Friday, July 3, 2009

Last day of cycling - Montepulciano here I come








It's 5.30am and I have just woken to the most amazing bird sounds coming from the surrounding trees. It is still very quiet outside apart from the birds, and a dog barking in the background, with just the occasional car or one of those noisy little three wheel jobbies going past.
I crashed immediately after getting upstairs after dinner last night, in fact I almost fell asleep at the dinner table. I was absolutely shattered after yesterday's final ride. It didn't matter which route I took yesterday, they were both going to be tough in parts, so I chose the longer ride of 38 kms to finish because this ride took me past Lake Montepulciano.
The decision to do 25k or 38k had to made very early on in the day – just 2k from the hotel gate in fact. Turn right to do the 25k or turn left to to do 38k. And of course after 2k of gentle riding, reasonably early in the morning while it was still cool, I thought huh I can do the 38k ride. I am getting good at this. A decision I kind of regretted later in the day, when it was hot, and I was tired and there was absolutely no shelter from the sun.
I remember looking out to my right at one stage and seeing this wee bit of water, and thinking to myself, I sure hope that is not Lake Montepulciano. That better not be the lake I have ridden all this way to see. It was nothing more than a pond, but thankfully a wee way further on there is the lake. It was worth coming to see, and the ride down alongside it, through the trees was beautiful and peaceful.
At one point I came across a couple of blokes standing in the middle of the road chatting. This was on a rather seriously uphill part. Just after I passed them, the younger of the two started jogging in the same direction as I was going. The little sod passed me, jogging uphill, with me in the lowest gear (I don't know – is it low to go uphill – I haven't worked out how these gears work yet, all I know is most of the cycling is done on 2 on the left hand and varying between 1 and 7 on the right hand, the 7 when it is easy and the 2 when it is tough going up hill. And then if the hill is really steep 1 on the left hand and again anything between 1 and 7 on the right hand.) So here I was in 1 and 1 and this young bloke runs past me. I am puffing and panting like an old train, so I stop for a drink and wish there was something worth taking a photo of, so that it looked like I had stopped for that reason,, not just because I was pooped.. And then on a bit further when the going gets a bit easier I catch him up and ha ha, I pass him as I head down hill. Take that, I think to myself, but woops what's this, another hill to climb. I have left him in the distance, so off I go up the hill and when I get to the top where the fabulous view of the lake is, I stop to take photos, and it is not long before he catches me up again. Man he is quick. But from here there is another long downhill, so I whizz down to do the “ride alongside the lake” bit in the notes and I don't see him again. I am sure it is not because I am keeping in front of him, he must have lived in that wee village I passed.
Well at about 9km into this ride I was already beginning to regret my decision. It was getting hot, and it had been steadily uphill most of the way. The notes say 'a steady ascent.' Well I make it to the top, and stop to take a breather and a drink of water, when the Headwater rep appears in front of me. He is on the suitcase delivery run, so stopped off to chat. Really great to have someone to talk to for a few minutes. He tells me I have a nice downhill stretch coming up and then there is more uphill to face and that he would see me about 6pm. I take the opportunity to have a photo taken with the bike before he happily gets into his van and drives off and leaves me here, in the middle of nowhere.
Oh well me thinks, nothing to do but get on with it. So off I go through the village of Porto. By this time the thought of a coffee or an ice cream or some fruit was whizzing through my head, but not a soul to be seen in this wee village and the bar and the mini-market both closed.
So onto the next stage Sentiero della Bonifica to Chianciano – only 13km. By now it is really getting hot and not a lot of shade around. The first part of this ride took me onto a cycle track which took me along a canal, over a river, under the main railway track and over another railway track and then onto a road that took me 7k (uphill) to Chianciano. That was a long way, and it was hot, and about 2.5k from the top I was overtaken by one of those spluttering, noisy little three wheel truck things. And then when I stopped to take another drink about 500m further on, the driver, all dressed in his matching lycra pants and top, was stopped on the side of the ride. Now he didn't speak a single word of English, but I think I managed to get that he was telling me I was crazy for being out in the midday sun, on a bicycle, riding up a hill. He asked where I was headed and when I told him Montepulciano he indicated that it was all uphill. I nodded knowingly, showed him on my map where I had come from and which way I was going, and he grabbed a real map out of his truck and showed me another way to Montepulciano and indicated a flatter road with just a wee hill at the end. I nodded again, smiled and declined his offer (well I think he was offering) to put my bike on top of his on the back of his wee truck and be taken up the hill. He shook his head, opened his arms and hands as if to say “you nutta” and he got in his truck and tottled noisily on up the hill, shaking his head dramatically as he drove away.
Another 50m further up the hill I was beginning to regret that decision also, but it was very hard because I really couldn't understand a word he was saying and he couldn't understand a word I was saying, so it really would have been too difficult to know what was happening really.
