a ride for the ages!

While 3 or the 4 people here cycling with George's group barely talk to me (because I am not with them, although we are all at the same hotel) the Italians are always happy to talk with un Americano that talks a bit of English. And the experience has been terrific, as I prefer talking with them.

Today was a brilliant morning and I thought about tackling the big mountain, which requires 2.5 hours of steady climbing to the top.

But as I biked close to the start of the climb up
I decided to not do it, reasoning that if my hamstring went it would be the end of the vacation. So I decided to do it another day and headed for the familiar flat roads up the brenta river valley.


No sooner had I crossed the river at Bassano I saw a group of 5 cyclists making a left turn onto the same road in front of me, so I quickly joined them, and said hello at the first opportunity.three of them had complete kits from their club, Pallidin, and they ranged from perhaps 50 to 65. What was nice was they let me draft their group for the next hour, and even nicer their pace matched mine. I was headed for Enego, about 25 miles up the valley, and stopped as we hit the bottom of what I now realised was the climb to Enego as they were going a different direction. We said goodbye and as I began to pedal up the hill I noticed another cyclist who had been behind me, waiting for me. He sked me if I wanted company. I said yes, but explained, in Italian, that I was very slow. He said he was too (he was 69). We had a great talk up the mountain to Enego for the next hour, and rewarded ourselves with a cafe at the top. From there we decided to press on to Foza, another hour's climb that was steeper. At Foza we began our hair aising decent to Valstagna, 25 hairpins. He was nice enough to wait for me every so often.
As we reached the bottom his wife called, worried because he had been out so long, so we stepped on it home at about 20 mph. We both split off near Bassano as he lived about 15 minutes from there, in Nove.

I thanked him profusely and told him I would always remember this ride.and I will.

Unfortunately the ride home to Borso from Bassano is all up hill, and while it's only about 7 miles it almost always comes at the end of the ride when you're tired.

And today I was on empty. I was out of food, having had two power bar gel packs and a banana and a cappucino. Not enough, although enough to soft pedal in slowly. I stopped at the breadstore near my hotel and bought a croissant stuffed with apricot and wolfed it down.

Now comes the relaxing afternoon.

Priceless.