Slippery slope. The muddy hell of Italy.
That’s what you can call today’s stage one at Transitalia Marathon. And it was awesome!
I started pretty late because we had to start according to the given race number on the first day. The plan was to ride with Mato and every European rally rider will recognize that name and knows immediately nobody can’t really ride with him. Especially not me and my skill of riding. So after kilometer 20 I was on my own, pushing through.
The first half of the stage led us all from Rimini to Pennabilli through a lot of small and lovely Italian villages. Always a good idea to take your time, Transitalia Marathon is still not a race, and get yourself something delicious to eat or drink and simply enjoy the time you’re spending in such a beautiful country.
It rained on and off all day, but the evil wasn’t above you, it was below. Riding in mud never was my strong suit, I was never comfortable in these conditions even though it’s always fun. Today something changed, can’t tell you what, but it felt good. It was all about standing right on the pegs and of course nothings perfect but I did okay, no crashes and I didn’t finish last either.
Around 6pm I arrived at the finish line in Sansepolcro, another beautiful city in Tuscany. In summary I rode (only) 200 kilometers today, so you could say the warm up is complete. We will see what stage two has to offer.
It’s midnight now, and I still need to prep the roadbook for tomorrow. This isn’t going to be a full night sleep again. Welcome to rally riding. 🙂