The manager had said I should stay for breakfast but the notion that Etna was in sight had energised me and I was setting off before dawn.

After dawn broke, I managed to find a roadside cafe and get some breakfast whilst mingling with lorry drivers once more.

The riding remained ‘undulating’ and the views remained stupendous.  The weather was also just perfect!

My only problem was that I wasn’t feeling that great.  I felt ‘off’.  My eyesight was affected and my bowels were grumbling.

I assumed I had some sort of virus and began to worry if it would scupper my chances of finishing. I was beginning to feel as rough as this building looked….

I rode on until I came across a hotel and went in to see if I could get a coca cola and use their toilets.  They were very accommodating and I noticed lots of people still eating lunch so I asked if I could order some food (at a table well away from everyone else as I imagined I stank…).

I ordered a risotto and it was a miracle cure.  As I ate it I could feel all my symptoms dissipating and realised I had been ‘bonking’ (a cycling term associated with lack of any energy store to draw on).

The rest of the day went well and I passed through some wonderful woodland, in yet another national park, before finding myself on a closed mountain road, in the dark, with wild horses and cattle running ahead of me.  As my back wheel skidded on some gravel it was the only moment of fear I felt on the whole ride.  If I crashed here it would take some time for people to get to me. I rode the rest of the descent ‘gingerly’.

x

I came down to a village, walked into a bar and once more asked if there was anywhere I could get a bed.  They asked me if I was doing the 2VS and then told me it was finished – thanks!  But they also got Beatrice and Guiseppe to come from their B&B for me, made me two toasted ham and cheese sandwiches then the barman asked me how old I was.   Cockily I asked him to guess – he said, ’Seventy?”.  That taught me.  Beatrice explained as we got to the B&B that the water was turned off at 10:30pm.  I also had to give them my card and PIN as they needed cash (I was too tired to worry about being scammed).  I quickly managed to cold wash myself in the shower ( eventually working out it could produce hot water) before the water stopped flowing.  Weird but wonderful.  And I wasn’t scammed.

I crashed out and slept well.

Addendum: Hashim

I had met Hashim on the eve of the race. He came from Leicester. On day 3 (or was it 4?) I met him coming up a hill I was descending. He had left a bag at the summit! The next time I saw him was at a cafe/restaurant. It was on the Tuesday. I saw a bike parked outside and pulled over. Inside I found Hashim charging stuff up and eating a meal. I joined him and ordered some delicious tagliatelle. He recounted all the challenges he had overcome so far, including having to repair spokes!

And then I got a message from one of my dot watchers. “Don’t stop and talk to him – power on!” My response to them was they should go forth and procreate as we were enjoying dinner together. Hashim was very amused and put a photo of the message on Instagram from where it got picked up and reposted:

I learned, subsequently, that this galvanised Hashim who took off and rode through the night to end the race well ahead of me! Maybe I should have heeded the message?

I breakfasted on crispbread rings and soft cheese triangles aiming to set off at 5am.

I wouldn’t be making the finisher’s party, tonight, but I was still going!

It was going to be a long day through wonderful woodlands and rolling countryside.

x

Herds of goats and their attendant sheepdogs, couldn’t stop me – mainly because they were as fast as me at going uphill!

And there is always time for a Magnum.

Although I had plotted possible stops en route it seemed most of them were booked up on booking.com I eventually got to the town of Gimilgliano and went into a bar to get a Coca Cola and ask it there were any beds to be had.  The barman said there was nowhere in the town but there was a hotel in Tirolo 11km further on.  I knew from the Garmin that there was a climb between me and there but put my head down and ploughed on.

