Today, our girls played Netherlands and the Israel completely thrashing them both. Both games were very well spirited and, once again, I reckon (and so did pretty much all others) that Alice was the best on ground!
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| Zone defence against NED |
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| Alice launches the frisbee |
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| Police presence for Israel game |
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| A minute silence for MH17 |
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| Alice guarding 2 players |
I'm in Lecco to watch Alice play for the Australian women's u20 ultimate frisbee team. On Sunday, things kicked off with an opening parade (we didn't know anything about the schedule for any part of the tournament till Saturday - it's Italy!). Hundreds of youngsters turned up in the central piazza and the marched off with an American-style marching band to the downtown stadium where the Italian and Irish women got to play the first game as an exhibition match (it counted).
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| Alice and Molly with other Aussie team members |
The bulk of the tournament wasn't going to be at this stadium but at fields about a 30 minute bike ride out of town. Ex-polo fields that still have a pungent aroma but somehow they managed to fill and grass all the hoof divots.
The girls were in a pool with Colombia, GBR and Latvia. We were seeded third in this pool with Colombia at 1 and GBR 2.
Sadly, on day 1 the girls played in rain and wind and the Latvians came out more fired up and won :(. Day 2 saw them play better against GBR. They didn't expect that they could win this and came close but missed out. Alice was outstanding in this game making several blocks defensively and throwing multiple goals.
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| Setting up the line for a point against GBR |
Maybe I'm not fully objective, but Alice is clearly the best player on our team.
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| Our best player |
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| A bit down after the loss |
After lunch the girls had to play Colombia. This was scarey as Colombia was not only seeded top of pool but number 1 overall. They were awesome. All these little brown girls doing groovy warm ups to music then coming out and running like demons with all of them throwing and catching perfectly. We got thrashed 17- a couple. I think team USA will win this year though, having watched parts of their games.
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| Post-game huddle |
The girls have now dropped to the bottom pool and can play off to win that pool and then play against the losing teams in the top pool for a best possible final position of 9th, I think. Tomorrow's first match is against Netherlands then we have one against Israel in the afternoon.
The day after my mountains ride, I headed off, a bit tired, towards Aprica. This would be the last proper climb - up to 1200m- then a massive descent to the valley (Valtellina) below.
After a hot 25km on a busy narrow highway in the valley, I stumbled across a bike path next to the river Adda which was such a delight as it was mostly shady and it opened up the possibility of a swim
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| Valtellina bike path |
The river itself was flowing fast and it was difficult to get down to it but I did find a feed in stream and had a cool down soak
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| Unnamed cool stream |
I followed the path to Morbegno where I stayed in a B&b run by a young Italian couple who loved Australia after their 1 year there in 2011. Rocco had the map of Oz tattooed on his arm! They were so nice and helpful and made the best breakfast of the trip so far ( rye bread, bisciola - a walnut and fig bread, home made jams, and super fresh peaches from Sara's mum's garden.
I took off back to the bike path and was checking the signs when an old codger came up and asked me where I was heading. I told him to Colico on the lake and he said "I'll ride with you". He was awesome, chatting all the way (all in Italian), he kept holding onto my arm in a friendly Italian way, which would have scared the crap out of me except I think he used to be a pro cyclist. I learnt that the best way to be healthy is to drink a little wine, lots of water, chew your food a lot and cycle each day.
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| Bruno - 87 years old! |
Once I got to the lake at Colico I rang the B&B wherre I was going to stay to let them know I was arriving. Eugenio, the owner, said that he would wait for me and then he'd be heading off sailing. I quickly slipped in that I sail and he said, "OK, I wait you and take you with me!". Cool!
When I got there, he had already packed a bag with lunch and water and a towel for me. He handed me a helmet then we zoomed off down to the Marina and Dervio and hopped onto his boat and took off for a leisurely 5 hours of sailing!
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| I think I just pooped in my pants - he drives fast! |
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| Eugenio - master of sail |
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| Happy Stan |
Every boat that sailed past knew Eugenio and he would yell out to them all that he had a Tasmanian on board who had been cycling around Italy and had ridden up the Gavia and Mortirolo passes. Then they would all roar their amazement and I'd feel a bit embarrassed.
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| Varenna from the water |
After sailing, we had the obligatory Aperol Spritzs at the marina bar and then Eugenio asked if I wanted to go our for dinner with him and his friend coming from Milano that evening. Sure!
We went to a restaurant in the next village and the food was great
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| Squid ink pasta with bottarga and trout |
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| Salted grilled missultine with buckwheat polenta |
What a great day all round.
It was very sad to say bye to Bri and Noah in Milan airport. That meant, though, that I could turn my loneliness into cycling energy!
