Day 3 - Siauliai to Platelia

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This morning started with a drive in the minibis (with bikes) to the Hill of Crosses, north east of Siauliai. We spent a very interesting hour walking around the hill and visitor centre and getting a feel for this extraordinary site with it's colourful history.

We set of from the Hill of Crosses, cut across the top of Siauliai and hit the A11 out towards Plateliai.

The weather, which has been fantastic so far, continued with this trend, giving us strong sunshine, very hot and low wind.

The only incident in the morning was when I turned to Alan and murmured "Have I got a flat.....?" whilst bouncing down the road. I pulled up and I checked the tyre. Oooops, something's up :-) A quick check later and I find the offending piece of metal lodged firmly in the rear tyre. 15 minutes late, inner tube changed and and back on the road.

Excellent riding conditions for most of the day, however towards the middle afternoon we started to encounter steep inclines one after the other which started to drain us all. However, with 20 kilometers to go, we turned off the A11 onto a small back road and headed NW directly to Plateliai. This road was excellent, winding, slightly hilly, good down hills and excellent scenary. It really invigorated the whole team and pumped our energy levels back up for the remainder of the day.

The rest of the ride was uneventfull until we stopped around the 164 and went to meet a tour guide for a trip to the Soviet Nuclear Missile Silo. But that's another story.

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