62 miles cycled – 1350 feet climbed.

What can I say? Another beautiful sunny, warm day. Our first 40 miles was as flat as a pancake as we crossed the River Po Plain with only the occasional rise as we went up on to a dyke or crossed a river or canal. Today we covered very little distance without seeing farms of passing through small villages and towns which made it very interesting:

Some of you may recall that I have previously explained that there are 4 elements that influence a great ride (aside from company of course) – wind, temperature, gradient and road surface – and very rarely do all 4 occur simultaneously. Today we came close a few times but never quite made it due to an incessant headwind that was just a little too much to ignore.

We had another great pasta lunch at an agri-tourismo. These are theoretically farmhouse type restaurants but this looked more like a party hotel with a dance floor out in the garden and we were literally the only people there aside from the guy serving at the bar. €5 for a glass of coke is good business if you can get it!!

We had about 3 miles from there before we hit the last proper climb of the day. It wasn’t steep, just long and the sun always seems hotter when you’re slogging your way up a hill. Lots of really good views again though:

From the bottom we had just 10 miles to the end of our trip. We have covered a total of 722 miles and climbed over 38,000 which is 10,000 feet higher than Mount Everest. There was however no standing on ceremony at the end – everyone went straight to the bar to celebrate:

Julie, Sue and Heather

It has been a great trip – heaven help our washing machine!!! 

Tomorrow we are off to Venice for a couple of days to see some museums and churches. Mmmmm, I think I need to plan the next trip. Cycling along the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Minneapolis…….English Channel to the Mediterranean including a climb up Mount Ventoux….. watch this space.