After a nice sleep-in we arose after 7:00 – the doggies usually stir well before that so it was nice to get a little more shut-eye.
When I took Mo for her morning walk I was amazed at the lovely golden tones in the light – just a beautiful area, and so peaceful.
We followed the route for about 50 km before turning onto a faster road to the town of Sarnano where we stopped for a delicious cappuccino.
I took a short walk around while Colin finished his coffee – it seems like a lovely place, although as so many towns in the area had been heavily damaged by the quake in 2016.
It’s a town that caters to many things – hiking, biking, skiing and also has thermal baths.
Continuing on our way out of the town, the last 13 km of the day’s stage is all uphill to the finish at Sassotetto – not an easy climb.
We drove all the way to the top, then backtracked a few km to a nice pullout where we stopped, only to find that the satellite dish wasn’t working – oh well. As I was cooking our lunch of pork sausages and mashed potatoes a car pulled up and the fellows started talking to Colin. He called me out to interpret and I realized that it was two of the men we’d met at Strade Bianche! We got to meet their wives and then they were on their way further up towards the summit to watch the race from.
As usual the arrival of the first racer was immediately preceeded by no less than seven motos and two official cars – and the sole rider was Simon Yates.
Michael Woods was about a minute behind, and ended up losing the overall lead, but still placed well at the end.
We ended up with another five bidons at the end of the day, and we even traded a Trek one (we had another) for an Ineos Grenadiers that another fan had gotten.
Trek was what he’d really wanted because Italian hero Nibali rides for them now, so we happily traded, even tho Ineos is our least favourite team. Their bidons are quite spiffy looking, however, so we’re not disappointed.
Many of the racers zipped back down the mountain on their bikes, even tho we’d seen all of the team buses go up the hill hours earlier. The sprinters and stragglers were still coming up for almost half an hour, so the down-coming rides had to take care as they were descending extremely fast.
After bringing down the flags we headed down the hill and north to the motorway that took us east to the Adriatic, where we continued north just past Ancona. Our stop for the night was a large church parking lot in the town of Ostra, which is very near the next day’s route.
I’ve started going for slightly longer rides, mostly to the west/southwest and to some different villages. The terrain is still hilly, but a bit less cultivated, with more forests.
We left The Poggio and our beautiful view early in the morning the day after the race. Deciding to drive all the way home in one day we took to the peage. As we passed thru – or over – Genova we got to go on the rebuilt viaduct. It only opened four days prior to replace the old one that tragically collapsed two years ago, killing 43 people.
We again took the paege, making our way south to the coast then west along to Santo Stefano al Mare and to a campground that we’ve stayed at before. I can’t say how lovely it was to have a nice hot shower, and on top of that – clean laundry!
There are several resident kittens that quickly became my dear little friends since I just had to feed them – doesn’t make up for how much I miss my own Sly guy back home, but helps a bit.
I had wi-fi for the first time in a week so tried to catch up on emails, etc, and even posted a blog, but it seems to not have worked.
After giving the kitties a large breakfast the next morning we were on our way to the Poggio.
We got a perfect spot in the parking lot above the race course right in a corner overlooking the Sea. (Note about photo: this was taken through a chain-link fence, so the blurry lines are part of the fence, but this was our actual view)
We had a delicious cappuccino at the cafe/bar on the corner, and chatted a bit with one of the older gentlemen we’d met here last year. He asked if we were german – he worked in Germany for two years and speaks a little german, but we managed to have a short conversation with my italian.
Returning to the bar later in the afternoon we had a drink and enjoyed a small complimentary plate of appies before going back to the campervan for a salmon and rice dinner.
It had been a fairly hot day, but the almost constant breeze from the sea helped a bit and my solo walk in the evening was very pleasant.
Race day came with sunshine and blue skies. We’re somewhat surprised that there is only one other campervan in the parking area – it’s been recently resurfaced, which is great, and it is pretty full, but cars, not campers. Last year – end of March, of course – there were dozens of campervans.
We had our cappuccino at a different cafe/bar, then took a little walk around the village before visiting the wine shop – the one with the hoses in the wall – then the other cafe.
There are some other fans here, but nothing like last year, and we’re all pretty good about the face masks and/or distancing, etc. To compare I’ve included a photo from last year taken at a similar time race-wise to this year:
He was very polite and apologetic, but we weren’t allowed to use flashes. Colin re-located further down and around the corner, but I stayed where I was, just around and down a bit from the crest of the Poggio.
The tv heli appeared about five minutes before the first racer – Alaphilippe! – followed closely by Wout van Aert (winner of Strade Bianche).
There were only a few seconds before more and more riders passed – and I finally got a shot of Nibali.
I also got decent shots of Michael Matthews – who had a torn shoulder – as well as Belgian champion Naesen.
After many of the racers had passed I got ready to sneak across the road to watch the end of the race on tv in the bar – just then Colin came up the hill to do the same thing. The Poggio is just 4 km from the finish, and it’s all hairpin turns downhill then a bit of flat road to the end in Sanremo.
Another wonderful race day!
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 