Monday 22nd of August

The heat continues and the thermometer under the tree outside the house which is often very conservative compared to the displays outside shops was showing 31C.  I had a lazy morning catching up on the blog and chilling out.  Lunch was a risotto with funghi secci (dried mushrooms) which were collected locally earlier in the year and dried in order to be used for dishes such as this.  I deliberately asked for something with a few carbs in it as I intended to head out on the bike despite the heat.  After lunch I had a little snooze and then the time came to apply the appropriate creams (sun and chamois) and set off.  I had a route in mind but I'd not done the harder part of it before so it was all going to be seeing as it goes as I go along.  There's always the opportunity at least should things get too steep that you can just turn around and cycle back but this time it wasn't needed.

Anticlockwise route - the slope kicks in after Padevana with 12% parts in the sun 

This was about half way up, looking south towards Padevana and Feltre 

Looking south again from the top this time 

Made it - phew! 

9.6km Cat1 climb - thankfully most of it was shaded 

This graph is over distance - makes it look like only half the time was spent climbing 

When you look at it over time instead you can see a more realistic view of the climbs 

Heat picked up on the way to the bottom of the hill and thankfully cooled off once in the shade

Looking west from the top at Croce d'Aune

By the time I got back and rested a little and showered I'd missed supper but it was left out for me.  One of my favourites - melon and prosciuto and a nice little mix of cheeses helped down with some local red wine and plenty of water for rehydration.

The rest of the evening was spent watching The Kings Speech in italian with matching subtitles.  I was surprised how well it worked dubbed.