Milano San Remo Stage 1

Milano to Lago d’Orta

Strava: 109.03 km, 721m, 4:55, 199 shifts

I slept reasonably well and then we were back into the rhythm from the Tutti Dolomiti tour: breakfast at 7, dress, pack, check-out, luggage in the truck, pack the bike, and take off before 8:30. Today was Sunday morning, so Milano was pretty quiet. The stage was split into two tracks. First we followed track zero for three km to the Duomo di Milano for the official start, then the rest of the way was track one. It was nice to see the beautiful Cathedral again, first time since 2013 when I visited my son Beau who was living in Milano then. Wilbert organized us into a line for the photo, snapped once, and said, “Have at it” or something to that effect. Today’s trivia: this stage is my 219th Bike Dreams stage, the start of my fifth tour. There were 109 stages in the Andes Trail and another 109 in the Balkan Boulevard, Paris Dakar and Tutti Dolomiti combined.

Off we went, a few km on mellow city streets, then onto a bike path. We followed the path for about 65 km, all the way to lunch and it was definitely well used on a Sunday morning. Cyclists, runners and walkers were all out. The path follows a canal so it very gently climbs – the Naviglio Grande canal climbs only 34m in 49.9 km. So the riding was pretty easy. We changed sides often and I cruised at an easy speed. At 48 km, the fast guys called out and I joined them for cold drinks and a banana, then headed up to lunch at 69 km. It was the normal Bike Dreams lunch, but the overcast by then had burned off and it was sunny and pretty hot. The humidity makes it feel hotter than it is. Someone said it was 31° which sounds about right.

After lunch we had another 40 km, on normal roads, but without a lot of traffic. Toward the end, we did have a bit of climbing, seven short climbs of 50-100m each. Then suddenly I could see the lake and knew I was close. One final descent and I rolled into the hotel. Sitting in the shade, sipping Wijnand’s excellent soup was great. Then a cold shower! Awesome. I was planning a swim in the nice looking pool but relaxed in the A/C instead. A few ambitious riders did some extra today, but I’m saving power for tomorrow, when the real climbing starts and it will probably still be hot. I recharged a little in the afternoon with a nap.

I went down an hour before dinner and had some drinks with riders; the bartender also gave us some snacks. Dinner was at 7, on a covered outdoor patio with a gorgeous view of the lake and the very pretty island of San Giulio. It was a long, relaxed dinner, with four bottles of wine for our table of eight wine drinkers. Seconds were available for each course and we probably ate way more than they are used to. All in all it was a great first day of the tour.