Day One: Old Trafford or Bust

View Todays Ride - 204km !!!

What a day – one of the most memorable days ever!

A bit of a strange start to be fair. No surprises that it wasn’t the greatest nights sleep – the nerves of the day to come, the less sleeping bag on the floor, and the various noises coming from 60 grown men all combined to make sure I was awake well before the 5am wake up call.

As soon as the lights came on people switched into auto-pilot, all looking like they knew exactly what they were doing, packing bags, getting ride kit on, rubbing various lotions on and making final adjustments to the bikes. Not forgetting eating copious quantities of cereal and nutella on bread.

I did the same, but not necessarily with the same degree of confidence – no doubt I’d forget something really important, and hope that someone will get me out of the ensuing hole. We wheeled our cases the 10 minute walk to the trucks, walked back and then returned to the square with our bikes, ready for the off. To everyone’s surprise we were all there and ready to rock with fifteen minutes to spare. Except Dan. Nowhere to be seen and not answering his phone, he finally arrived just on 8am and we were good to go.

The release of nervous energy as we set off across the water away from Venice was huge; to finally be moving forwards and to have started to the ride after all this time was fantastic. For the first few kilometres every single rider rode in single file – what a site to see, with many cars slowing to see what was going on.

Almost a disaster within 10km – one of the riders clipped the wheel in front and went down. Dan, drafting right behind just managed to miss him, and I narrowly avoided going over the handle bars into his head! Lenny followed up just behind, but no serious damage done to anyone and we carried on. Fair to say that the heart rate monitor peaked at its highest point all day, at that moment!

The weather was amazing – supposed to be stormy, but actually sunny and with a nice breeze to keep us cool. The roads were almost flawless (particularly compared to the usual Maltese roads) and everyone seemed to be relishing the ability to go at a decent speed without being jarred every moment. The Italian drivers were also amazing – incredibly aware of us, and patient when we were switching leads in the draft all day long.

The group split after the first check point as we made our way through the country side – It’s difficult to explain how great I felt at that time. I knew it was going to be short lived but I was going to make sure I enjoyed it while it lasted! The scenery was beautiful and finally there was no pressure on me at all to be anywhere else. No morning rides rushing to be at work, no weekend rides rushing to get home, no feelings of guilt that I should be somewhere else or not doing enough miles. Nothing to do but relax and enjoy the ride – made all the easier by the sights, and also knowing I wasn’t going around and around a small island anymore :)

The second checkpoint appeared on the horizon at just over 100km down – another quick round of nutella sandwiches and bananas and we were off again. An 11 man Team Betfair peloton ploughed on together, headwind slowing us a little, but still a really enjoyable ride through Verona and the river, going so well that we were held back at one point for 20 minutes because we’d caught the lead car putting out direction signs!

Our first major technical faults – Lee with wheel problems and Evan losing a spoke or two again – and we left them behind at a fortuitously placed bike shop to sort them out.

We finally reached check point 4 on Lake Garda at around 165km at 4pm. A big lake doesn’t quite cover it – it’s huge (Malta could fit inside it, although that doesn’t guarantee “huge” status I know!) and surrounded by the back drop of the mountains. Beautiful.

A few photos and, yes, another nutella sandwich and we set off for our final stop and our bed for the night. We came down an incline and down a windy hill alongside the most stunning scenery and view of the lake and the next town along (its name escapes me just now, sorry). Again, stunning. And only the Italians can make speed boats/launches as cool and iconic as the ones we saw in the showroom by the side of the road. Straight out of the 60’s and oozing style.

By this time we were ahead of the lead car, and flying blind as we headed in. Dan slowed to ask a passing Italian if we were headed the right way. I have never seen such a cool cyclist in my life. Somehow he managed to keep his immaculate clothes spotless and his slicked back her perfectly in place. Embarassed and ashamed of our appearance we shot past him as quick as our tiring legs would allow.

8 hours and 20 minutes of cycling later we arrived, first in (due to technical faults to the teams who were ahead of us) just before 6pm. The last 15km were tough. Slow going due to the traffic and not knowing where we were going. Oh, and because my legs were dying fast.

Unloading trucks, showering, washing kit, eating a fabulous dinner and getting everything ready for the morning. Everyone is now here – it sounds like an incident packed day for Tim and Alex but they should be good to go by morning. The atmosphere in the place is great, lots of banter and spirits are high.

A reasonably easy day (less hills than the rest of the week at least) but its still the first time many of us have gone over 200km and you can feel the sense of achievement around the place. 204.6km for me and it feels really good to have finally got there.

Tomorrow is another 200km day as we head towards Switzerland – here’s hoping my now aching knees have recovered by the time the alarms go off at 6am.

Sorry, this isn’t the greatest piece of writing you’ve read but I am so tired (more mentally than physically) that it’s hard to try and remember all the things that happened and also how to make them interesting to anyone, not even me! Will try harder but can’t promise anything!