italian gravel bike coast to coast ride. It’s a route designed to maximise your cycling adventure, culture and history, and to take you to some of the finest gravel biking trails in Italy, with Pedalnorth and 3T – a perfect combination! And, as the second part of the project, we’ll be developing a northern Italy – Lakes & Mountains – option, taking in the epic Italian cycling passes, with a road and off-road version. Yes, over the next year or so, we’ll develop 3 routes that take adventure cyclists across some of the best cycling terrain in the world – Italy!
Cycling the 3T Italian Coast to Coast
It’s time for you to take a first look at the all-new, Pedalnorth and 3T Bikes, Italian gravel bike coast to coast route. We’ll be detailing the paces to stay along the route(s), accompanied by maps and gpx files to download, and lots of other useful information for gravel bikers and road cyclists alike. Our epic adventure cycling trip along the rugged and scenic trails of Italy is currently planned to start close to Rimini on the Adriatic Sea Coast, before heading inland towards Florence and the dusty white roads. After visiting several historical locations and overnight halts, where you can take in the history, you once again cycle towards the sea – this time, Mediterranean coast via the historic city of Luca.
Our Italian Lakes and Mountains gravel bike option is yet to be determined. What we can say is that it will ride close to the home of 3T bikes, as it dips out of the hills and rides towards Milano.
We believe that we’ve put together one of the most beautiful off-road cycling routes in the world; and certainly, one of the very best gravel bike routes in the world – the 3T Epic C2C Challenge. Yes, it’s time to ride C2C with 3T!
Let’s take a detailed look at each of these amazing cycling routes below.
*All images courtesy of 3T Bikes
Download GPX file
Rimini to Florence
Download GPX file
Florence to the Med
Developing in partnership with
Free download for GPX file
We want to ensure that you have easy access to follow our new route. Unlike many other websites, we always provide navigational files for free. There’s no need to register or login or pay any subscription. Simply click the file above and load it onto your bike computer – then ride into adventure with Pedalnorth and 3T bikes!
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