To say my first day of touring alone was an adventure would be an understatement. The flights were very smooth and easy but from there it was all downhill (or uphill Рnot even 100% how that clich̩ goes or if it even makes sense).
When I dropped my bike case off at the X-ray machine, a TSA worker looked at me strangely and asked “what’s in here?”. I told him a bike and he just shrugged. I figured the odds were good they were going to open the box, which is disconcerting because it’s not the easiest thing to pack and close. Sure enough when it came down the luggage conveyer belt I knew it had been opened because of the way the straps were closed. I held my breath a bit when I opened the box and sure enough there was a ding in my top tube and a bunch of black marker on my rims. Not sure how either got there. I can’t think of how my top tube could have been dented other than them just doing it purposefully but I guess I’m just being paranoid. The ding sucks to look at but it really doesn’t affect the ride of the bike.
The bike went together relatively smoothly except for one thing. I snapped the valve stems on two tubes. I’ve never done this before. It was one of those very frustrating bike moments. I was sweating my stones off putting this bike together in the airport and couldn’t get my tires to inflate properly for about 15 minutes. Finally I got things fixed but now I’m down to just one spare tube. I need to go buy a few more today.
In the past two tours Ed has photocopied maps for us to use each day for our rides, which has worked very well. This year I figured I’d go high tech and use a website that creates cue sheet directions automatically from point A to point B. It sure seemed pretty slick, but what a friggin’ disaster they are. The main problem is the website uses very official names for roads etc…and when I asked Italians for help they looked at my directions and were very confused because they didn’t recognize the names of the roads. When I say it took me an hour to figure even the right road to get out the airport it’s not an exaggeration. Getting around Italy by bike is difficult for two reasons. First, there are traffic circles every mile or so and it’s not always so evident as to how to keep on the same road/the signs can be very confusing. This is why a map helps so much since you can identify towns on the way to your route that you can head toward. The second reason it’s difficult to get around Italy by bike is because you could ask five Italians the direction to a town and get 10 different answers.
God bless the Italians, they are truly the best people on earth. When I say I stopped to ask directions 25 times it wouldn’t be an exaggeration. I actually did pretty well with my Italian, although I did notice that some people were easier to understand that others. One gentleman at a gas station insisted on giving my free soda and bottled water when I told him about my trip. He refused to take my money. Italians will always go out of their way to help you. They are never in a rush or too busy to engage you in conversation.
The road I took to Bergamo was concerning because it had a limited shoulder and cars and trucks were whizzing by at 50 to 60 miles an hour. I pulled to the side of the road several times to make sure it was okay to ride on the road and people reassured me it was. I did have to laugh at one point because as I was asking a gas station attendant, an old guy with a big clunker bike and wicker basket cruised by on the road at about 5 miles per hour. I guess that answered my question.
I finally found Bergamo but that was the easy part as it turns out. As I approached the city I was utterly confused as to where my hotel was. No one has heard of the street or the hotel. Finally, I bought a map from a newsstand. I guess it was Murphy’s Law in a sense but when I had a hard time understanding the newsstand owner who didn’t speak a lick of English. When I was plotting my course to get to my hotel he kept shaking his head no and pointing me a different way. But his way seemed very indirect and confusing so I just rode away map in hand, determined to go my way. About 5 minutes later the sky opened up and it just started pissing rain. I’m trying to read this huge street map (you know one of those kinds that folds up like 20 times and you can never get it to refold properly) and it’s a race against time until it disintegrates from the rain. As I’m riding my route I can see why the gentleman was shaking his head. The way I was going had huge hills and roads that were paved with big and awkwardly shaped stones that were impossible to ride on because of the grade and slickness of the roads. I was now 45 miles into what was supposed to be a 35 mile ride and my legs were burning since I got only about 2 hours of sleep on my flight and had about 11 hours of flight travel time (including the layover). As I approached the top of the big hill I looked at my map and laughed as I realized why the newsstand guy told me not to go this way. I was now about to descend back down the hill on the other side. Basically I did this hill (calling it a hill just doesn’t seem right – it was more than a hill – more like a mini-mountain) for no reason. I could have simply ridden around it like he suggested. I finally found my hotel just as my map disintegrated from the rain.
Despite all the adventures and mishaps, I’m here and I’m safe.
Need to buy maps and tubes today!
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