Henley was so excited to get going that he got up early to pack his bags and put on his bike gear before promptly going back to sleep !
We first took a magic outdoor breakfast in the sun with Francesco feting us while we took in the incredible Dolomite views. Not to be one to ignore a challenge Henley then followed up with his first hammock experience successfully depositing himself before failing miserably when it came time to get out !
Saying goodbye to our lovely host we rocketed downhill through small villages to join the main road and sit back and enjoy the first 8kms which were mainly downhill !
It wasnt long before "eagle eyes" spotted a problem with my rear wheel - pulling over I removed all my gear (panniers not clothes) to establish I had yet another broken spoke !
At the next town Feltre I was directed to a nearby bike shop where they embarrassingly replaced my broken spoke as well as my rear tyre in less than 40 minutes and charged me 34 euro which also included some lube oil (the tyre was marked at 25 euro) - talk about prompt service with a smile !
Back on the main roads again and with a much nicer running bike we came to an intersection that required some decision making - keep going and take on some road tunnels (not recommended) or put on our climbing gear for the 11 kms remaining to Sovramonte.
I'm glad we chose the later because after a few kms we entered the first of 4 road tunnels (there was apparently only one direction). While the last 3 were manageable the first one scared the hell out of us. At 850 metrs long you could hear cars coming from ages away with a steadily increasing noise similar to a fleet of tanks ,!
It was easy to crap yourself not knowing what was approaching. Henley still shell shocked realized in the 2nd tunnel that he was riding in the middle of the tunnel blind no tunnel lights ) until he worked out that he still had on his dark sunglasses !
We gladly exited for a change of nicks and some outstanding mountain views !
The last section of our short days ride was a bum busting 5 kms into Sovramonte where we were greeted by our amazing host Luciano who went way out of his way to make us feel at home by providing us sandwiches and soft drink for lunch and even grappa filled coffee !
With Luciano doing volunteer work for the community we were left to our own devices in essentially his own house. While Kev was feeling energetic going for a walk i was too buggered given the constant sun we've been getting !
Dinner was a long walk downhill to a nearby village to complete a welcome short day !
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ReplyDeleteHi Kevin, we are enjoying trying to follow you through this area, however more place names would make it easier. We did have a snigger at your expense though....day 8 to Tiago, you know if you had gone further east to Tovena and then headed north you would have climbed the San Boldo Pass WAY less steep and some very exciting tunnels near the top with traffic lights to make them one way. We did it last year, up and down with a presence at the bottom. Very historic too. Never mind, you took a very courageous route. Good luck for the rest of the trip!
ReplyDeleteChristine
That's meant to be a " prosecco" at the bottom !
ReplyDelete