Not long after I set off, a car pulled up alongside me and the driver spoke to me. I didn’t understand a word he was saying. He pulled ahead and then drove at a snails pace.  I gleaned he was guiding me.  There is nothing like having someone generously guide you to make you put a huge effort into getting up the hill to a town. We arrived at some traffic lights and he explained the hotel was in the town on the left.  He realised I still hadn’t a clue so carried on. I am glad he did as the hotel was at the top of a brutal 20% ascent and I had to push the bike up the last bit.  It was a very large establishment and I wandered into the restaurant reception and asked if they had a bed.  The manager took me to a fabulous suite and told me to come back to the restaurant for dinner, despite the fact it was gone 9:30pm.

Showered and changed (I had a pair of very lightweight trousers and a running top which I used in such circumstances, I would wear my duvet jacket and have on my cycling socks and shoes but at least I was out of lycra) I made it to the restaurant.  The manager showed me photographs of the view from the restaurant which faced south.  It was Etna! I ordered spaghetti with oil and chilli followed by a leg of pollo piquante, chips and salad with a carafe of wine.   It was too much food but I ate as much of it as I could before collapsing into bed.

I started early as promised straight into a 10km climb, under a starry sky, leaving the glowing village behind me.

Once more the views were simply stunning. In fact I breasted a climb and involuntarily exclaimed at the view before me as it was so beautiful.

The terrain I was covering meant many of the roads were pretty poor or even absent.

But in some places there were exquisite plazas to sit and eat a cornetto with a cappuccino.

Getting enough to eat was a major preoccupation.  I was raiding small stores and bars for chocolate bars like Marathons, Mars Bars, Twix, or KitKats but it was nice to stop at a village and get a Panini and some tomatoes and fruit; I didn’t do that enough.

I was approaching Maratea and from a distance caught sight of the giant statue of Christ high on the hill. I knew I was going to have to climb up to it and, apparently, the tradition is to walk around it with your bike.

It was a a grind to get up to that f***ing statue!  At which point my Garmin reset itself again – nnng – but the views were incredible.

At this point there was a diversion because of mud slides affecting the route. I was, however,  arriving at it long after the leaders had passed through. I gleaned from the WhatsApp group that the original route was now rideable again so I followed it.  The village was still being cleaned and the extent of the mud flood was sobering but it was passable.

 I booked myself into an Auberge in Morano Calabro but misjudged how far away it was.  I had to message the proprietor and say I would be arriving late. 

When I got there he was kindly waiting for me. It was about 11-11:30pm when I arrived and crawled into bed after a shower. I made the strategic decision I was going to have breakfast there and start later than usual after such a long day.

Over 15 hours of cycling.

2VS Day 6 – 17th October 

I had made the decision to have a shorter day as, after about 100km, supply points and places to stay became sparse. So I set my sight on Acri. 

First it was important to have breakfast – cereal, fruit, bread, cheese, meat, coffee – in fact everything I could lay my hands on.

It turned out to be day of climbing to hill top towns and navigating gravel paths and even having  someone with a chainsaw cut me a path through fallen trees.

One thing I did notice in Italy was that vehicles, in the main, tended to be respectful of cyclists.  Someone had said that the law meant the bigger vehicle or least vulnerable vehicle was always considered to be at fault in an accident. If true, it seems quite an incentive to take care?  There were also plenty of signs exhorting drivers to give cyclists space when overtaking.

I made it to Acri having managed to book myself into the Supersonik Hotel online. When I arrived it looked utterly deserted and shut.  A man in the street helped me rouse the elderly couple who were in charge and I eventually found myself in a big room with a super hot shower.  The old couple told me about a Pizza restaurant up the road. I made my way there to eat while also recharging and resetting my Garmin before getting to bed. 

One aspect of riding through the countryside I have forgotten to mention is that on two occasions I spooked wild boar who ran up the gravel path ahead of me. There were also a number of encounters with huge sheep dogs left to tend flocks of goats and protect them from wolves and, it would appear, cyclists. The adrenaline surges such encounters stimulated helped me up more than one hill…..

