Day 12 Borghetto Di Vara to Lucca

Today was meant to be an easy day! Only 53 miles of mostly flat roads to cover we tired to set off early from the lovely hotel Sonno D'Autore. They were so lovely and helpful we heartily recommend them if you happen to he cycling through with 10 other mates! 

My front derailleur delimiter must have loosened with all the vibration from the road as my chain started  to drop over the big chain ring yesterday so a small amount of facing got it back to normal and then Jeff had a similar issue with his headset and Chris had some other minor mechanical. So after a hearty breakfast and good bike faff we set off. Then I remembered my sunglasses were on top of the car bonnet. Oops! So I headed back to grab them. As its only a 53 mile day it wasn't going to be hard to be self sufficient and let the support team take some rest so I didn't want to bother them with giving my glasses back once we were on the road. 

I then spent the next few miles catching up with the others and I loved that ride. It's just so special sometimes to be out on your bike in the early hours of the day when the light seems so fragile and there is just you and your bike working together. The Tarmac was great quality, the road wide and the clouds were creeping up the valley between the trees as was I. I rode along with fresh legs and felt not a care in the world. 

After a few miles I turned across a river and at some temporary traffic lights met Jeff and John, the rest of the peloton had gone through the lights already. Then we discovered Chris was behind them but I hadn't seen him and had just come along the route. He didn't appear after about 5 mins so we called him and sure enough he was lost. He got back on track and was close by from the land,arks he was seeing so we waited again. Still no Chris and another phone call revealed he was now lost again. Chris has been using a Garmin 800 to navigate with and loaded the same routes that we all have but those with open source maps do seem to have a harder time following them (except it has to be said, for Matt who is clearly a talented Navigator and never seems to have problems finding his way.) 

So with Chris still last we agreed for him to wait at a particular spot and we would come and find him. Except in the interim the Land Rover happened across him and got him to follow them, so now we were off course looking for a moving target and struggling to find it. Then with a few more phone calls we found somewhere we all knew to meet at and the Land Rover handed Chris over to us. So then we were a group of 4 and had a good ride working together to make up for lost time. We stopped for the obligatory morning coffee and then continued along flat rods through industrial and built up areas. The road surface was poor and to be honest it was hard work riding in formation and watching at every minute for a crazy Italian driver to pull out in front of us. 

Chris's cleats on his shoes have taken a hammering with all the walking/ploughed fields etc and he wanted to call in to a small bike shop we passed. They didn't have any cleats for him but they did have an amazing array of old bike paraphernalia which I am sure the owner would have told many storied about had our Italian been up to scratch. 

Shortly after the bike shop we mad the last and only real climb of the day a relatively short one before dropping down into the plane where Lucca sits. Our Hotel tonight is in an old Monastery slightly up on a hill overlooking Lucca and the olive groves. It's a fabulous spot. 

Despite the extra mileage (6 extra) we finished mid afternoon and a few minutes after the others then a quick shower and change and we all took a taxi to town to do some sightseeing in Lucca which is a beautiful walled city. The main square is an oval apparently! I was under the assumption that a square was a square and an oval was oval but seemingly not it my travelling companions are to be believed. 

 

A spot of lunch and an ice cream before a wander around the town and we were ready to head back to the hotel for some R&R. Waiting for the taxi we looked around a bike shop only to see this world champions jersey hanging up. It belonged to Cipollini whose home town was Lucca. In two more weeks the UCI road world championships will start here in Lucca and ride to Florence so we shall all be looking out on the TV for places we recall I am sure. 

Alex's father Massimo and mother Denise have joined us today and will ride to the finish with us. Massimo is Italian so we have plenty of local knowledge with us. With two more Italian linguists to help with the ice cream and coffee stops we should be sorted. I am sure Alex will be happy to have them around too. 

Massimo has already triumphed by finding us a beautiful hilltop restaurant for our dinner tonight. :-)

Lastly some of you will be aware of my love for all things turquoise or 'celeste' as Bianchi call it. I did see one bike in town to rival the colour of mine but I am not sure it would cope so well on the climbs....