Day 11 Imola to Sansepolcro "To sleep, perchance to dream . . ,"

A few days ago as I was trudging along listening to what I later discovered was my chain disintegrating, I had time to think and the occasion to do so. I had fitted an entirely new drive train against precisely this eventuality. New parts correctly fitted to a decent bike should not fail that quickly. It is a decent bike and they were all branded Shimano parts. Logic allowed only one conclusion. I spent the next couple of hours devising a cruel and lingering death for John and Tony at Beacon Cycles. It was not until the next day that I discovered the nature of the defect. It may not have been their fault after all. Too late of course. That is in the nature of capital punishment. Anyway it may have been the chain or it may have been the fitting of it. I have left the boiling oil on simmer.

Today has been a day of contrast. On the map Imola looks like a bit of a roundabout on the Via Emilia with a motor racing circuit attached. It is actually a pleasant place with a striking main piazza. The Via Emilia looked like it could be busy with traffic itself but, in the event was no worse to ride on than many other roads. After leaving the Via Emilia at Forli hills appeared for the first time for days on the road from Forli to Santa Sofia which winds and undulates. At many points it is not very wide but was suddenly heavily populated with trucks. Artics were bad but the long drawbar trailer units were the worst. Fortunately by the time the real climb started after Santa Sofia the road had emptied. I've no idea where the trucks went.

It may sound perverse but it was a pleasure to be climbing again after two days of unrelenting flatness. At 765m it was a decent climb as well. Lunch at the top then hurtle down to S Piero in Bagno (is it the S Piero or the town that was in the bath?) Then the main event, Montecoronaro at 876m. I came upon a bit of a crash on the way down. The man in the Alfa Romeo was plainly not expecting a bus to come round the bend in the opposite direction. The descent from Montecoronaro to Pieve di San Stefano was a strange but enjoyable affair. Autostrade (motorways) often follow the line of the old Strada Statale (A roads). The old SS will still be used by those who don't want to pay autostrade tolls. The autostrada which replaced the old Via Tiberina is free so everyone uses it. The old road is almost unused and seems to have been left to decay. It is quite eerie riding alone down the ghost of this old highway which clings to the steep sides of the Tiber valley in an unending series of hairpins. At one point I did wonder what would happen if I fell off the road on one of those hairpins.

140k meant an earlier finish in Sansepolcro though not early enough to catch any of the Piero della Francesca stuff in the local gallery. Culture must wait. I often end up writing this in bed. Last night I fell asleep with it in my hand (the phone). This post comes from a bar in the Piazza in Sansepulcro as I sit sipping a spritz and eating the associated nibbles - see picture for spritz and nibbles. Tonight I sleep empty handed. Tomorrow it should all come to an end but for now I do not count chickens.