One of the charming...

....things about Italy is the old people coming over to chat with you. They know you can't speak Italian and neither can they speak any English. Still, they find it worthwhile to spend some time with you to figure out where you come from and what you're doing in Italy. This guy, for example,  had bad hearing and didn't speak or understand a single word English. He spoke to(!) us for about 10 minutes and we did understand that he was an old cyclist. Nice chap!

Dan Gold heading even further east

Swimming in the Adriatic Sea

Mission completed!!!

After 90km without any lunchbreak, we reached the city if Ancona on the east coast of Italy, and we have a beautiful view out on the Adriatic Sea. Today we averaged 32km per hour, and legs were better than ever....probably due to the fact that we had a net decent of 300 meters. All in all a fantastic trip, well worth all the struggle we've had up the steapest hills. Now we will have a short lunch in Ancona before we head southwest towards Rome.

Well deserved spa after 102km

At 1515 we reached Castelraimondo (Raymond's Castle). Today's stage took us 102km eastbound. We climbed 1250 meters and highest elevation was 818 meters. Different landscape than the two previous day, but still very nice. Started to rain heavily the last 500 meters, so we pushed our bikes to 45 kmh in the slight ascent to the hotel.

The hotel is a beautiful spa-hotel and that suits our sligthly tired, but still gourgeous looking bodies, perfect. We are now relaxing in the pool and waiting for the bar to open so we can get ourselves a well deserved bierra.

Cheers.

Highest point of the trip

At last we reach the highest point og Crossing Italy 09, Passo Cornelio at 818 meters. Now it is mostly downhill to Castelraimondo where we stop for the day.

Finally - a lunch break

After 70km we reached Bagnara at an altitude of 644 m. We have climed a total of 1050 meters today, and I dare to say that this has so far been the hardest day for the group. Saying that we're still highly motivated and doing the last 30km will be like stealing ice cream from a 3 year old boy.

We are now about to enjoy lunch at Bagnara's only restaurant (?). Actually it is not a restaurant, but a shop where they sell more or less everything and the women working here offered to pull something together for us.

35 km so far today

Casacastalda is a nice small village on top of a hill. Looking at the map trying to decide where to go next :-)

Perugia

As you can see from this picture, my 3 co-riders, all with aerodynamic haircuts, are quite happy after reaching the top of Perugia City. We climbed a bit more than we expected today, close to 1500 meters. Now we are waiting for our driver Eirik, and we enjoy a well deserved break with cold beers and icecream.

Lunch in Castiglione del Lago

70km so far today, and the weather is just as nice as yesterday, with tempratures at 25++. We have climed a total of 950m of climbing so far today, and the rest of the stage in to Perugia should be pretty flat. Still lots of power in our legs, so we are quite optimistic that the rest of the trip will be a piece of cake. After lunch will head south of Lago Trasimeno, and we have just short of 50km left today.

Tourists in Italy

Today we have taken some detours to see some of tourist towns, like Montepulciano. We strolled up and down town for an hour, and finally Øyvind and Kjetil managed to find some Italian gelato. Here we are at the square on top of the city, altitude 607m.

Brunello yesterday, Brunello today

Earlybirds get the nicest view

We had a nice dinner yesterday, but being tired after the fairly tough journey we were early in bed. But those in bed early get up first in the morning and are blessed with this beautiful view of the sunrise over the Tuscan hills.

Day 2 is about to start.....

Finally....Montalcino

Well, I guess it' fair to say that it was a bit more hilly then some of us expected, but after 118km and a total og 2050m of climbing, we are now enjoying the local brew at the Montalcino Castle. Bianco Montalcino 2005 is actually quite good. And belive it or not, we are allready looking forward to jump back on the bikes tomorrow AM.

Some nice places along the way

Lunch break

After 63km we have stopped for lunch in Monteciano. We have had some problems with the direction today, due to our inability to bring with us a map.

We have lost our driver Eirik so he's now trying to find us...

Official start of Crossing Italy 09

Then we are all set to start riding from the west coast of Italy. Forca Italia

First man out of bed!

...And what a dream weather we will have today. The sun is rising to a clear blue sky and the temperature is already crawling towards 20 degrees.

Getting ready for day#1

Our mechanical supervisor Dan is making sure that all things are done properly on the bikes before we start crossing Italy tomorrow. We arrived in Follonica around 5pm, and we have tested the temprature in the Mideterranien Sea. All set for day one, but first we plan to grab some food. I think we'll try something italian.

Heading north

All arrived safely on time at Rome Fumiciano Airport and we are now heading north towards Follonica in a Fiat Ducato. It's a 250 km drive and we should be there at around 16.30.

I am here!

Just touched ground in the country of pizza, pasta and Berlusconi.

First group landed in Rome

Øyvind, PB, and our designated driver Eirik, just landed in Rome. Weather is great with sunshine and 24 celcius, and we will head for Follonica as soon as we gather the rest of the team.

Good to go!!

Bikes are checked and cleared in final service, all hotels are booked, route is looged into our GPS, and the latest weather forcast looks promising with 23-25 celcius and sunshine.
Øyvind has recovered after a rough ride at this years Birken, and is reported to be in pretty good shape and will probably be the strongest rider beside Dan who have spent hour after hour on the bike lately, to peak his form for Italy. Kjetil and PB will do their best to climb the Tuscan hills, but the trip is just as much to enjoy the Tuscan countryside as it is speed from point A to B.

We will all arrive in Rome tomorrow afternoon, and tomorrows stage is by car from Rome to Follonica, where we will start riding Wednesday morning. Updates will follow.

Stage 4: Castelraimondo to Ancona

The final stage of Crossing Italy '09 takes us from Castelraimondo to Ancona on the Adriatic coast of Italy. This stage is the shortest of the tour, only allowing us to use our bikes for 83 kilometers. Easy match!

Stage 3: Perugia to Castelraimondo

This stage takes us from Perugia in the middle of Italy to the small village Castelraimondo in the Marchean hills. On today's stage we will have to sit on the saddle for 104 kilometers.

Stage 2: Montalcino to Perugia

On day 2 we start in Montalcino and cycle over the flatlands of Tuscany, passing Lago Trasimeno and ending in the Umbrian capital Perugia. This stage is about 108 kilometers.

Stage 1: Follonica - Montalcino

Stage 1 is from Follonica on the Tuscan coast to the hills of Montalcino. The 116 km stage takes us over 1860 altitude meters.

Day 1 of Crossing Italy ´09 starts at the beach of Follonica. Crossing a country coast to coast is committing and we need to get wet on our feet on both sides of the country. After getting a feeling of the temperature of the Mediterranean we are heading towards Montalcino on SS/SR439 as soon as we are out of the village. After 21 km we pass the picturesque village of Massa Marittima on the first hills of our route. We continue climbing the Tuscan hills and 30 km into the route we reach the highest point of todays' route at 586 altitude meters.

After 58 km we reach the village of Monticiano, a small town with merely 1100 inhabitants in Val de Merse. If we are lucky we find a cosy, little restaurant where we can enjoy today's lunch. After lunch we continue in the direction of Montalcino on SP32A

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