Sunday 58km

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Not surprisingly, last night I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. But I then awoke around 11PM to pee and found myself wide awake, caught in the time transition that accompanies overnight travel to Europe. Similarly, breakfast took some getting used to, starting with the fact that the hotel runs on Italian Time, which is to say things might start somewhat later than advertised, and that the layout of items is rather haphazard, with the result that it took a while to determine how I might (in future) start the day with the nutrition I would like.

More distressing was the fact that it had started raining while we were eating, and consequently the day's destination was changed (presumably to avoid major descents that might be hazardous in the wet). There are several classes of riders geared to (get it?) different abilities and offering different speeds, distances, and approaches to life in general, and deferring to my friend Mark's advice I opted to join him in the 2nd fastest group.

The ride out southward went over what we had ridden the evening before and continued along the coast, and the rain, traffic, and flat terrain did not endear the route to me. Eventually, though, at about Cattolica we headed inland and got away from traffic and into hillier terrain; the rain, however, only intensified and was soon joined by a moderate wind. Our tour leader Bartolo (seemingly unique among the hotel staff in his not speaking anything but Italian), limited the speed of our descents (and we were told never to pass him, although on climbs we were free to go at our own pace and wait for the group to reassemble at the top). As the rain and wind picked up while the temperature dropped and road conditions varied, nobody seemed to be having much fun.

Then (and here there is still some confusion about how events actually unfolded) at one point Bartolo indicated to us at the front to continue while he dropped back to tend to some issue. Initially I just soft-pedalled but was soon passed by a couple of members of our group (at least I thought they were from our group) so I picked up my pace too; somewhere in the mix the faster group passed us as well. When I got the top of a climb where the main road curved left but there was a small one coming in from the right I thought I saw cyclists ahead of me stay on the main road so I did likewise and continued to climb until I got to the next junction (which was more substantial) and pulled over, joined by 6 others. There was some question whether or not we should have taken the road on the right that we had passed previously, and what to do if that were indeed the case. Meanwhile we were cold and wet at the top of a hill.

After waiting for bit to see if Bartolo would come along (it had been mentioned in yesterday's briefing session to stay put if off route) 1 rider decided to retrace our steps and take the 'road to the right' while the rest of us reasoned that if Bartolo had already passed that point we wouldn't be much better off inasmuch as we wouldn't know where to go subsequently. And so we holed up in a cafe and called the hotel to inform them where we were (the 88-year-old woman proprietor actually providing the details to the hotel staff). We all wanted to ride rather than get sagged back to town but the directions proving somewhat complicated (in light of the fact that the map one rider had did not show any of the roads/towns involved), we ultimately elected to wait for the van and get driven. I am finally old enough to be OK with that, especially since it hadn't been much of a fun ride to that point anyways, and prolonging it simply for the sake of ego was not something I was interested in.

Despite the rain there were several points in today's ride where the scenery looked like it would be nice in better conditions, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. It's unlikely I'll be able to show you that, though, as riding with a group means I can't stop for photos like I normally would, and even taking them on the fly as I also usually do is proving difficult because the camera I have borrowed is not as easy to operate from the saddle. Next week should be better!

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Photos

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The various groups assembling at the start

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Group leader Bartolo and the rain

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Holding driver Alessandro's umbrella as we load the van