Along the cycle lane by the canal, I saw a couple of cyclists in the distance coming towards me, and they turned right at the point I turned left to finally reach the main road to Chianciano. Now I might add here that this cycle track is quite rough, full of potholes which were great big muddy puddles after all the rain we've had this week and at points we were riding through quite muddy parts. At the T junction these two guys were stopped . They had obviously finished their ride as they were standing beside their cars, cleaning down their bikes. They had big containers of soapy water and big containers of clean water and with paintbrushes they were soaping and rinsing their bikes, before putting them into the back of their cars. The nodded all friendly like as I approached, and crossed over the T junction and on toward Chianciano.
Well I finally made it to Chianciano. What a tought ride. But I made it. There was an option here – either go into the centero storico or turn off 30m before a stop sign and head on towards Montepulciano. I thought, I haven't ridden up this sodding hill to just turn off and not visit another hilltop village, so I continue that last 30m up the hill, turn left and push on for another 300m to enter the village.
And now it got interesting – a couple of guys were standing talking to each other at the gates. I was hot and bedraggled and absolutely exhausted by this stage and in serious need of something to eat and something other than water to drink. The older of the two guys started to chat to me. Of course I couldn't understand a word he was saying, and told him I spoke only a little Italian and asked him if he could speak Inglese. He could, and he said “but you are not Inglese?” so I told him no from Nuova Zelande and he said he had been to Wellington. He then decided he was going to be my personel guide through Chianciano.
A very friendly chap – and Roxy you will be pleased to know that I went through the checklist here a) single – yes, never married – travelled around too much to settle down.
b) rich – hard to tell, but travels a lot so must have some money at least.
c) fast car – no
d) owns a villa – no lives here in this wee village
e) loves family - again hard to tell – has no family of his own.
f) loves to travel – yes travels a lot with his work
And then the other part of the check list which you said I needed to ignore:
a) old – two years older than me and he was most flattering – calling me a lovely young thing and thought that I was about 35years old. Phew, and that was after I had just cycled up that bloody hill.
b) fat – yep carrying a few extra kilos like me
c) bald – no he wasn't bald but he was diabetic, and had diabetic ulcers on his legs, so has to watch what he eats, can't eat bread or pasta and cannot drink wine anymore.
Hey that is a lot to learn about someone in about half an hour – and I did learn that his name was Franco and he is coming to NZ again next year with his work (couldn't quite understand what he does but goes frequently to Zurich, Frankfurt, London, Boston and Australia) and he has also been to Fiji and NZ.
Anyway after explaining the panoramic view to me and posing for a photo with the view in the background he went off on his way, and left me to have some lunch at a bar. I was joined some minutes later by an old guy from Indianopolis USA who was travelling with a busload of 45 others around Tuscany. They had all gone off in the bus to Florence today and he had decided to just have a quiet day in Chianciano on his own, as he had been to Florence before, taking photos of the old buildings and the magnificent view, so he sat and we chatted about what we had seen and where we had been over the last few days. He thought that I was pretty corageous cycling around on my own.
One of the amazing things about travelling is that you meet the most incredible range of people, from all sorts of countries and from all walks of life and staying in these incredible hotels which have been chosen by Headwater I have come across some people I would never in a million years come across. Take the last night's dinner at Petrignano for instance - there were a couple of American women at the table next to mine. We chatted a bit between courses, but they were chatting constantly to each other through their meal, and whilst I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, when you are sitting alone with no-one else to talk to it is kind of hard not to hear what others are talking about. They compared notes with each other about all the travelling they had done in the last year – this was obviously a catch-up, chill out, spend a lot of money kind of trip for them. They too were pretty amazed that I was cycling, but I don't think they could fathom out why somebody would do that. They had flown from LA to Venice and had been met by a personal driver, who had taken them around all the things they wanted to see. Then they went by train to Florence and again were met at the station by a personal driver who drove them around to all the things they wanted to see there, and then drove them to Petrignano. I was sitting outside in my wee courtyard when they arrived, with this “driver” (wow where did they find that spunky guy?”) who wheeled all their luggage (and who would travel with that many bags? - obviously someone who didn't have to carry them all by themselves) up to their room next to mine.
And I heard them talking about how they get a driver when they travel interstate – or go out at night to the opera or the theatre etc. And their holidays sounded just oh so wonderful. How can people afford to travel like that. Oh how the other half live eh?
Oh well, back to my amazing adventure. After lunch at Chianciano the notes promise some downhill bits, but I now know that for every downhill there has to be an uphill and why is it that the uphill is so much longer than the downhill. And it was very very hot, and not a lot of shade out there. So I made the long uphill bits in 100m bursts. If there was a tree, I headed for it and rested in the shade while I caught my breath and then cycled on for the next 100m or so and took another breather. I can tell you, my training leading up to this trip was definitely not sufficient. Cycling from Greerton to Freedom at the weekends, with the odd evening ride thrown in, twice a week at the gym and a couple of attempts at going round the block including Maleme Street, was definitely not enough. And I should have figured it might be tough seeing that there are only two gradings for the trips in the Headwater book – a 1 cycle (easy grade) or 2 cycle (more challenging). And I should have read that as relatively easy and jolly tough.
