When leaving Sestri Levante, I had assumed to have the mountains behind me. The wind was not working against me. And soon I understood I should check the map again: there was not one hill to Genova, just many. Always going up or down.
Very nice landscape… And very expensive region. The coffee is more expensive, you even have to pay to seat down – without fork and knife. It seems to be the Monaco of Italia…
And then soon, I was in Genova. Would I stay here over night? The kilometre on the GPS were to low. Should I visit the city? Or should I better cycle for some additional kilometres to full fill my goal? I walked a bit around, looking for a place to rest and eat some thing. The air was not as fresh. Mostly stinking like waste water. So in the end – and because the wind was optimal – I decided to ride some more after lunch. Direction strictly north instead of to the west as from Sestri Levante. Quite easy up hill. After 10km I wanted to have a rest and used the a little wall beside the quite road.
Then I continued and saw one road cycler standing beside the road, looking like having some issues. It was Alessandro. I asked him what the problem was: not his bike but himself needed help. I took my official doping sweeties (caffein&sugar) which helped him a lot. So we continue together and reach the “pass” together. Alessandro then cycled back, I continued with the help of the wind to the north and “downhill”.
Reaching the 100km mark, I started to look for an hotel and something to eat. Finally in Arguata Scrivia, I found a place and started first with a Pizza. I had no idea it would be possible to get such a big one! I guess it was even the biggest Pizza I ever had. And after that good and rich supper, I could not just stay in the hotel. I needed some more sport to burn those calories.
So I headed north again… and was hoping to find a place in Tortona.
Well.. that was not the case. Then Sale. No possibility either. I crossed the Po and arrived in Pieve del Cairo, where I started to ask around. A friendly family told me, there would be 1 km away a place. They took the car and drove over there, me following them at full speed. Unfortunately, the “hotel” was booked already.
So I decided to head up north again. It was starting to be dark, so I mounted the light. The advantage was that I could see something, the disadvantage: the mosquitos and other flying stuff knew were I was. The only solution was to breathe through the nose with closed mouth, which automatically limit the possibility of efforts.
Finally I got in Lomello were I found a hotel. Not to expensive but I had to take it: 156km were more than enough…
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By Georges
http://tiny.cc/Georges