Day 2 Castel Sant'Elia to Attigliano 57 km 969 m - ride totals, 128 km 1846m

One can train for the hills before rides like this and yes I did ride up Rapaki a few times but you can't train for "Hills plus Heat" and that's what we got today. While close to 1,000 metres of climbing our elevation gain is not a lot to have to do it in 30 plus degrees has one puffing a bit at times. The good thing about the Garmin (bike computer) is that it tells me in advance of the hill, how steep it is, how long it is, what elevation the hill starts at and what elevation it will be when you're at the top. It then goes as fast as to bring up a colour graphic representation of the climb on the screen on my handlebar. It has green, yellow and red graphics, the green being hardly any hill while the red indicates very steep. I said to Stephen as we were in the red zone on one hill "the good thing about the red is, it means we can gain a good about of elevation without having to travel far".

The reason for hills is not so much his as we know them but very deep gorges cutting across our path that need to be crossed. This makes for some amazing town sites sitting high up on top of the cliffs that drop down in to the gorge below. 

As we didn't have a big ride planned for today we had no problem taking coffee breaks. When we did and while I don't drink coffee I did spot a fruit shop and off I went to get my fix. A kg of apricots and a large nectarine all for about $4.50 NZD so far of have to say the food food prices are most reasonable.

At one point our route has us follow a service track for the power lines as a bit of a shortcut. It started out okay beyond the barrier but quickly degenerated until there was no track at all! Clearly those power lines haven't needed any servicing in the last 5 years I'd say. The alternative road was just a shirt distance further on so it wasn't a problem.

Our lunch stop at Orte was in a town built high on a hill with cliffs all around it except for the access in and out. We had a lovely Tagliatelle and a couple of glasses of freshly squeezed orange. I could have spent the day there in the town square right beside the church drinking (OJ).  Peter and Stephen popped off to check out the church and I was quite happy sitting there minding the bikes.

Our accommodation tonight is a good full size apartment with two bedrooms, a big lounge and kitchen and a good sized bathroom - lots of space.

Another good day and now over 100 km's closer to Paris (only something like 3,000 to go). 
















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Days 23 - 25

Image
My final days in London where I'm so fortunate to be able to stop with Ian and Lone, I have so appreciated their hospitality. Wednesday was a lovely day spent with their four grandchildren Mia, Archie, Oliver and Benji - they're ages are very similar to Lily and Tyler's and they're all great kids.  Thursday I have the bike a thorough clean and went to the shops and finished outfitting myself with some more new clothes and on Friday I popped along to Kingston before collecting a bike box from the local bike shop on the way back. Friday afternoon I weighed the bike, box and my gear to ensure the bike box was close to the 25 kg baggage limit. Which it is at 25.8 kg and hopefully I won't get penalised for the extra 0.8 kg. The rest of my gear (including the new wardrobe) comes in under the 7 kg cabin luggage limit. Friday night Lone and I went to the West End and saw Tina - The Tina Turner Musical. It was " Simply the Best" and I loved it. Saturday, I went and...
Read more

Day 52 - Little Malvern to Hereford - Ride total 3,780 k, 24,250 m

Image
After spending the last three days with Steve and Sarah they were kind enough to drive me and the bike across to Little Malvern where I began my ride to Hereford with a climb up onto the Malvern Hills and along the ridge to get a 360 degree view of the countryside all around - a huge expanse of rolling hills and plains stretched out below on both sides of the ridge (the pics do not do justice to the view in real time). Never say to me "you must come and stay" - unless you mean it, coz I do! In 2017 when I met Steve when we were both doing LeJog (Lands End to John O'Groats) and along with Peter became riding buddies along the way. Steve like me was staying on in Scotalnd and holidaying in the Outer Hebredies with Sarah where I met up with them again for a meal as I was out there as well. Somewhere they must hace said to me"if you are ever in the Cotswolds come and visit". The beautiful Cotswolds are the whole reason for me getting into these journies by bike as w...
Read more

Day 57 - St Paul's to Richmond - Total for ride 4,136 k, 26,235 m

Image
My last ride of this adventure was a short but very "So London" ride as I left Sir Christopher Wren's 1735 St Paul's Cathedral, through the city to the banks of the Thames, past Big Ben, the Museums, up the Birdcage Walk, swung by Buckingham Palace and on through the Wellington Arch and across the Hammersmith Bridge via Hyde Park. And all that was without even trying or amending my cycle.travel route. The day was lovely and warm so I just took my time soaking up the last few km's of the journey. A lovely ride to finish the amazing journey that it's been.  Another cyclist on his way to work through Hyde Park commented on the "great kit you've got there" as he checked out my Aero Spyder rear bags, then when he learned this was my last day of a ride from Rome he was most impressed. I arrived at Ian and Lone's a bit before 11:00 a. m. and it was lovely to catch up with them after last seeing them on their NZ holiday when they were on one of the l...
Read more