Today's ride has been a bit of a slog down the SS-16 (super strada - literally super street), the coastal road that we are mostly following for the last part of this tour. It's been baking hot, pushing 34°C, and the only breeze was a slight headwind.
Being a Sunday, we encountered very many locals who headed to the beaches - parking to the west of the SS-16 and crossing to the beach on the other side. Additionally, the local roadies were out in force in the morning, giving us plenty of cheers as they came past in the opposite direction. What was surprisingly was how easily we caught up to several riders. The first rider, a mustachioed Italian man who looked very much like Mario (of Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers), overtook us with a couple of other riders who quickly turned off to the right. As soon as he lost their draft, he slowed down significantly and we rapidly decided to overtake him. Phil, being the polite English cyclist that he is, took it slowly to allow him to draft us, but we lost him soon after I took over.
After this, a tall Italian rider cut in front of us, and tried to accelerate away into the headwind. Sadly for him, I was happy to try and keep up and despite a couple of sprints, he was unable to shake us. Eventually he turned off to the right to leave us to fend for ourselves.
Soon after this, we caught up with a pair of middle aged riders who were riding alongside one another. They weren't very quick and their riding etiquette made the normally erratic car drivers look good in comparison! We overtook then once but they came flying past as we stopped at a traffic light and they decided that they were too good for that inconvenience. Never fear though, we soon overtook them again, never to see them again.
The afternoon got warmer still and we suffered in heat. Stopping at a supermarket, we picked up snacks - Phil buying many litres of water and fresh cut coconut. I bought some outwardly plain looking fresh chocolate cookies and a litre of milk, wondering if I had paid too much for the free cookies over the cheaper factory made cookies. I was in heaven later though when I discovered the insides of the cookies were filled with a Nutella-like chocolatey substance. After drinking most of the litre of milk, we headed on, albeit a little slower.
The only deviation from the SS-16 today was a small climb that took us parallel for some time, past a rather scenic view of the coastline and a less scenic flytipping site.
We stopped at a small restaurant at a beach hotel for lunch where the waitor spoke excellent English and warned me that the penne arrabbiata would be spicy. I laughed down this fact and, after verifying that there was no meat in the sauce, ordered the pasta. This was excellent, and having eaten relatively spiceless European food for the last two weeks, it was great to have something a little bit chilli...
We pushed on, slowly at first as the sheer volume of pasta digested and then quicker. However, the headwind prevented us from pushing much above 18 mph, often travelling at a speed closer to 16 mph. As we got closer to Pescara, the road was cordoned off and several police officers stood guard. Despite this, pedestrians and cyclists were freely moving through the area so we took their lead and cycled through. We almost made it through the second inflatable arch on the road before realising it was the finishing line of a local road race - Trofeo Matteoti, a race in its 67th year. Given we had seen many team vans and cars on the road earlier, it made sense when we learned that it was an international race frequented by semi professional riders. Total distance for the day was 84.05 miles, at an average of 15.4 mph over 5.26.07.
Pescara itself is a large city and we're staying in a rather nice Best Western hotel called the Duca D'Aosti. Nearly everything around the hotel is shut but in our quest for gelato, we found an excellent 'modern' coffee shop where I had an iced chocolate called a 'Make-Mou'. Walking further, a board directed us to a bar where Phil had some sort of excellent bitter (beer) and I had a sangria rosso. The very amusing bar owner (who had lived in Bermondsey and spoke excellent English) directed us to the gelato shop - just two shopfronts down the road. My highlight of the conversation was when he asked Phil what football team he supported. Phil replied 'Liverpool, to please my girlfriend' and our barkeep mentioned that he ha other ways to please his girlfriend. Hah.
This gelateria was amazing and, like the coffee shops we'd seen so far, quite unconventional. They served many flavours of machine dispensed frozen yoghurt as well as several gelatos which were all made without milk. We elected for the latter and, true to the owner's claim, it was the best dark chocolate ice cream I've had. To top it off, he gave us free t-shirts, which we will covet after two weeks of wearing our increasingly odorous home brought shirts.
