Milano San Remo final stage 12

San Remo to San Remo

Strava: 26.6 km, 110m, 1:10, 21 shifts

Today’s stage was a sort of bonus stage. The idea was to ride back along the bike path in the direction of Milano, then turn around and ride the last, most exciting part of the famous Milano San Remo bike race that our tour is named after. The race has been run since 1907 and covers 294 km via a very different route from that of our tour. The last part includes two small but interesting passes, the Cipressa and the Poggio.

• Milano San Remo Race: 294 km, approx 2,200-2,300m climbing, fastest time 6:14:44
• Milano San Remo Bike Dreams: 1,090 km, approx 23,000m climbing, 12 days

After breakfast, we met out in front of the hotel for a group photo. Then we were free to ride as much of the course as we liked. The recommended route was out and back, 46 km total, with the two passes. There was another track provided that is 117 km, and some people did various other routes. I didn’t want to strain my lungs at all, so stuck to the flat part along the coastline and didn’t do the passes. My route was 26 km, mostly on the bike path.

I rode with a group, then split off to check out the coast line, and eventually rode back solo. I think my favorite part was the tunnels. There were several, and they really reminded me of unicycling from Nice to Aix-en-Provence back in 2007 when we rode through many similar tunnels. Nice and cool inside! I got back in the late morning and spent time packing my bike box. I disassembled my bike to fit in the box, then packed in other stuff: helmet, tools, lock, spares etc. It’s really nice to have that job done.

In the early afternoon once everyone was back we got together for a champagne lunch, no speeches or anything, just toasts and a nice time. Reflecting on the trip was fun and while a number of us may meet again on future tours, this exact group will never be together again.

I checked into my flight in the afternoon and hung out downstairs for a while. Then it was dinner time and we had one last big meal together. Tonight’s veggie option was much better and I sat at a table that really liked wine. Peter was a star and just picked up the tab for all the bottles at the end! Eddy gave a touching talk about how great the tour was and how much fun the group was. Each of the people who sign up for a trip like this are amazing individuals. It was such a pleasure to get to know more of the tribe and reconnect with the people I knew from previous tours. I hope I can do another one someday.

On these tours I maintained my flat-free record using tubeless tires. These two tours added to my other recent four tours total nearly 25,000 km in 245 stages, all with no tire changes or repairs during a tour. Tubeless really is the way!

On this tour, we also maintained the hospital-free record from Tutti Dolomiti (actually all three Bike Dreams trips so far this season have been accident-free). I’m really happy about that. I hope everyone makes it home safely too. Tomorrow we will scatter all over the planet.