Riding Day 3: Getting Better
Unfortunately, I had the worst sleep of this trip last night – not being able to fall asleep until after 2am due to the noise of the “Primo Maggio” concert that was quite loud and the fact that I had no air-conditioning, making it stuffy and hot – even with the windows open. However, the 2nd half of the night I slept pretty well, getting about 4 hours of sleep, so I woke up feeling at least 90% myself. While my stomach was still “nervous” or “tentative” at best, I felt like I was ready to climb. In fact, I had not gotten out of my big chain ring the entire 2 days of riding so far, and I would welcome the change. Once I posted my daily blog on the internet, I finished breakfast and we headed out.
It seems that just getting out of each city (especially during rush hour) is the hardest task of the day. Today was no different. Despite seemingly clear instructions, Marzia and I got separated leaving the city. Thank God for text messaging, because we have had a terrible time trying to talk by voice on our cell phones. Seems like for every 8 calls, only one occurs where we can actually hear each other. So, through some text messaging and a few questions to locals, we hooked up.
The first half of the ride was flat yet again, into the town of Cesena. We also had the “joy” of light rain to start our day. Cesena was a really pretty town, that would have been nice to tour through, had we better weather and a bit more certainty of our directions. Given that it was still raining when we got there, I stopped only for some outstanding mini eclairs of sorts at a local café located next to the duomo (cathedral).
It amazed me to see how many people were riding bikes with full scale umbrellas. Apparently, this is quite normal. I can’t ever remember seeing this in the states, but then again, I hardly ever see anyone riding through town on a bike in the states either. I especially liked seeing the lady with the little dog in her basket (my photo is blurred as I was fumbling to get my camera just as she passed).
While I finished my double espresso & pastry, Marzia got directions out of the city, and onto the secondary road through the mountains. The previous night we saw how my directions were going to take us into Forli first before Bango di Romagna, and we saw that there were only “red roads” on the map to Forli – not “yellow” ones (thus it would likely have more traffic). So we were sort of “winging it” directions wise, but we did indeed have the good provincial maps – the most detailed available for Italy. In fact, Marzia had tried in a few book stores in Ravenna to find other maps, and could find none more detailed. I told her they were quite difficult to find, but I did so on the internet.
Anyway, after about 15 minutes of typical hand waving, note taking and rapid Italian words, she had the directions for both of us out of Cesena and onto the provincial road towards Bango di Romano. By the way, I've noticed that even the statues in Italy are almost always showing the "necessity" of talking WITH your hands - the statue above of an Italian poet is a good example. Anyway... in the end these directions were wrong, and Marzia had to “find her own way”, and I used the “Navigatore” GPS I bought from the “Touring Club of Italy”. When the directions stopped making sense (after about 5 minutes), I plugged the name of the next town in and got clear directions from the point where I was on my bike (the GPS located me obviously). By following the GPS, I made it to the rendezvous little city ahead of Marzia.
Just when things seemed like they were going to be settled directions wise (generally there is only one road through the mountains), I somehow took a wrong road and ended up on the E45 – a highway almost as big and busy as the Autostrada. Mama mia!! I had to get off of there fast. People were beeping at me and waving at me while they flew by at over 100km per hour (like I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to be on there). After about 3 km, there was no exit in sight, so as soon as I saw a road crossing the highway overhead, I got off the bike and carried it over to that road. Thank God again for the GPS, because it located me and showed me how to get to our next little mountain town (those of you whom I asked to go on this trip with me are feeling pretty smart right now for not coming right !?!)
Finally from that “mini-side road” until Bagno di Romagna, I was able to begin to climb. While I didn’t have to stay in my small ring the entire time, I was at least going back and forth between rings. I don’t know if it was the road, my training, or both, but I was feeling stronger and stronger through the day. My stomach was still not 100%, so I didn’t feel like eating lunch, but I did manage to “force down” 3 large scoops of Gelato after stopping in a little mountain town where the climbing was now consistently steeper. I’ll have to research whether gelato is a good source of carbs and/or sugar for riding, because I felt great the great the rest of the ride – no “bonk” in sight.
From here it was pretty much a steady climb to Bagno di Romagna. It would have been a perfect day if it weren’t for the incredible downpour that started about 10 km away from my destination. It was raining so hard I could hardly make out the lines in the road (at the few points there were such lines). By the time I arrived in Bagno, I was “chilled to the bone”, and couldn’t wait for the best part of my ride – the shower. The city was very quaint, with a beautiful little town square and couple of streets of small shops.
After we arrived, Marzia went for a run, and after taking a nap (a ritual for me after a long ride), I went to a local pizzaria that was the only “internet point” in the city to work with some of my pics and the organization of my sub-site for this blog. After I was ready to post, I learned that even though this was the only access to the internet in the city, it was by dial up, not high speed. I don’t even have a modem in this computer, so I’d have to wait till Perugia. All in all, I was pleased with the results of the day though, and felt like I would be 100% by the next day – even though they were calling for foul weather.
