Everyone woke up feeling refreshed apart from Sam who had been sharing a room with some part animals that didn’t get in until early hours of the morning! Gary in particular woke up with a smile on his face as he introduced Tiger Balm Club to everyone.
I may have said that today was due to be a shorter ride, what I didn’t manage to state was that it involved a lot more climbing. This started pretty much straight from the hotel and we spent the best part of the morning working our way up and out of Trieste.
Once we got over the first of these hills we then concentrated in the job in hand. This was to ride through 3 different countries all in the same day. Starting in Italy, coffee in Slovenia and dinner in Croatia!
One thing I would say about this part of the world is the dogs are very angry creatures! Starting Birgit on more than one occasion!
All in all today was a tough day. Lots and lots of climbing. From the off right the way through to the end. As we all know though. With every hill comes a lovely decent. With most of the guys getting into the 40’s on some of the sections today. At one point with only 10-15 km to go we were offered the choice of a flat run or to climb 200m over the course of 3km. Being out numbered 8-1 saw Sam plod his way up the hill! It was gruelling. To then rub salt in the wound the guide Jason decided to throw an extra hill in at the end. This was only added as he was taking us to the hotel he used last year and not this years! I’m sure he now does it for fun!
Once we arrived at the hotel Richard Moore realised that his special Alpecin shampoo had been left in Trieste!
We all had our hearts set on eating a hog roast tonight. This was mainly due to seeing 4 or 5 of them on the way through Slovenia. In the end we went to a lovely fish restaurant in the port and had a great evening.
Below highlights some of the stats from today’s ride!
Riding Time 6:10:28
Miles 77.5
Average mph 12.6
On a personal note today saw me hit a top speed of 40.5mph. I’ve consumed 7.14 litres of water and burnt 4480 calories!
That’s all folks
Raiders Media Man
I Just Felt Like Cycling 