Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning my cold was much worse and by the time I was finishing breakfast I decided it just didn’t make any sense to fight the rain that was forecast to fall all day. I need to heal, not get sicker. So I loaded up my bike along with four others into Wijnand’s luggage truck. Skip and I got the two seats. The rest rode in Dion’s extra van or Ben’s lunch van.
We left soon after the riders and drove a shorter route, with a stop for groceries – vegetables for Wijnand to make today’s soup plus lunch for us. After that I fell asleep for a while then woke up as we were stopping at a coffee shop, maybe 10 km from Asiago. After a nice drink and a chat, we continued on and pulled into our hotel right outside Asiago.
The place is quiet and spacious and only had one family of four staying plus our group. They had a nice garage for the bikes and a covered area for soup cooking/eating. They only needed to see one passport for the whole group so we used mine – that way I could get my room right away and have a nap. I helped with baggage until mine was uncovered, then went upstairs.
I was asleep when Mike came in, pretty wet. The weather was better than predicted; it only actually rained for half the ride. Still, it was about 71 km with almost 1,900m climbing – not an easy day. After he washed up and took care of his bike we hung out until dinner which was quite tasty. We had tomorrow’s briefing: a big ride, 127 km with almost 3,000m of climbing. The forecast has worsened to showers all day starting at 10 am. I’ll have to see how I feel in the morning. But I really don’t want to miss this ride since it includes the climb of Monte Grappa, one of the famous ascents in the Dolomites. In fact, it is included in Stage 15 of this year’s Giro d’Italia which will happen on May 25, two days after our ride. Here’s to a night of improvement!
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