I spent the afternoon in Milano, caught the train to bergamo (which is a beautiful town) and then headed off the next morning towards the real mountains! I did 75 km up the valley to Boario then caught a train the rest of the way (35km) to edolo so I could save my legs for the 'big' mountains day.
Luckily Bri woke me up with a skype call (in my tent, mind you) at 6.10 am. That meant, I could get an early start. I needed it!
The plan was to tackle Passo di Gavia (2621m) and the Mortirolo (1852m and means something about death) in one go in a loop that was about 120km. I went anticlockwise starting and finishing at Edolo (720m)
Total elevation gain would be 3203m. Yikes
After a high calorie breakfast, I took off. The climb starts straight away from Edolo but then get steeper after 20km when the real climb to Gavia starts
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| Road is open! |
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| Oglio river on the way |
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| The climb starts |
Near the top there is an un illuminated tunnel that sounded scarey. I thought I would avoid it and wheel the bike along the goat track on the side (as recommended by some) but in the end I just did the tunnel as I had plenty of reflectors and I could see
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| Looking back down the tunnel |
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| Lake near the top |
At the top, I bought an overpriced cappucino and cake and a reasonably priced beanie....
The descent was long and fun but cold. If felt like I was descending for hours but it turned out to be about one hour. At Bormio, I had a great pasta dish that was a local speciality (we're right on the swiss border, pretty much). Buckwheat pasta with potatoes, cabbage, cheese, butter, garlic and sage. It was delicious and high calorie too
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| Pizzocheri al Valtellina |
Then I had about 30 km of downhill and flats into a strong headwind to get myself to the mortirolo climb
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| Amazing valley heading to Mortirolo |
The mortirolo climb was really hard, especially because I was knackered. Much of it was as steep as Manuka rd on the Kettering side but 14km of it. I struggled up this, I'm happy to admit, but felt much better when the cyclists I met at the top thought I was nuts to have done both climbs in one day
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| View about 3/4 to the top |
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| Just 17km of downhill to go! |
Well in some ways the cycle tour ended because we have been spending a week in a very nice villa in the Piemonte village of AglianoTerme. After our cycling in Le Marche and our beach visit at Sirolo, we caught a train a long way north and west to Piemonte. We got off at Casteggio then cycled to Agliano (about 100km).
Our house is pretty deluxe. It's a restored old farmhouse run by an English/Norwegian couple. It has a pool too! We've been chillaxing here, going to local markets, cooking, eating and then blobbing by the pool in the afternoons. It's been very relaxing!
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| Dining with a view |
On Sunday, we went to a local vineyard for a tasting. Piemonte is famous for many wines but the region we're in is especially famous for Barbera. We went to Villa Terlina and did some tasting and a tour. The wine was nice!
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| Cave at villa Terlina |
Here are some random shots from our week here......
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| Triglia/Rouget - stan's favourite fish! |
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| Agnolotti (from the local butcher!) cooked by Briony!!! |
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| View from our house |
Tomorrow we cycle to Asti then onto Castellero. On Sunday, we have to get back to Milan so that Bri and Noah can catch their flight back home :(
We spent a couple of rest days at Montebello as we found a nice villa to stay in. We met a Dutch family there and watched the netherlands vs Mexico game with them. Finally we got to watch a game with some fans of a winning team!
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| Early morning ride from Montebello to Mondavio |
From Montebello we rode further southwards through Corinaldo, Ostra, San Marcello, Monsano, Santa Maria Nuova and beyond to find a camp spot in a sunflower field. This was our longest ride to date, about 70 kms, and with plenty of hills too.
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| Stan's bike waiting while we picnic. |
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| Typical picnic lunch. |
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| Monsano |
The next day we rode to the coast town of Sirolo, perched on the cliffs over the Adriatic. We stayed in the Internatzionale Campground and out of more than 200 sites we somehow got lucky and scored their best site with an amazing view of the beach.
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| Our little tent amongst the big players of June camping world. |
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| The view from our tent |
We spent two days here with great hot weather that kept us walking back down to the beach for another swim, us and about 500 other tourists.
The campground here was four star which means that it had, amongst other things, its own swimming pool and restaurant. In Australia you would not even risk eating in such a place, however we had already had a very good meal at a public swimming pool restaurant and had come to the conclusion that, in Italy, it doesn't matter where a restaurant is it is likely to do good food. We ate.....
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| Deep fried scampi, prawns,fish and calamari. |
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| Baked spigola with potatoes. |
On our second night here we went to a restaurant up in Sirolo for dinner and ate more seafood.
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| Seafood Antipasto |
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| Taglialini allo Scoglio |
Leaving Sirolo was hard, not just because we had had a nice time but because the road back up to the top of the cliff had a long series of hairpins. Climbing these with loaded panniers had us sweating even at 7.30 in the morning.
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