Tuesday is spent heading towards Pisa with the highlight of
the day being the bricolage store I find that had many wonderful things
including widget boxes which I need for shim storage. 120 euros lighter I head
for a campsite near Pisa airport.
Bright and early Wednesday I pick-up Helen from the airport which
has nowhere to park a camper so I do loops around the link road until Helen
appears and climbs aboard. We head straight for Punta Ala which is about a 2
hour drive but the first stop is an Autogril for coffee and a big hug. A quick stop for supplies before arriving at
the race venue (PuntAla Resort) a day earlier than planned.
 |
| Trails end here! |
Punta Ala is a small village typical of the coast line in many parts of Italy that has a range of hill that run into the sea. This makes for great enduro venues. After a little discussion we are allowed onto
the campsite which doesn’t open until Friday so there are electricians,
builders and cleaners everywhere. We
find a spot next to Dan (Irish) and James (Scottish) who are racing and settle
in. Talking with Dan I discover the main
reason they are running full Sram equipment is the fact that we will be at most
of the European races to give support!
Thursday is bright and sunny but the wind is blowing a hoolie
which after washing Harry we need to resolve.
Where can we be safely sited, out of the wind as it’s gusting in excess
of 50 kph. After various discussions
with the organisers and input from Todd, who has just arrived, we set-up just
to the side of the restaurant. We build
up in just under 2 hours, which is way better than Sestri. Around 5 Todd heads for his hotel whilst
Helen has her first shower in Harry.
Then we walk the 10 metres to the restaurant where we sample the
delights of their menu which turns out to be very good.
During the night the wind picks up and keeps changing
direction with the result that Harry is rocking and the awning is banging
around quite a bit. Around 02:00 I get
up and check all the bolts are tight and put an extra strap on the front before
going back to bed for a pretty sleepless night.
 |
| Helen ready to welcome racers |
 |
| Race arena |
Saturday is a little busier with most of the riders
practicing on the stages of which there are 5 for the Pro’s and 4 for the
amateur’s. Everyone does the prologue on Saturday evening
so about 1 hour before this Sam Shucksmith rucks-up at our pit trying to fix
his flat spotted rear wheel. After about
15 mins we decide it can’t be fixed so I loan him my Roam 50. Well he only goes fastest in the prologue and
really likes the rigidity of the Sram wheel compared to his (begins with an M
and is yellow and black). We eat in the
restaurant again and thankfully as there is no wind have a very peaceful night.
 |
| What's my time |
The pro’s are doing 44 km and 4 stages whilst the amateur’s
are 38 km and 3 stages so Sunday see them starting from 08:30 in groups of 5 or
10 at 5 minute intervals. It’s a
beautiful day and I spend it renumbering the awning poles, to make it a little
more logical to set-up for my future helpers, and working on various
bikes. The organisers have put the
results screen in the corner of our awning so as the riders finish they all
gather round to see their results. By
16:00 It’s all done, Sam manages to hold on to a 5th place with my
wheel and various racers drop round to say goodbye and thanks for the help over
the weekend. Helen send’s Todd home and
we set about cleaning, taking down and packing away. By 20:00 we are in the restaurant for our
final meal here, more pasta alla vongole for me and salad for Helen (she’s such
a goody two shoes).
As we had free wifi at the race Helen has been doing some
research on places to visit during the next 2 days before we both fly back to
England. So we set the satnav to Saint Gimignano
in the heart of Tuscany. It’s a
wonderful drive and when we get there we find a camper aire that charges 22
euros for 24 hrs with electric so we park-up and hoop on the shuttle bus for
the 1km ride up the hill to town. A few
hours of being a tourist before we settle on a small café for something to
eat. Here they have the local artisan
beer that is excellent both in taste and strength at 7.2% alcohol. Well it would have been rude not to have a
couple, combined with a plate of snackage, which was also perfecto. We walked down the hill back to Harry and
spent the evening reading and catching-up on internet things (more free wifi).
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| Walls and towers of S. Gimignano |
 |
| Someone spoiling the typical Tuscan view |
In for a penny, in for a pound, Tuesday morning sees us set
off for the next historic walled town, Volterra which is famous for its
alabaster. Like good tourists we pay our
8 euros to park in a guarded car park and do what tourists do, wonder around
admiring the buildings/views whilst going in and out of various shops. We have lunch in a small pizzeria and follow
it with coffee and cakes in another café before heading for our campsite near
Pisa.
After a 2.5 hour drive with the last few kms over very rough
uneven roads we arrive at Lago le Tamerici
http://www.eurocampings.co.uk/italy/tuscany/pisa/coltano/camping-lago-le-tamerici-118229/ After
parking up we go for a walk by the lake and see a beaver swimming alongside the
reed bed opposite. Aperitifs follow,
before Helen packs for her flight in the morning and I draw a new, renumbered
awning plan on the computer.
0270 trails end
here
0274 race venue
0276 helen ready to
welcome racers
0282 checking
results
286 walls and towers
of Saint G
296 someone spoiling
the typical Tuscan view from ……
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