Chapter Too

Chapter Too

It was after the horrorshow day of blood loss and heat wave, right when, once again, I was certain that I couldn't take it anymore, we hit some beautiful riding on wide scenic roads with only intermittent traffic that was rarely scary. We also hit hills, but it all balanced out to a level of reason that we could take. We rode another longer day, all part of the quest to reach the Giro stage in time, and hit our longest day of the trip of 78 miles. We tended to reach the camps each night right around time to eat a quick dinner before it got dark and it was time to sleep. (A cautionary note. I would not care to hear from any other much more iron-thighed cycle friends who eat 78 mile riding days for breakfast. I don't need to be illuminated as to how not hardcore I am. Telling me so would be useless and redundant since I already am well aware of this fact. Let me just say that I am very happy for you that you can ride circles around me while I huff puff and sweat, but also that I will definitively never ever go on a long distance cycle tour with you.) When we reached the camp one of the campeteers asked us when we intended to leave in the morning. I didn't know how to take that question but it turned out he was asking because there was going to be a party down the way and it was going to be loud. Ah Europe. We told him that it would likely not be a problem because of our general exhaustion and it turned out that it wasn't. The party was loud, we slept like exhausted babies.
Shannon's bicycle is still in an unwell state. We stop occasionally so that I can tweak it and keep it shifting, but it is at best a nuisance, and more than unexceptional. Despite that she has peddled along like a super human strikeforce champion and I have become suspicious that she is actually a very human passable cyborg gladiator hybrid. For this I am thankful. Though on the mountain stage on the way up to our present camp I did believe on several occasions that she intended to snap me like a brittle twig and toss me in to the scenic brush along the road for making her undertake this entirely selfish segment of the journey. She may still. I am presently trying to be nice, which we all know does not come naturally to me. As it is now the weather here went from sunny and warm to a sprinkle of snow on our tent last night to rain this morning to cold all day. The forecast is not improving for the stage tomorrow which is even more unfortunate for the racing cyclists than it is for us. Unless of course we get stuck here because of snow tomorrow and for the foreseeable future.
I believe that is mostly all I meant to ramble at this point. There will certainly be more to come as we retrace our steps back down the mountain on the 20th and then start on our way towards and over the Alps in to France and on to Spain. The point is that we made it, the epic Cannonball Run to watch the Giro and tomorrow we will do just that. I expect it will be entirely worth it.
Photos to follow of the Giro and other events. Unless they are canceled due to weather.


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