We knew today's terrain wouldn't be bad but thought it would be crammed with lots of miniature hills, as you'll see on today's stage terrain profile, but it wasn't to be. It was perfect. Almost flat all the way. Our rolling speed was around 20mph. The only thing slowing us down we're traffic lights and the odd roundabout.
Traffic was still thick and fast. Lorries dominate the roads here, but for the majority of the time there's plenty of room for the both of us.
Our breaks almost always now occur at a petrol station. But they're not your normal British stations, these are Italian petrol stations. A sign in the foyer says you cannot smoke in the toilets. Fair enough. But you can have a cigarette on the benches they have laid on just 10ft from the pumps?????? And, every station has a bar. A bar that serves beer, wine, spirits. The lot. Who drinks here? They're almost always out of town and why would you go to one of these stations just for a glass of wine? I must ask before I go.
Anyway, we used Parma as the half way town and stopped for a bite to eat and to restock on essential fluids.
The heat is unbearable when you aren't cycling. The wind when pedalling along took the sting out the sun, but you still get burnt none the less. Don't worry, we have plenty of factor 30.
After around 4 hours we got into the outskirts of Modena, and went straight for the campsite. We had a short 15 minute delay 20 minutes from the end as Rob got his first puncture, and the tyres shredded too, so a replacement will be fitted tomorrow morning.
We knew the campsite had a swimming pool, and despite being rather hungry after 70miles of cycling, we headed straight to it and cooled off. So far this trip, the pool has been our highlight so far. Not kidding you.
For dinner, I threw together a mixture of stew packs, puy lentils and brown rice. Not satisfied with the mountain of food on the plate, we headed to the nearest supermarket which was around 1.5 miles away, and we walked. Modena city centre was around 7km so we shelved that idea and went to the supermarket. Supermarkets are far bigger in Europe. The huge establishments have many other shops and stores and have car parks the size of football fields and you could easily spend a few hours just waltzing around looking through all the shop windows.
Anyways, we paid for our stuff and left. On the way there we saw an electronic temperature sign in one of the buildings which read 36 degrees. Savage. You don't stop sweating in Italy. But on the plus side, gave us an excuse to jump back in the pool when we returned.
I then proceeded to cook dinner No.2. (see pictures) I needed it, and tomorrow a full fuel tank is never more essential. We have to cycle 80 miles reaching around 3,000 ft in height, twice. Not looking forward to it if I am honest. I'm getting, or rather have already got, pretty bad saddle sore. I have chamois cream but it's only making a slight difference. A good sleep, a stern breakfast and hopefully we'll make it to the next stop in one piece. Tomorrow will be by far the hardest thing I have done, even harder than the 200 mile ride I did earlier this year to Brixham.
Well, you'll hear about it tomorrow. It won't be positive. It won't be fun. The views may help take our minds off things momentarily but it's still going to test my fitness.
See you tomorrow.... Hopefully!
Ciao!
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