Nathan’s stats: 62.58 km, 555m climbing, 3:11 riding time
After breakfast, we started out in nice cool air, cruising down the bike path. We were really impressed with the bike paths in this area. It’s so nice to be able to ride from town to town for long distances almost without riding on roads at all. Our guide Rosita told us that one town nearby did a study and found that the investment they made in bike paths was paid back in economic activity five times within 4-5 years.
We stopped for lunch at a lake where water from a hydro project was running past. The water was cold and nice for swimming but it wasn’t officially allowed. After lunch, the Rebel Swimming Group (Katie, Rosita, Scott, Wendy, Greg and Suzy), found a secret place and went in briefly. They were very refreshed and happy.
We still had 20 km or so to our finish, but before we got to the hotel, we stopped at Bianca Vigna, a Prosecco Winery, for a tour. The tour through the production facility was interesting but I think most of us were most excited about the tasting. A very long table was setup outside for us, and once we moved it into the shade, we were set. We sampled four types, a standard Brut DOC, a DOC Rose and then a dry and a sweet Rive (top quality) Prosecco. This was really fun and refreshing too.
From the winery we had a short ride to Conegliano, and soon were checked in to our hotel. After showers and some relaxing, we headed out on a walk to dinner. There was a gelateria right next door, so even though dessert was limone sorbet (the kind you drink), most of us had second dessert next door. Then we took a detour downtown and stumbled upon a Friday night party (all night every Friday in July). It seemed like the whole town was there! We saw little kids racing on toy tractors, dance contests and an amazing game of foosball played with humans who had their hands taped to the bars.
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