Day 1: Bergamo to Treviglio

28 km (17 miles) – Total so far: 56 km (35 miles)

Fortune shone today as everything was on time.

Many thanks to Scott for packing the bike and the lift. Oxenholme station at 9:11 hrs, to Manchester Airport at 10:40. Flight at 12:40, landed at 15:30. Bike assembled and away at 17:00 hrs, and arrived at the hotel at 19:00.

Hopefully an intense few days of carbo-loading at my brothers in Anglesey will pay off, although I must say I felt a little sluggish with 3 k to go. So many new ideas on carbo-loading that we study t ALevel, as was this last 5 days, 8 beers a day accompanied by great food.

25.8 kilos at weigh-in. So had some spare, but would have struggled to lump the box around with much more, between terminals 1 and 3.

The road was busy, and that’s at an end now as on the velo route B11 from tomorrow for a while.

Treviglio is not he most beautiful Italian city, but it’s been great for me, so close to Milan also.

Riding was no problem and the bike was great, 28.3 km actually in 2 hours exactly at 30 degrees. GPS was fantastic especially getting away from the airport and the autoroute.

Reading was “Canada” by Ford. Top stuff, a sort of unsuccessful Bonnie and Clyde, sad yet humorous. More on Goodreads in a day or so.

Bet news was discovering a bar which happened to be a microbrewery. It actually exports its beers to the UK.