77 miles ridden – 612m climbed – temperature 20C.

I’ve said before that the perfect bike ride relies on four factors:

Terrain – today was mainly downhill

Temperature – although chilly first thing it got warmer as the day went on finishing at 28C in Bolzano

Road surface – much of today was on newly created dedicated cycle paths

Wind – you may recall I maintain that you never get all four simultaneously and today we had a headwind. It wasn’t too strong but enough to force gear changes.

But 3 out of 4 isn’t bad and I had a wonderful day.

We crossed into Italy about 5 miles in – nothing to see except for the sign:

We had everything today. Alpine meadows, pine forests, ski resorts, lakes, snow covered mountains…. Every direction was stunning as you can see below:

The cycle paths were really busy with all sorts of folk. There was a massive group of inline skaters aiming for a circuit of the reservoir, farmers tending the thousands of acres of apple orchards, parents with children in trailers and a massive number of older people on e-bikes, all seemingly having a good time although many of them did seem a bit miffed that we were cycling faster than they were.

We enjoyed our first typical Italian lunch today which, given that most people in this part of Italy speak German and hate being a part of Italy, was a surprise. The basis rule seems to be:

A) Either acknowledge the arrival of diners or in exceptional circumstances actively welcome them.

B) See if they can receive the menu telepathically

C) Don’t rush in any way

D) The meal should take at least 60-90 minutes – it doesn’t matter that they’ve another 40 miles to cycle.

Nevertheless it was good spaghetti bolognese which set me up for a straight run into Bolzano. I cant comment on Bolzano partly because we are at the wrong end of it. We were told that despite the fact that the hotel looks like a Soviet era office block we should not to judge the hotel by first impressions. However the inside also looks like a Soviet era office block so perhaps we really are in the wrong bit of Bolzano.

This evening one of my fellow riders (thanks Alistair!) sent the picture of me taken yesterday when it was cold but I was smiling!

Tomorrow we head to Lake Garda……