Ride Details:
The first of eleven days travelling with 20+ kg split into 5 bags brought up mixed feelings. On one hand I am very relieved that I was able to carry this much weight on a long ride with over 1.700 meter of combined ascent; however, this was the most demanding psychological ride of my life. At times, it seemed that I was cycling in a stationary bike, as not only there were plenty of climbs with a heavy load, but the asphalt was not good at all in more than 60% of the places; at one point my average speed was below 14km/h (which turned out to be around 17km/h, right on my projection). I able to really notice how much of an influence the quality (poor) of the asphalt was, as the few parts that the asphalt was smooth and it seemed that I had dropped at least one pannier...once I actually looked back because I couldn't believe that I had gone from 14-16km/h to 25-30km/h.
The entire ride took place on secondary roads, as will the rest of my bike trip in Italy, and not surprising at all, cars, buses and trucks respect cyclist a great deal here. The most amazing part of the ride was coming down the hill on the last part and seeing Orvieto from above...I couldn't believe it was an actual city...it seemed like it was a scenery from a movie, such as one of those monasteries or kingdoms...AMAZING! The rest of the ride was a mix of climbing (about 49km and 1.792 meters in total), passing through small towns and villages (about 10), some riding in the middle of the woods (definitely another great surprise) and lots of riding along side fields and farms. Side note: I have never seen so many farms that grow sheeps was I saw today.
- Total time riding: 8:47
- Total time travelling: 9:45h
- Total Ascent: 1.792 meters
- Total distance: 142,1km
