Today was our longest day of riding, at close to 100 km, and one of my favorite days of the trip. We decided to start early because of the heat, which was going to climb to over 100 degrees by mid-morning, and so we had breakfast (chocolate brioches and cappuccinos!) before 7:00 and brought all our bags down to the van by 8:00.  A half hour later we were on the road, picking our way slowly through construction and bad traffic to the edge of town. Before too long we’d left the city behind and were climbing slowly up a beautiful, shaded country road, and everyone was soon chatting away as we biked along at a nice gentle pace. This was the day I felt like the group really started to gel, as we all started exchanging stories and got to know each other better. Along the way there were several gentle, sweeping descents where some of us raced ahead of the main group just for fun, and a couple of times I jumped ahead of the group on short climbs just because my legs were feeling good. Before too long even Ruth, the older, flamboyant New Yorker on the trip, was testing her legs out as she surprised us all and raced our guide up a hill.  As usual, we stopped at a bar for coffee and coke after 20 or so kilometers, and Massimo introduced us to espresso freddo (iced, sugared espresso) because of the heat. We continued on through quaint towns and gorgeous countryside as we climbed up a large ridge near the Alps, with a spectacular view of the Piedmont countryside off to the left the entire time. After another 6 km climb, we reached the decision point for the ride as from here you could either finish out the full loop or take a shortcut that cut roughly 20 km off the ride. Because of the oppressive heat about half the group (Joe, Ruth, Andy and Kris) decided to go down the shorter path, while the rest of us (Jerry, Stacy, Eduardo, Libby and I) continued on with Massimo. Pretty soon the ride was getting uncomfortable, as we climbed endlessly in boiling, miserable noonday sun. Finally we reached the highpoint for the day, by which point I was hot and tired and wanted to just get to the hotel as soon as possible so we could cool off in the pool. Unfortunately for me, however, Massimo was insistent we should stop for lunch at an outdoor restaurant. I was a little unhappy about this decision to add another hour of unrelenting heat to our day, but once I managed to get my hands on a massive bowl (4 scoops!) of gelato (everyone else had a delicious looking Penne pasta with a light red sauce) my mood improved and I began to enjoy the chatting around the table.

As soon as lunch was over we charged on, descending down off the mountain ridge and into the flat agricultural areas towards Hotel Marina in Viverone. My earlier irritation continued to dissolve as we flew down the mountain, and eventually we reached true flats, (complete with endless corn fields, just like home!) where we all by unspoken agreement swung into an echelon and began hammering towards home. We had nearly 50 km to go (roughly 30 miles), but we were soon moving at nearly 25 mph with Jerry, Massimo and myself taking turns at the front (Jerry at one point went a little too hard and dropped part of the group, but I came around and towed the train back up). After a while we realized we might actually be able to catch the people who had done the “short cut” of 50 miles at the speed we were moving, so we put our heads down and went even harder. It was the best riding of the trip, with everyone smiling and working together. Eventually we reached the lake the short climb that led up to town, and then descended back down to the lakeside where our hotel was. Once we reached the shoreline we saw another group of cyclists up ahead, and we sprinted after them, knowing we only had a kilometer or two to catch them before the hotel. We rapidly overhauled them, knowing we’d finally caught our prey, only to shoot past a very startled group of German tourists on bicycles who gave us some very strange looks as we went by. We reached the hotel immediately after, and immediately dumped our bikes off as we all ran up to our rooms to shower and change. We all met back down at the pool, only to find that we’d beaten the other group back after all: we’d actually reached the point where the routes merged ahead of them, so they’d been behind us the entire time (of course, they claimed that getting lost for 5 minutes was the reason they lost). Soon we were laying on the pool deck in view of beautiful lake, with beer, gelato, and coke at our side. We swam a bit and chatted with other couples, finding out more about each other and swapping jokes, before eventually dozing off for a nap to the sound of lapping waves. We even had entertainment: we got to see a grown Italian man wrestle with a child’s blow up alligator float (he ended

up perched on top of it), and watched Ruth and Joe cavort around, splashing each other and swimming with their beers. After a couple of hours we eventually headed back up to our room, where we showered and then met in thehotel lobby for a tour of a local winery. Hendrick, Jerry, Stacy, Eduardo, Lib and I visited the winery’s medieval castle / villa, where we were given a history of the place and a wine “tasting” (which was more like a winedrinking, as they were

very generous with their pours).  From there we headed back to the hotel, where we had a delicious dinner, complete with homemade risotto made in the center of a cheese wheel. It was pretty fascinating: the pour the fresh, hot risotto into a massive bowl made out of a wheel of Parmesan, and then proceed to scrap the sides of the bowl over and over, mixing the molten cheese into the rice. It was by far the best risotto I ever had. Dinner finally ended a couple hours later, and we headed outside to look out over the lake as the sun set. There was a guy doing karaoke out on the patio, so we got to see Ruth and Joe dancing goofily as we walked along the shoreline snapping photos; unfortunately our walk was rapidly interrupted by clouds of mosquitos (even through our new bug spray!), so we called it a night and went in for bed.