Balkan Stage 31 Karpenisi to Patras, Greece

Oct 11, 2022

Stage 31 of 36, day 37 of 43: 134.1 km, 2116m climb, 6:25 Moving, 7:12 Total,  66.7 kph max

Country	Distance	Climbing
Slovenia	352.2	5149
Italy	29.3	346
Croatia	950.9	11,430
Bosnia & Herzegovina	211.0	1444
Montenegro	29.3	185
Albania	688.2	9749
Greece	564.5	10,023
Total	2825.4	38,326

The weather has changed on us. The days of blue skies with hardly any clouds and no threat of rain are gone. The forecasts are pretty useless but said we’d be pretty wet by the early afternoon. We had breakfast in a very large dining room, empty except us. Quite a few people were wearing masks, even if they haven’t tested positive (me for example).

It was a really nice start of a long stage though, no uphill at all! We rode down the hotel driveway then turned to coast down to the top of town, then rocketed down through town – I hit over 65 and then led the next 20 km down a scenic valley.

Around 23 km, we stopped to remove extra clothes for the first climb.

We headed up the hill, starting out quite steep. It went on and on and on, although there were a few short flat or downhill sections. Bob and I stopped to explore a little 2-storey fort.

Back to climbing. It was steep for a long time and we had some rain sprinkles but not that much. As I got up to the summit, the road was actually dry for the first time today.

Finally there was a good descent, a bit cold so I wore two jerseys. I got to pass two giant cement mixers – the road was just barely wide enough. I think the drivers were surprised. Lunch was relatively early, at 57 km with almost 80 to still go. But we had done the big obstacle of the day and it was great to refuel. I headed off and soon we were riding by Lake Trichonida, the largest lake in Greece. After that the sun was out and it was quite hot, and flat and boring for a little while. Then a climb started and we got our plane which seems to be a daily thing now.

I picked some ripe blackberries by the road, and then we had a nice downhill to an old bridge that was loud to ride over.

By this point, we were within maybe 30 km of Patras and started to be on the lookout for water (the Gulf of Corinth) and the bridge we’d heard so much about. After another 5 km climb, we could finally see it.

We made quick work of the few kilometers to get there and soon found ourselves under the bridge at a statue of a runner carrying the Olympic torch – the bridge was opened the day before the 2004 Olympic Games and the torch was carried across it then.

After we crossed the bridge, we had another five flights of stairs to negotiate down, then about 10 km to ride through increasingly more traffic. Finally we were in downtown Patras and pulled up at the hotel, a big stage done. Caroline had MANY snacks out and we ate massively. Then it was time for showers and cleaning up. But pretty soon, it was 6:30 and the Craft Beer Lovers team had a meeting at Beer Bar Q. This turned out to be pure gold. The first three pages of the menu were dedicated to only beer. SO many types. They “only” had about 15 on draft but tons of interesting ones in bottle too. And the place was just gorgeous.

We had to use Google Translate in camera mode to find something without meat on the menu – delicious “Vegetable Burgers” FTW. It was so fun. We ended up with our Craft Beer Lovers group of five plus four others. After dinner and several rounds, Tom, Bob and I walked up the street marveling at the sheer number of people out enjoying the evening on a Tuesday. It was really amazing. We had a round of excellent gelato, then walked home. What a great day!