October 11th

After breakfast in the restaurant across the road I planned to ride up to the start, with the bike fully rigged, to see how long it would take me.  The weather continue to be wonderful. Sunny, not too hot and with a light breeze.  It was a steep climb with Vesuvius coming closer and closer.

I arrived at the start point with the most wonderful views across the Bay of Naples.

It had taken me about 40-50min to cycle up as I had booked my accommodation close to registration, assuming that would be near the start. Next time check!  

I would have to make the same trip at 4am, in the dark, with a rucksack on my back. 

At least the ride back down to registration was easy.  There were some pretty cool people in the Virtual Archeological Museum including Juliana, James Robertson and Charlotte who would be photographing the event as well as the winner of the Trans Pyrenees race, Robert Mueller

Juliana is a well known ultra racer herself and set the record for riding round the world. I have James’s book at home called ‘It’s a Race’ documenting the transcontinental race. Robert won the Trans Pyrenees race on a hire bike a few weeks before this event after his bike got damaged in transit.

I got my tracker, my cap and met Alex Armstrong, one of the Niel Copeland stable. He had booked a B&B close to the start and kindly offered me a spare bed that night so we agreed to meet at the compulsory Pizza briefing at 5.30pm and then cycle up to his gaff for the night.  I went back and packed everything up and had a very large lunch. this is called carbo loading (aka gluttony).

I set off to the briefing at 5pm which was very close to where I was staying.  You could tell everyone was nervous about leaving their bikes outside but Juliana said they would be guarded and had CCTV watching them as well.

The briefing was straightforward and emphasised the ‘rules’: self supported, no drafting, no pairs, stick to the route (unless directed otherwise).

Then it was back to Alex’s B&B, after a pizza, in the balmy evening air to try and sleep.