Electric Lungs & Electric Legs
On the river Arno flood plain it was barely possible to discern the difference between eBikers Rosemarie and Seppl and Luddites -relying on lungs - Sally and Simon. It helped that Ro picked up some thorns that did for her front tyre twice. But on the first hills of Tuscany they switched on their electric legs and electric lungs and effortlessly shot past us leaving us sweating and puffing in their wake. The good news is we had the map so inevitably, at the crest of every hill, the hares and the tortoises met up again.
In all today we pedalled 50km after a late start building the bikes after their journey with Jet2.com. A little mist swathed the pastures around Pisa but it was thin enough to let the sun burn through and, as it did so, the temperature rose to the early twenties. We dodged on and off roads to add miles to our day and this included following a long meander of the river Arno on top of a flood defence dyke. That’s where Rosemarie found her punctures.
On Sunday most Tuscan bars and restaurants are closed at this time of year but we did find a lovely lunch in the centre of Pontedera where we pondered where to stay over an Americano. On Booking.com Rosemarie found a ludicrously cheap b&b which we pedalled up to though the first of the Tuscan hills. The B&B was idyllically perched on the summit with the valley below lit up in the afternoon sun. A perfect place to rest the bikes and recharge the batteries.
