The Suffering

This morning we woke up early to get ready for our bike ride. April decided to return her
original bike so she could rent a better one from the great shop we found last night. We got to the shop and were happy to see Paladino, the owner. He got us set up quickly and we told him we'd be back for his lunch time ride. He seemed suspicious that April was coming - but I let him know she is usually faster than me. April was a little bit agitated, and was eager to prove him wrong.

After heading home to 'kit up', we headed out for a short 30 km morning ride to the west of Lucca. It was nice to be back out on the road, and this time on a properly fitted bike. Our course was also much more quiet than our ride out to Pisa. There was a decent hill at the edge of our trip, but we got nervous about gassing out when we still had the big ride in the afternoon, so we turned around to head back for lunch. We also started to see the first cracks in April as she dropped back rather quickly when the road started to go up.

We grabbed some quick pizza, but much to our surprise/disappointment, it was basically square, elementary school pizza. Thoroughly unsatisfying - an Italy first. We then headed over to the shop. April started to get nervous as she realized, the many gelato days were starting to have an effect. We were pretty embarrassed when it appeared Paladino sent away one of his friends who came to ride. An obvious comment on his opinion of our riding skills.

We set out for a ride along some open fields on narrow and quiet country roads. When we turned to start into the hills, Paladino was pointing out sites of interest including the home of a famous Italian sprinter's mom. We stopped a couple of times along the way to get water and take picture before the major climb started. It was 7.5KM long and a total elevation gain of around 2900 ft. If you do cycle, you know that is pretty tough, if you don't cycle take our word for it. After the first couple of kms, Paladino pulled away from Tom. April was already in distress. The good times didn't last much longer for Tom. Paladino said that the record time up the climb was just over 19 minutes by a professional. We're not sure how long it took us, but I'd bet over 45.

On several occasions, Tom would circle on the switchbacks (corners) to catch his breath. He pretended he was waiting for April - but that was really just a cover. April was even worse off, nearly brought to tears. Another friendly Italian gave April words of encouragement as he rode with her for a while. He ended up stopping at the top, waiting, and continuing with us for a few more miles. Eventually, the ultimate indignation - Paladino started back down the hill to see where we were. Tom was only 1 turn from the top but was in his circling pattern. He played it off like he was waiting for April, so Paladino came away with a very false impression of Tom (A. he's a strong cyclist held back by April and B. he's a supportive husband willing to sacrifice his ride for his wife - both false). Paladino continued down and April wasn't actually too far behind and gave her some encouragement. He then went back up to the top with Tom. When April got to the top, Paladino was actually super impressed with April. He said she was the best female cyclist in Lucca.

We then rode another 40 km the long way back to town for a fantastic ride (90km total for the day). Needless to say we are pretty wrecked, largely due to the preceding extended period of extreme inactivity. Overall, it was the highlight of our trip. We bought a couple of jerseys with the shop name (ChronoBikes) and took more pictures. Paladino said he was going to put our pictures on his wall, and we even heard him bragging in Italian to his buddies about April's riding prowess. We'll definitely have to come back once we are in a bit better shape! We got him a thank you bottle of wine and are going to send him a jersey from our local shop.