Day two a washout

Well the thunderstorms and rain did not let up. Given the route it would have been dangerous. Giovanni very generously turned up with his car and drove us all with bikes back to Florence, along the planned riding route so at least we got to see it,  through the rain and fog. The trip convinced me that it had been the right decision to not ride, with water over the road in some places, heavy rain, cloud and mist: in truth I expect that we would have abandoned even if we had set out.

So thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Giovanni we arrived safely back in Florence looking forward to tomorrow's ride. We took Giovanni to lunch as a small thank you, fairly close to the hotel.

Montecarlo

We had a very satisfying first day of riding. The train worked out well and we were meet at Viareggio Station by Giovanni. After a short tour of the waterfront we headed off for the first of three climbs of the day. It was hot rather than steep but we made it to the top to be rewarded by great views over the coast. The road up had the painted signs from the tiffosi... "Contador" etc. But they were probably a little quicker than I was.

Port at Viareggio

View of Viareggio from the top of the climb

Then it was mostly downhill with one smaller climb. Mostly lovely rural roads. Giovanni's local knowledge really helped. We met up with Julie and Marie for lunch on Lucca.

Ride data to Lucca

Giovanni took us to his late mother's vacant house to wash up then we had lunch: not really inspiring but good fuel, and then after riding one circuit on Lucca's walls it was of to Montecarlo. Once again the final climb was hot but OK. After a refreshing malty beverage or two we walked the small town taking in the great views as the colours changed from golden to blue.

Ride data to Montecarlo

We dined at the Osteria which was very good.

Day one ride photos

Montecarlo

View at Montecarlo

Lucca's walls

View from top of first climb

Viareggio harbour

Accommodation sorted

All the accommodation is now sorted (assuming that Keith and Julie book their room at Fiumicino and Marie arrives in Firenze on the Sunday)! I received the last confirmation over night.

Next web task is to update the non-cyclists page with the detailed plans. We'll need to settle on the time for J&M to arrive at Altopascio from Lucca since the nice people from Montecarlo have offered to pick them up from the station.

A period of fine tuning

Three months have passed. In this time I have not had to put too much thought into the plan. There have been incremental changes to the web site (some better graphics, some more text and pictures) and some minor changes to the route. The only significant one has been the change of the first night's accommodation from Altopascio to Montecarlo. This means about 100m of extra climb but a much more scenic night's location. It also means slightly more complex arrangements for luggage transfers since the hotel is not so close to the railway station. See http://apennines.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/luggage-transfers.html for the detail.

There was also some fine tuning of the route from Arezzo to Sanespolcro. I found a straight, flat secondary road which should have less traffic and be quicker than the original route I had selected out of Arezzo.

I have also added my pre-ride logistics... how to get me and the bike from the plane to Firenze. That is all sorted now!

I have also build a spreadsheet which compares the significant climbs of the route to the "Black Mountain" and Mount Stromlo climbs here in Canberra which will make it easier to figure out how hard each one is :-)

Based on this it now appears likely that we will try to get luggage transport rather than carry stuff in panniers :-) This is yet to be entirely planned, although I have had indicative emails from taxi services in some towns with the rough prices. Once again see http://apennines.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/luggage-transfers.html for my current thinking.