My Garmin 1040 started to play up after day 2. It would turn itself off and reset. This would be a consistent theme for the rest of the event.  Essentially, when it turned itself off it deleted all my profiles and routes. I was lucky in that because of the Copeland stable discussion group (he has set up a Discord group chat for all his past and present coaches which is a rich source of useful information) I had the route stored on my phone both in Komoot and Ride With GPS.  I was able to restore the route to the Garmin, but also track it on RWGPS which proved more reliable.

When you wake up at 4am needing a pee, in the moonlight, it makes sense to think, ‘I might as well pack up and start riding’.  So, according to Strava, I started riding at 4.43am and my Garmin immediately went into USB MS mode.

I resorted to using Ride with GPS to navigate and record my progress whilst also looking up how to deal with the Garmin problem

Repeatedly advice is to not ‘faff’. Riding time needs to be maximised. So a lot of work is done on the bike whilst moving. I became adept at using the phone one handed to search on the internet or use apps such as booking.com and RWGPS.  A search revealed the Garmin had gone into Mass Storage mode and I needed to connect to a computer and Garmin Express to get it out of this mode.  I was coming into Tursi and came across a small row of shops. One of them had a nice young woman who interpreted my Google Translate Italian sufficiently to produce a laptop. I plugged in the Garmin and miraculously it came out of USB mode and I could reload the course and start using it again

For every problem there is a solution.  I may not have recorded the entire route on either Garmin or RWGPS but I was able to capture a lot and the Garmin helped me with the ‘climb’ function to know how long and roughly how hard the climbs were.  

It was a beautiful day and I found myself riding through sweeping vistas, on road and gravel.

I booked a B&B in Terranova di Pollino. When I got there the couple who ran it asked if I wanted breakfast now, when I arrived, as they asked if I was doing the 2VS and assumed I would be leaving early in the morning.  I said I would. They asked if I would prefer a sandwich? I said I would. They arrived with two large doorstep sandwiches.  I tried to eat them but had to leave a half.

I wandered out into the town and found some supplies and also a bar where `I ordered a hot chocolate which was so thick and hot it was like lava – apt eh!

 That night I woke at 2am famished. I finished off the remains of the sandwich and a small canister of Pringles.

Meanwhile I was recharging all my bits, including my legs!

Another very early start. I admit to scoffing an apple I found in the kitchen along with some snacks I had in my food bag.  Packed and drier, though still damp, than the night before, I set off. The views continued to be wonderful. With long swooping descents to make up for the 18% climbs and occasional bull…..

Fuelling was a bit of a problem given the distance between the isolated villages but I was able to resupply and even have a ‘little red ambulance’ = the term given to a can of Coca Cola!

I was making may way to one of the bucket list places on the route – Matera. Where scenes were shot for the last Bond movie.

Arriving at Matera exceeded my expectations.  It was beautiful in the evening light and glowed gold.  I probably should have stopped and had something to eat but I felt the urge to push on.

The psychology of long distance riding is as important or may be more important than the physical side.  Reaching Matera meant I had done less than 140km that day and I had  a yardstick (or meterstick) that I needed to get close to 200km a day.  I wasn’t sure where I was going to stop but I had decided I would probably bivvy as the weather forecast was dry.

Meanwhile I needed some fuel.  I saw a petrol station and it seemed to have a shop behind it.  As I got closer I realised it was actually a shop with a restaurant for truck drivers. I decided it was worth stopping and eating properly as I would get nothing if I bivvied and I could also stock up on chocolate bars for the remaining distance.  The food was delicious!

Riding into the night by the moon and the iridescent light from the hilltop towns and villages was mesmerising.  The Exposure front light I had was very powerful, even on the low setting which meant it could last up to 18hrs.  The dark ahead of me was lanced by the front light and it enticed me forwards, protecting me from falling into potholes (if I kept my attention on the road).

I eventually decided to stop on the outskirts of a town, across the road from a lorry park, partly hidden between a hedge around a house and small copse of trees.  I got out the bivvy kit, snuggled down and was asleep in minutes.  I do seem to sleep easily in a bivvy.

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