Day 3 (102 miles)

Initial apologies are due, unfortunately this blog my not be as exciting as Fred’s rather lengthy one yesterday. That blog took about an hour of hard work, sweat and lot of autocorrect, so excuse me if I make this shorter!

The day started as usual, we are really getting into a routine, which doesn’t get any better as the days go by. The porridge doesn’t taste any better, in fact I think adding 4 tea sugar makes it a little bit worse. Archie as usual was up first, closely followed by Freddie and not so closely followed by Jack.  But on the whole it was a speedy wake up and I think we woke up most of the surrounding area in an attempt to take down the tent. I remember taking to Archie at Chibolton Cottage about how our tent taking up and putting down would get to efficient over the time we were away. This has not been the case. It is always been a bit of a struggle.

On to the cycling. It was a pretty easy morning going from San Gimignano up to Fucecchio (where we had originally planned to stop before deciding to make 3 days into 2 for the second time this trip. We had two possible routes to take in the morning, and as a group were undecided. So Jack came up with the smart idea of asking for a bit of local knowledge from the receptionist. This proved to be a shrewd move, as at the look of one route her eyes bulged and she gesticulated wildly just how hilly it was. So we thankfully chose the other route, which proved to be as flat as she said.

We then had a quick lunch as it seemed to be a bit cooler, this was after Jack and Fred went round the Lucca ring road 3 times. No joke! This was when a few dramas started to happen. Fred managed to crash into a big metal bin at speed. Not one of these small bins for just odd bits and bobs, but those huge buggers for putting the smaller ones in. He very badly bruised his hand (for all those concerned mothers out there, it is not broken). Not 5 minutes later there was another crash (involving Fred and Arch) at a red light. This was, needless to say, not the best start to the afternoon.

It was then a very long push along flat roads up the coast to Sarzana. We arrived at our campsite in good time, went and did a huge wash of out kit, had a dip in the swimming pool and then proceeded to get attacked by mosquitos all evening! Our bites are getting worse each day and we have already used two tubes of anti-bite cream. What a hard life we live!