1 day to go here in Feltre

Second last day at school - done

Packing - done...well sorta done.
Cleaning the apartment - done
Bike race prepped - done.
Last 2 somewhat boring TT type training session -  done.

Monday ride

Last Feltre  ride

My new best friend in the bike shop told me there were very few TTer's in the Feltre area...and no wonder..there's far too many good climbs round here to channel younger riders into TT's.  Let's face it...you don't do TT's for fun, and unless you show promise your first TT is more than likely also your last.

So...what's left?
Tomorrow:  last Italian lesson, drive to Trento, listen to rider briefing, register, escape to BnB, ride part of the course 1 more time, find place to eat, bed,
Friday: brekky, warm up, race........ pack..remember to break out the jeans and winter gear, watch afternoon "wave" of TT racers go past my driveway, attend presentation.
Saturday: drive to Munich, give back car, go to airport, be bored for a very very long time...get home...freeze (although the forecast is sunny and 25C the day I arrive)!

My favourite Italian verb and my fave Italian supermarket feature

and I've no doubt I'm not the first anglophone to snigger over this one:-

buggerarsene - to not give a damn


 however there do seem to be rather alot of verbs meaning the same thing...does this give an indication of the Italian way of thinking I wonder???
fregarsene - to not give a damn
infischiarsene - to not give a damn
importarsene - to not give a damn
sbattersela - to not give a damn
sbattersene - to not give a damn

Of added interest is that my fave word isn't found in "google translate" (not that that site is any great pinnacle of linguistics!) or in my online or travel Collins Eng/It/eng dictionary and in fact I began to wonder if I'd stumbled on a joke.  

However I did find it when I Googled it and what's more there were quite a few references.

and my fave supermarket feature??


FYOB (fill your own bottle) house wine bar:

sigh...I'm soooo gunna miss this place.  Hmmm better try and earn enough $$$ to return next year!

Last long ride for the hols...to Lago del Mis

At 0800 my German co students and neighbours loaded me up with food they didn't want to take home and so my fridge is more than somewhat overloaded.  Hopefully there'll be someone in that apartment next week so I can do the same for them.  Then, since it was a still bit chilly  I went for a walk around the walls of the historical centre and had a really close look at some of the older buildings.

Check out the sky... cold temp though!

Steps to or from the walls...they are everywhere

Door panel

3 different doors with door knobs

And then it was onto the bike:

As ever I set myself a time limit, which once again was 90 minutes...I could happily have gone further, but with a bit of a slog home up the hairpin bends I'd happily hooned down, and with a big race on Friday...90 minutes it was.  Actually I nearly went the easy but extremely boring way home via San Giustina but the lure of ensuring I had enough climb to succeed in the Strada "Vuelta Skelta" challenge kept me "on the straight and narrow"  Nope that's not right....narrow yes...straight..no!

I also needed to make sure I could take a pix of yet another great place name.  Dontcha just love it to bits!  I'm glad I don't live there though.

  Although circuits are interesting I'm tending to go for out and back courses. which allows me to mark what I want to take pix of but keep going/no stopping and then take the pix on the way home.

So.... home, download ride and be happy with the amount of climb, nanna nap, go for another walk, eat, sleep!

That's all for today!

Friday's ride to the iconic Passo San Boldo

First for a bit of history see this link  ..... there are plenty more links plus pix and utube clips but this one gives the story in a bit of detail....  and as it says the road is indeed called the road of a hundred days (la strada dei cento giorni).

 

This is the beginning of the narrowing of the road and as is obvious there's not only a very narrow 1 way road, controlled by traffic lights, max headroom is also in attendance.

Proof that I was there follows...the multi layer road pix on the internet are obviously taken from a better spot there where I was:

 

I set off for this ride later than usual and in fact forgot to take my maps...however after being here for 8 weeks..maps are something just a bit OTT for all but my longer rides.

I had set a time limit for myself since the weather was a bit iffy , the evenings were getting a bit cool and I didn't fancy being on the main road home during the rat run.  I never intended going through the tunnels since this would make it a very very long ride.  Downhill is the way to go I've been told, so as not to get caught midway in the very narrow tunnels when the traffic flow changes direction.

So with an aim to go no longer than 90 minutes on the outward journey I was delighted to find myself at the top  just a bit before the deadline.  The climb was not at all hard but the distance from Feltre to Trichiana   where the climb starts was further than I'd expected...and somewhat tedious.

This ride takes me to within cooee (6776m and 94%) of the Vuelta Skelta goal on Strava of 7135m climbing during the staging of the Vuelta and I still have a coupla days left. Currently I'm 1,641st of 9,129 participants and  64th of 341 women...just can't help my competitive streak showing!

And finally...just to show there  are "good ole' boys" all over the world...although 1 of them just HAD to be a bit different;-)

Officially still summer here..but

the summer sales are over with new stock in the shops and people generally starting to rug up  abit...except for me ;-)...I seem to be the only one still wearing shorts.  In case you are interested the colours dominating new stock are taupe and slate blue. These shades don't suit me at all...not that I actually need an excuse not to buy!

Anyhow now, with the temperature being less sweat inducing I am finally able to justify the arm and leg warmers , the Gortex fronted undershirt and the various sleeveless thin jackets I brought with me.  I can also justify wearing the jackets I splashed out on while in Austria!

Yesterday's ride was supposed to be up to the beginning of a large lake called Lago del Mis but that plan had to be shelved very quickly since I was riding towards and then under some very black clouds and when the rain/almost hail hit it was not only  abit painful it was also a game changer.

I u turned and looked for a less threatening looking patch of sky and continued..a balance of steady power and spinning efforts uphill..."hill" not mountain.  Although the temperature isn't all that low, it's a change and on return I had to run myself a hot bath to aid temperature recovery.

Friday marks then end of another group of students leaving...this week I have been amongst a group of German speakers all of whom depart.  Next week...who knows what company I will have.

Is this organisation going to be WMG re-visited?

check out the message on this screenshot  of the rider's guide done today 12/9  (click to enlarge it) and then check out the dates..... top and bottom left.  And yes I did refresh the page and I've just checked it again to make sure!.

Sorting out my last few days

All good things have to come to an end of course and so now and finally this fantastic 10 week "holiday" is fast moving into that category. 

With 9 days left here in Feltre before I move to near Trento - out of an apartment and into a BnB I'm taking stock of everything I've got with me:

• Checking my stash of food.toiletries and etcs and trying to work out if they'll last the distance. 
• Balancing the weight of  things lost/chucked/posted home already against new stuff bought: 2 jackets, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 polo shirts, sandals presents, to name just a few things
•  Checking locations I really want to see before I leave here.

And as a side note..how do *you* define the concept of a holiday?....some would doubt that school in the morning, exercising mightily in the afternoon/evening plus the challenge of racing fulfills the generally accepted idea of a "holiday"!

Misc Pix

 Cultural difference abound and perhaps none more than the traditions around a wedding.  Not that I'm sure of all the details...all I know is that when you hear a total cacophony of car horns blaring, blaring, blaring...it's not an emergency..well not of the normally accepted type of emergency ;-)...it's a line of cars off to a wedding. And to help you get to the party  you paint directions on the road...this "sposo" is definitely clever...others a somewhat more basic and lewd.

As an English speaker there are many words in Italian that are similar to English ones and then there are ones that are not...false friends they are called.  The word for a river is "fiume" and the word for a dry/almost dry creek bed is "torrente" which  I find amusing.  The pix above is definitely of a torrente.