Maintenance Day

Looking busy...

Day off the bike today here in Villa Santina. Don't know if it was needed but just trying to be prudent as I don't want to spoil this ride with an injury, or overdoing it early on. It did give me some time to plan the route ahead though, do some bits and pieces to the bike (still can't find that squeak in my pedals), and have a little lie down in the afternoon which is always nice.

I would have liked to of said that I had a good look around the town, but I can't really. It is only a small town and I did all the wondering last night when out looking for something to eat. There seems to be a lot of hiking trails around the area, but thought they may defeat the purpose of resting if I went on one (as well as jandals not being the best footwear for hiking).

Did check over the bike and saw nothing untoward which is great. Oiled the chain, finally got the handlebars straight (although I have thought that every day for the past three), and fixed up the gears which were getting a bit noisy when changing at times.

Worked on the route for the next week or so and culled a few climbs off the list. It is quite tough as you think a climb is a day away off a natural route or that if you do climb it you will need to backtrack to get back to make the next climb, and you ask yourself is that one worth it? If I had an infinite amount of time the answer would be easy, but as I don't it is difficult. My worry is that I get to the end of the Pyrenees with three days in hand and think to myself "what a waste, I should have done blah blah climb after all" (or I don't get to the Pyrenees and say "if only I didn't take that rest day"). I keep telling myself though even it it did eventuate that I would have seen and done so many climbs it would not be an issue anyway.

So tomorrow I will have a go at Monte Zoncolan, just up and down from Ovaro, then after lunch up to Monte Crostis with a loop return to Villa Santina. I will be covering a fair amount of roads that I have already cycled on but the important ones, the climbs, I have not. I am actually really excited about tomorrow as it will be the first of one of the greats (Zoncolan) that I will be riding. Not that the others weren't great to ride, but Zoncolan has history. It has only been in the Giro five times (I believe), but it has a reputation for being one of the toughest - it averages 11.5% for the 10km climb (less than Kitzbuheler Horn's 12.9%) but apparently has a kilometer stretch averaging 17% on the way up which could break a man.

We will see how I go then, huh!

Highlight: Managing to Skype with Holly.
Lowlight: Remembering that I put my sunglasses down on my travels yesterday and didn't pick them back up. Only really wear them on cold descents anyway, and they were cheap ones but still.
Lesson learned: Pizza may not be great in Italy if they are all like the one I had today, must continue to investigate as otherwise that bubble has been burst - unlike the pasta bubble which is well and truly intact with gnocchi now ticked off the list.

Instead of my ride data, today I will leave you with one of my post ride routines...

Step 1 - find water source, and agitate (with soap) until water is grey...as above

Step 2 - rinse and wring out to dry using micro fiber. Towels will do but then you have a wet towel to dry yourself (unless you use someone else's). Micro fiber seems to wring out a lot more water as well so dries quicker.

Step 3 - find random things to hand your clothes line from in the flow of air to allow your clothes to dry.