April 29th: Padua - Verona via Vicenza, Italy ~ There are great days on the bike and then, there are these days…

108km with 485m of climbing

2253km done so far!

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There are great days on the bike and then, there are these days…

This is a long story – a 10-minute voice note on an awful day that had to sum up eight and a half hours on the bike, a baptism of fire climbing a mountain in 12th gear and a walk through mud and stinging nettles.

Leaving Padua with a 100km riding route planned in the early morning, hoping to stop in Vincenza on the way, the Crazybikeguys set off into the countryside enjoying the gorgeous scenery and the many castles, churches, undulating hills and green and flowered paths and lovely warm sunshine.

Forty kilometers in, a pastry and coffee stop beckoned in Vincenza as did a little rest and once they had set off again Julian started having issues with a flat battery on his electronic gear shift. They stopped to change the batteries to try and remedy the problem but that didn’t work and they noticed a broken pin in the derailleur. There was a bike shop 1km away, so off they went to try and get some help. Unfortunately, the shop was closed and after fiddling with some foil bought at the Spar and some super glue to try and encourage a connection and having no luck, they decided that waiting until 3.30pm for the shop to open would then mean that arrival in Verona would be far too late and Grant made the decision to push ahead, which Julian was not happy about.

I say that as if “ pushing on” was just resuming the ride, but it meant Julian was stuck with riding in 12th gear for the rest of the day with a mountain to climb, which wasn’t exactly pleasant riding!Grant admitted climbing the mountain or finishing the ride in 12th Gear wasn’t something he could have done and is in awe of Julian having completed the challenge!

Further along the path to Verona, the day got worse…the cycle path came to an end -obscured by earth moving equipment and major earthworks -with no choices at this late hour the boys went off road.

Straight into a muddy swampy field with stinging nettles and sharp thistles the more they tried to ride the worse it got, so they got off and pushed their way through the quagmire and abrasive greenery, emerging much later covered in gooey gunk, having to scrape the mud off their bikes to try to get them to work so they could ride!

They made it into Verona- hot, sweaty, grumpy, mud covered but they survived the day! All credit goes to Julian for being such a trooper (he now also has a very interesting story to tell around a dinner table) and I’m sure they really appreciated a warm shower and a celebratory drink with a lovely Italian meal, at the end of such a grueling day.

Today is a rest and recovery day- they need to get Julian’s bike fixed and recalibrate and plan the next leg as they cycle up to Lake Garda with their hearts and minds firmly set on being in Milan next week!!

Thanks so much to all of our generous donors for your incredible support! All the wonderful messages on social media- so much encouragement and concern and love shown to us and to the Logwood family! We appreciate it very much!

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THE JOURNEY ISN’T OVER YET! HELP US MAKE THE BIGGEST IMPACT FOR LOGWOOD VILLAGE AND KEEP THE CRAZYBIKEGUYS PEDALLING STRONG THROUGH THE FINAL STRETCH OF THEIR INCREDIBLE RIDE. YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT MEANS THE WORLD!

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