Today was just perfect, blue skies and a light tailwind, but we still had a slow start. Dennis’s rear wheel needed a new spoke, but the rim was quite badly cracked as well.
He took it to a bike shop where they did their best with the old wheel but didn’t have a replacement available.
Breakfast was next – Parma ham and cheese rolls of course washed down with Macchiati. Then the supermarket beckoned. We got food for a roadside lunch which is almost a daily habit now. Then finally we left.
It took quite some time to escape the clutches of Parma on some busy roads, but once away, all I could see was hills, so I hoped for the best. The other two were salivating at the thought of some climbing. Overall today, there were three peaks to get over, at around 1000 metres. In all, we did 1450 metres of vertical and I was relieved not to be carrying camping gear for this loop ride.
We had second lunch near groups of motorbike riders who enjoyed the quiet roads like us, except with motorbikes around, it’s rarely quiet. When we made it over the final pass, a beer in the sun at the local cafe was too tempting.
On that final climb, a Scotsman caught up and we rode together and chatted for a few kilometres (until it got steep and I couldn’t talk or even grunt). He was on a holiday and had ridden his nice light roadbike move than 110kms with nearly 3,000 metres of vertical. That’s a very hefty day in anyone’s language
The cafe was right beside the road and yet they’d squeezed in a few tables and chairs. I could sit there and stretch my legs out onto the road. As soon as we were served, they closed and were happy for us to simply leave our empty glasses on the table overnight. None of this would happen in Aus.
We enjoyed the downhill (finally) and rolled into Pontremoli at about a quarter past seven. We found a B&B but the guy running it had gone home. Fair enough too, there was only one guest. I called and agreed to meet him in 40 minutes.
There was a very small restaurant open across the square and the guy who ran it was great. He ran around and looked after us with some interesting food which included a ‘medieval pasta’ with pesto – great. He also had potato and asparagus (I think) in a sort of frittata or slice – great too, all washed down with a beer for our efforts.
The B&B guy came back and gave me the keys and after getting bikes and gear inside the building, the day was done. It was an absolute cracker too.
