15 July: Tolentino to Pescara

20160714_182625After a few days with very hot weather, today Aitor and I left Ettore in Tolentino and we started cycling with a temperature around 17 C. Just after 5 km it started raining and it never stopped for the whole day. We kept a very good average, thanks to the initial gentle downhill and then thanks to the strong wind in favour. The rain kept coming and as soon as we entered the Abruzzo region we found several towns flooded. I didn’t take many pictures, so I’m adding here some of the pics I took yesterday in Basilica di San Nicola in Tolentino, a 14th century church with amazing frescos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_di_San_Nicola_a_Tolentino).

 

 

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As if the rain and the flooding were not enough, I had a puncture at 120 km which took a long time to repair due to our cold hands and nearly unresponsive fingers. This was the situation around us:

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We finally reached Pescara at around 3:30PM. Just when entering the city I had my first “non-minor” issue with bike. After more than 2000 km from London and after going through many water puddles 40 cm deep, my rear hub started making a loud noise. I though of a broken ball bearing; we managed to reach the hotel cycling slowly and than we looked for a bicycle shop.

I am really grateful to Iumiko bike shop for they help: the mechanic opened the hub and overhauled the whole hub, which was full of water. He took him a good 30 minutes to put everything back together, in perfect working order. All this without booking an appointment and for just 10 euros! The shop is full of things that we would have liked to buy (clothing, accessories, etc.), but unfortunately we are already full… We left the shop dreaming about the bikes they have there and we headed back to the hotel to pack Aitor’s bike, who leaves tomorrow from Pescara airport.

This is the trace for today: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1256847333

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