Beautiful Florence

I've never had so much gelato

Florence and the surrounding Chianti region must be one of the most picturesque places to ride a bike in Europe. 

I rented a Willier (what else?) road bike from Florence by Bike and fiddled with the routes and paper maps. But luckily I was rescued by Filippo who provided the trails on gps after desperately searching on his Strava rides. 

Although it was summer, the rain plus wind chill factor put a bit of a damper on the ride. It was cold especially during the descents - my fingers were numb!

Beautiful

Ciao!

Nevertheless, the riding, coffee at friendly cafes through the vineyards on an Italian steed was a very pleasant experience.

The other memorable experience was the Florentine cuisine. My family and I enjoyed the food, perhaps due to the similarity to Asian cooking style - flavourful, fresh and lots of vegetable

Paoli Restaurant

A worthy mention is the charming Paoli Restaurant, where we had first and last meal in Florence.

My favourite - Florentine tripe and sautéed spinach, washed down with a bottle of Chianti Classico.

Martial Law in Chiang Mai!

Thapae Gate

Day One - We woke up to the the Kingdom's 19th military coup in 80 years. But the Martial Law didn't stop the tourists, neither did it stop me from my final mountain training before the Sardenia race in June.

I had a hard but rewarding day with my affable guide Danai from Mountain Biking Chiang Mai.

I started the ride with a bit of a struggle as Danai raced off at tempo pace. But I soon settled down after the first hour.

Bhubing Palace with Danai

We climbed to the top of Doi Suthep summit (1,700 m) and stopped for local coffee at Bhubing Palace. The weather at the top was much cooler, I was actually cold because of the perspiration.

Along the way, we plucked lychees for quick sugar fixes through Hmong villages, and then a final climb up to Doikum Temple for a spectacular view of Chiang Mai city.

Day Two - Despite the military coup and curfew (10 pm to 4 am), it was business as usual in Chiang Mai. I wasn't feeling so good, down with the sniffles.

Doikum Temple

We rode up the same way to Doi Suthep and after the Suthep temple, we turned north-east into beautiful lush forest. From then on, the trails were mainly single and double tracks. But some of the climbs were painful, never ending > 10% gradient and wishing I had an even smaller granny gear.

And then respite - we stopped at Bang Khun Chankean village for a much needed recovery and local coffee.

Thereafter we continued on with the never ending climbs in the forest canopy, accompanied by incessant but harmless flies.

The trails were super fast, but some of the ruts could swallow up a whole bicycle!

Lychees everywhere

Final Day - By now, my perineum was tender from the long daily climbs. As mountain bikers know, the extreme climbing stance is to position one's bottom right on the saddle nose. And today's discomfort was further exacerbated by the steep gradient.

Thank goodness for the granny gear! The downhills were fast, rocky and technical, made more interesting with the hard tails we were riding. My hands and arms were burning and I had to use two fingers to brake because of the sheer fatigue.

Danai sure gave me a run for my money.

We had Rote Yiam beef noodles five days in a row!