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Published: September 14th 2017
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That's San Marino on top of the massif (I won't comment on what's going on below) The sore throat/cold continues to work itself through our group (I may have been mistaken about contracting it in Ottawa: apparently Bobby from Connecticut arrived with it), and it hit my friend Mark from Vermont today badly enough that he chose not to ride. I awoke to find my throat improved but my chest somewhat affected; in fact I felt bad enough after breakfast that I made a late-game decision not to ride with Joe and the fast group, but instead to ride again with a group led by Micol. There wasn't supposed to be much difference between the two in terms of distance or difficulty, but I was wary of the pace at which the former would proceed on the flats. Riding with Micol also meant I would take in the wine-tasting that was to be part of all of today's rides except the fast group's, and which in retrospect should've set off an alarm bell.
Today's ride was similar to yesterday's, although (sadly) somewhat less intense. After getting away from Riccione there were a few moderate climbs with double-digit grades, and it turned out that once I got some kms under my belt I started feeling pretty good.
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Looking out towards the Adriatic from Verucchio Unfortunately, although today we did stop a couple of times for photo ops, the locations were not terribly photogenic - in contrast to some of the places we rode by that offered stunning views across the valley, with the San Marino massif looming in the distance.
One place we did stop (for a coffee break, after only about 33km) was Verucchio, where we rode up the cobbles to the castle for the view from on top. There we could see the Castello di Montebello, home of the legend of Azzurrina (look it up if you need to know more. Apparently she was an Albino with a bad dye job).
After that we rode to the Hotel owner's vineyard (Tenuta Santa Lucia in Mercato Saraceno) for what had been advertised as a wine-tasting but turned out to be lunch, stopping briefly in a church along the way to inspect an 800-year-old cedar ostensibly planted by St Francis of Assisi. I guess our appetites were to have been whetted by the 14% climb leading to the vineyard (not sure if that included the gravel driveway, which was a steep uphill as well); in any case, many courses ensued starting with
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Another view from the castle at Verucchio prosecco and bread with 3 kinds of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then some white wine and various appetizers (including olive paste and several bruschetta-like offerings), followed by red wine and prosciutto, cheese and grapes accompanied by 2 styles of french fries, and finishing with salad and some manner of plum cake washed down with grappa, at the end of which renditions of
Volare and
O Sole Mio were performed by 3 hotel staff (the US contingent of our group then countered with
America a.k.a. My Country 'Tis of Thee).
In spite of that we managed to get up and over another 14%!c(MISSING)limb just 1km later after which we enjoyed a tailwind-assisted descent back to the hotel, ending up 20-30km shy of what had been advertised and making for a very short, non-strenuous day (I forget what the exact distance was supposed to be, but don't forget I've been drinking). And so I feel bad about having abandoned my original decision to join Joe in the faster group, and I am looking forward to hearing more about their day at dinner.
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