Sunday, May 5th
Ride Profile (My Garmin)
The weather wasn't looking good as we checked out of the hotel and stored our bags under cover due to some rain that started during the night. Indeed, the forecast was for rain throughout the day, with possible heavy rain in the evening.
The weather wasn't looking good as we checked out of the hotel and stored our bags under cover due to some rain that started during the night. Indeed, the forecast was for rain throughout the day, with possible heavy rain in the evening.
The regular morning briefing got underway at the usual time of 9:00am, everyone preparing themselves for a wet day in the saddle. A few riders even missed the briefing to get on the road before the rain got any worse:
After riding along the coast for a while, the route turned inland and eventually took us to the large provincial town of Grosetto. There were no route instruction to get us into the "centro", but after taking a few wrong turns we ran into "Col" (actually, Carl with a South African accent) and had a coffee in the lovely old part of town as the bells tolled midday (Sunday).
Tony and Rob were getting updates on the soon to be born grandchild as we enjoyed the location.
Back on the road, we were (deliberately) taken into the Tuscan hills where the scenery was fantastic and the weather slowly began to clear.
The views back to the coast from where we had come and to where we were headed were superb - lots of "villas in Tuscany" to rent around here, perhaps?
We came across some of our cycling buddies having a picnic lunch, and lucky for us they corrected an error in navigation we were about to make. It appears we were a bit too keen on climbing to an old hill town (in the distance) than turning right back to the coast.
There was little in the way of food stops, not least because it was Sunday afternoon, and after a flat tire coming into Orbetello, the Tonies could wait no longer to eat (oh, and drink).
The luggage van arrived and parked as close to the hotel as it could, and the weather just kept getting better.
So we collected our luggage:
Checked into the hotel, showered, and then went for a stroll around the town - a former walled city now expanding well beyond what remains of the walls. It's location on an isthmus between the mainland and an island seemed to contain too much expansion, however:
Back in the square for a few G&T's with some cycling buddies, we were interrupted by a group of Juventus (Turin) football supporters whose team had apparently just won the Italian championship. What great local colour!
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