Day 51: Leaving our support crew and losing direction

La Morra – Avigliana 79.64km 🚴‍♀️ 4.08.31 ⏱19.2km/hr ⬆️ 295m (Suuz 422m) ⬇️ 390m 🌡41C

So this morning we felt a little sad. Not cause the breakfast sucked or we had a crappy sleep. The total opposite, we had a great sleep in a bed 🛏 that was so comfy we almost didn’t leave, and the hotel breakfast was absolutely amazing. All these local products like home made hazelnut chocolate 🍫 paste, fresh fruit 🍉🍇🍓🍑, nuts 🌰, yoghurt, pancakes 🥞, quiche, tomato and mozzarella, croissants 🥐, pastries 🥮, cakes 🍰, cold cut and a selection of cheeses, 100 types of bread. Definitely the winner breakfast of our entire trip. Nevertheless we felt a little sad because this morning we left the last one of our support crews behind 😢. 

In addition to our supportive home team we had a couple of support visits along the way. Our first support crew joined us in Dubrovnik where we enjoyed a great and very relaxing weekend with Daphne and Ronald in this awesome apartment with private pool 🏊‍♀️ and not to forget Kutjevo wine 🍷. They were the first to come and visit and share their weekend away with us. 

Later on we met Lotte en Lars in this Italian paradise called Valtellina. We spent a couple of days in the mountains ⛰ and sometimes literally in the vineyards 🍇. Our hotel had this great jacuzzi with an amazing view over the Sondrio Valley. The food was absolutely fantastic as was the wine 🍷 , and cause of our great company we got to learn a lot more about it.

Only two days ago Suuz her parents made the effort to come over and see us in the midst of northern Italy in between Milan and Torino. It wasn’t the most idyllic place, but it was so nice to see them again after so many weeks ❤️ . Sad enough we did have to cycle on the days they were here, but they were sweet enough to follow and to meet us for coffee ☕️ and lunch 🥗 in between. Luckily we had some lovely evenings and dinners together although they did have to deal with our tiredness after many weeks on the bikes.

After saying goodbye to Jan and Karin we met Lotte en Lars again for a great afternoon and evening in La Morra. We already wrote about this awesome place yesterday, but it was great to see them again, although they also had to deal with two tired 😴 cyclists. Luckily it won’t be too long before we see all of them again, but since our holidays are not really coordinated it will be another few weeks. 

Anyway, we also had to cycle 🚴‍♀️ 🚴‍♀️ today. It started with this great downhill out of La Morra. It was really humid again today and some kind of haze hang over ‘the valley’ so there wasn’t a lot to see. After the downhill there was a little climb into Bra after a few kilometres, but after that it was all flat. Like Holland 🇳🇱 flat. And like Holland farmland. And a bit of Holland industrial zones. Don’t get me wrong, Holland has some beautiful areas for cycling, but we don’t want that in Italy. We’ve been spoiled with a huge variety of landscapes during our trip so we bore easily I guess. But on the other hand, it wasn’t as busy as cycling close to Milan. We most definitely had the better route today.

The good thing about flat is that you go fast. We were really tired and extremely overheated 🥵 for the biggest part of the day. Temperature got close to 40 degrees again so we stopped a little more often for drinks and shadow. 

We had coffee in Racconigi just besides this enormous gated building. We don’t know what it is and we didn’t go and check it out so if you do have the time and energy please let us know. After our espresso ☕️we just got on the bikes and continued. I wish there was more to say about today but there just isn’t. I can mention the douchbag that raced his ugly BMW by us so closely we could feel it brush our hands. Or maybe I can talk about how Suuz really doesn’t know how to communicate directions. 

So below is how we cycle 99% of the time: Mas in front to watch upcoming traffic and Suuz behind to watch traffic coming from behind. Suuz is also the one navigating and giving Mas directions. Let’s just say she has a very unique way of doing so….

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So let’s have a look at some real life situations. I am the blue dot 🔵, Suuz tells me to take the most right exit (‘de rechtste afslag’, where do you think I have to go? 

Again, I am the blue dot 🔵, Suuz tells me to go left, where do you think I have to go? 

Okay last one. So I am the blue dot 🔵, Suuz tells me not to make a sharp left (‘hard links’ in Suuz lingo), but to go slantwise left straight (‘schuin links rechtdoor’). This terminology might be weird for you, but for me it’s become perfectly normal. But the question is, where do you think I had to go? Yeah so we changed this into an interactive website, you can unsubscribe. I don’t know how, but you can try. And let me know when you know.

Anyway, we had lunch in None because there is none and we almost didn’t get none. We got half of the drinks that we ordered at a local cafe, but we also ate our own bread 🥯 there so we can’t complain too much. After None it was another 21 kilometres. We could already see some hills coming up ahead and the road went slightly up (falsch flat) from there on. We planned to stay at a campground ⛺️ since we are a little low on budget, but we just could not do it. With this heat in a tent 🥵. And the hours before you go into the tent with nowhere to hide from the heat. It was just undoable. Or it was doable of course, we would have lived, but we really didn’t want to. 

We found a pretty cheap B&B with shared bathroom 🚽but luckily there was no one else to share it with. We did laundry 🧺, walked a few hundred meters down to the lake for a swim 🏊🏻‍♀️but the water was almost hot and there was a dog 🐕 that barked like a crow 🦅 so we left within half an hour. We stayed in the room the rest of the evening. We even ordered in tasty 😋 pizza 🍕. The only thing that was missing was an airco!! Tomorrow it’s only 36km towards the mountains ⛰, but we already have to climb about 500m. We take a rest day at the foot of mount Cenis before we begin our last stretch over four huge ass Alp colls to finish in Geneva.