However, I was determined to finish the trip under my own steam. And then as luck would have it, about 6kms from the end, I stopped for another drink (down to my last few mouthfuls of water now) and I look down just before getting back on my bike and discover a flipping flat tyre. Oh no, that was just the last straw. And Murphy's law – today I hadn't put the “How to repair a puncture instructions” in with my notes. I had packed them away with all the stuff I had finished with. Oh poos and wees. How much of my lesson from Sarah on my very first nervous morning on how to do this can I remember. So I unpack my panniers and find the repair kit. Well that's a good start, I had that with me. And I got out the pump and tried just pumping up the tyre first. No such luck, that didn't work. So I turn the stupid bike upside down and start. But I know I have done something wrong here - I need to disconnect the brakes, so I turn the bike back up the right way, but do you think I can remember how to do that. I know that it was simple, but I can't figure it out, so I think oh shivers I'll just see how I get on.
Well I get the tyre off and the tube out, but do you think I can find a hole. I can't. So I pump the tube up and see if I can find where it is leaking. Nope – and the tube doesn't seem to be going down very fast, so I stuff it back in the tyre, pump the stupid thing right up, and think oh well maybe it wasn't a puncture, maybe (hopefully) it was only flat after all. So I get it nice and tight this time. Great. So I turn the bike back up the right way, repack my panniers, take a little sip of what's left of my water and turn around – and the sodding thing is flat as a pancake again. So, determined that I am going to do this, I start all over again. But I still can't work out how to detach those brakes and I know that this is quite critical, but what the hell. Out comes the tube again, and try as I might, I cannot find a hole. There is an old repair and I wonder if it is leaking there, but I can't see or feel any air escaping there. I spat on it and couldn't see any bubbles appearing there.
By this time it is just a little after 4pm and I know I still have a hard ride in front of me – and there is thunder rattling all around. Oh what to do. I really didn't want to be a wimp and call Alan, but I am so tired, and so much for Italian chivalry – the only person who asked if I was okay was some old lady out for a walk. So in desparation I phone in. Alan said he would be with me in five minutes – as luck would have it he lives in this wee village. So he comes out and just swaps the wheel over. He asks whether I want a lift now to the Hotel San Biagio or whether I want to complete the trip. I decide to complete it. I asked him if by chance he had any water in the van, but he said he would take my bottle and fill it as I had to cycle past his place. And so a few minutes later he was waiting on the street with a bottle of lovely fresh cold water.
And so the last few kilometres which included – down a very steep hill, followed by a very steep 200m climb and then onto a strada bianca. Another steep 100m climb to a T junction and a futher 100m steep climb. And a bit further on a final right bend and up a short hill before descending to Hotel San Biagio.
OMG – I made it and by about 5.15pm. I surely doubted at several points along the way that I would. But I did. That was some tough ride today. And so hot. I was so tired, the thought of having to walk up the road to the restaurant was a bit more than I could face, but after some more water, and a shower, it was amazing how quickly the body recovers.
Alan and Linda came at 6pm as promised for a debrief. I offered to take them to dinner – two reasons – one to say thank you for rescuing me a couple of times, and secondly it would have been nice to have sat with someone for a meal. However, they declined and left me to go off an enjoy my last meal of the trip. So back to just an ordinary (but delicious) meal in the restaurant up the road. And I had gnocchi ( I really like that and will have to learn how to make it) followed by lamb cutlets and salad. And to finish off tiramisu and coffee.
I staggered home, tired out, and I think I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow. It was still very hot and I slept with the curtains and window open. Oh so much nicer than with all those shutters and things. There is of course the awning – which makes taking an early morning photo of the sunrise over Montepulciano incredibly difficult. And I am always terrified of dropping my camera – it hasn't got a handle I can attach over my wrist and I can't see an easy way to attach one either, so here I am trying to manipulate my stiff body into an angle that I can take a photo between the brick pillar and the awning at 5.20am.
And so now I am preparing for my final day in Montepulciano. I have arranged to stay an extra night here at the hotel and Alan will check out the train timetable for Milano for tomorrow and pick me up and deliver me to Chuisi station in time to catch it. But he thinks the train leaves about 10.16 and gets into Milan at about 3pm so he will pick me up at 9.15am.
So, I have this one wonderful last day to enjoy Tuscany. I must admit the thought of climbing this one last hill is a bit daunting, I am feeling extremely tired. But I have to have a good look around Montepulciano. I have dreamed for so long of coming here, it would be a shame just to have a picture of it from the hotel window, or from the restaurant up the road.
So will report in after I have been up there. Oh dear it looks high and steep.

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