Day One!

First impressions, ouch...

It was a perilously long day in the saddle. From setting off to arrival was about 11 and a half hours, and that wasn't even the last group on the road. The final group arrived after over 14 hours out on the bike.

The day started rather delightfully: photos before departure followed by a 10km climb up to the Italian border.

From there some rather undulating and scenic bike paths down through the valley followed. Then stuff started to take a turn.

I found I couldn't keep pace with the group I had originally set off with and had to chug up a 5km climb by myself. A gravelly descent followed where we discovered there had been some major landslides which had blocked the road with fallen trees... NOT TO WORRY! The FireFlies don't stop for trees, and simply climbed down the steep muddy banking while passing bikes down a human chain. This happened 3 times.  Blimey.

Then, the main event for the day. Already 135km in and 2000m of climbing done, we hit the bottom of the Passo del Valporola.

Here it all went wrong for me. My legs were cramping, I was tired, and the climb was long and incosistent. Me and my fellow Flies dragged ourselves to the top through staggeringly beautiful scenery. It was a bit of a rush at the top, with exhaustion and relief creating a real flood of emotion. Tears were nearly had, but I'm sure they'll fully come later. After putting on some extra layers we then enjoyed a quick but not too technical descent down to our hotel.

It was hard. Really hard. And very long. If ever I didn't realise what this ride meant, and how tough it was going to be, I do now.

Still, for those who suffer, we ride.

Here's my video diary from the day. Please have a watch, and of course if you haven't sponsored me then please do. This really is going to be a hellish week: www.justgiving.com/simon-lewis-fireflies-tour-2019

P.s. I did take a lot of photos, but I'm having to upload this from my phone as the wifi doesn't work, so they can come another day!

Until tomorrow,
Simon