The road to the Gran Fondo

All good things must come to an end and my time in Rimini was no exception. I thought back to when I arrived with B-Money just over a week earlier, thinking I would spend a few days there with him. Well the activities and hospitality (from Dott) was so great, that I could not help but stay. Even with the hire car booked she was still informing me of things that we could do. Even Doc called with the opportunity of another long ride.

Offers aside, I decided my future was at the Gran Fondo in Trento and then a couple of days in Bormio. So a final "coffee" (I have given up due to the effects felt earlier in the week), pack the car, set the Garmin and away.

I ignored the first directions as they were a left at a roundabout when the autstrada was clearly signposted to the right. Twenty minutes later and I was still searching for it and questioning this decision.

Once on the autostrada it was plain sailing (or driving). The traffic became a bit congested abou 80km out of Trento. It slowed, often to a standstill, then slowly moved on back to fluency. No crashes, etc, so all I could assume is that it was the cumulative effect of braking on traffic (ie: cars at the front brake slightly, cars behind brake increasingly heavily, until we achieve standstill). Not to worry, as long as I arrived before the collection of race packs finished.

I checked into the hotel and then got a Custanza park next to the race pack collection area. No dramas with my different license, a t-shirt, two dozen bottles of fruit juice and I was on my way.

Then I did a few laps of town trying to find the parking centre allocated to my hotel. Once that was sorted, a quick walking tour of the town helped me locate the duomo where the Gran Fondo was going to start. Lucky, as I had assumed it was where the race packs were collected.

Back to the hotel and a quick nap before a early meal. It was at that in between (normal westerner) time of around 8-9pm. I say in between as it was in between apertivi and dinner for the Italians, so most places were not cranking it up for dinner. Fortunately I found a place that must cater for the tourist market.

Early to bed and a few butterflies.