The Terruggia LiberaMente association organises a race on the last Thursday of July, sponsored by Terruggia municipal council and in collaboration with Sangerunning. It is open to competitors as well as walkers coming purely for enjoyment, and called StraTruggia - Una corsa per Angela (A run for Angela), dedicated to Angela Coppa, who taught at the nursery school in Terrugia and died prematurely in 2014. There’s a different route every year, almost entirely through vineyards and along trails and farm roads. The idea then came to combine the various running routes to make one slightly longer one for fat-bike fans.
Start from the Villa Poggio public park in Terruggia. After some metres on Strada Pozzo Comune, head opposite Cascina Nuova onto a farm track through luscious vines. The route intermittently follows the rows of the various varieties as far as a track with the Torre Veglio visible on your left. This tower is the symbol of the village of Terruggia. Follow the track then, about 1,300 m from the start, turn left, following a singletrack in the wood that runs alongside a small house and leads to Galetta, a hamlet near Rosignano Monferrato. When you come to the SP 42, turn left towards Strada Braia for Terruggia. On the right, take a track leading to the bottom of the valley in the direction of Cascina Pozzano. Go along the whole of the bottom of the valley until Cascina San Pietro in the Montalbano area. Climb to the hamlet of Roveto and continue to Castle of Uviglie. This is an opportunity to take in a gorgeous rural landscape, Rosignano Monferrato, a village perched atop tuff rock. Go around the castle. There is a refined historic garden within the walls, the centre of which is dominated by the charming chapel of Sant'Eusebio, containing the crypt of the counts of Pico Gonzaga. Come to the road for Berroni then enter a thick wood that leads to the foot of the Castle of San Bartolomeo in Colma, near Rosignano Monferrato. Having arrived at this village, take the road that once led to the calcarenite stone quarries then take a singletrack down to the bottom of the valley between Colma and Terruggia, on the Strada San Martino country road. Come to Cuccarello, then Via Cacciolo and Strada Rotte San Quilico. Here, after 300 m, take a left onto a track that leads first to Strada Ronchi then Strada Cravetta and finally Strada Colombaro, which leads in turn to the Terruggia cemetery. It’s just a few metres to the end of the route in the Villa Poggio park. Here you can enjoy a beer or taste a glass of fine Barbera del Monferrato wine, the perfect way to round off this short but intense MTB trip.