Last night once we have set up camp and showered, we then set off, as usual, in search of food. On this occasion, we find it, rather surprisingly given that we are in “down town” Pavia in the form of a really nice restaurant less than half a mile away which looks out over the river Po. 

Unsurprisingly though we only had eyes for the menu which promised great delights in the form of pizza, chips and steak (they weren’t all three on my plate to be clear although frankly I think I could have made it happen!) The pizzas as you can see are off the scale mahoossive!

Highlight of the meal is when Dans steak arrives with a lemon (I mean that is I guess a bit unusual but not really “out there”) which is ON FIRE!!! ....the photo doesn’t do it justice but rest assured the next time I have steak and the waiter asks “how I would like it” I know exactly what I am going for ask for!  

It’s an epic and well deserved meal and we waddle back to camp totally sated.

Unfortunately its another disappointing (and by that I mean absolutely heartbreaking) nights sleep for me. The whole camping thing really is if not the biggest challenge then at least on a par with the cycling. I havent had a decent nights sleep in days now and tonight is no exception. It’s not helped by my “whoops a daisy” on Turin’s cobbled streets which has rendered my entire right side my “no sleeping side”

Day eleven starts with the apparently customary crazy clock chime and the bird song dawn chorus and then we are quickly packed and off through Pavia and the south east towards Piacenza, determined to make good time and get to Modena, our campsite tonight, in good time.

It’s still flat and a little bit uninspiring but the weather is now glorious ….

….and whilst still a long way from perfect the roads are definitely in better condition today and in fact we see a lot of new tarmac being laid at various roadworks along the way. We mostly stick to the Via Emilia today which coincidentally the Giro D’Italia will be using tomorrow for Stage 11…….i wonder though if it really is a coincidence that the roads are being improved the day before the Giro arrives?

We stop briefly on the outskirts of Piacenza for coffee and the first ice cream of our trip. Before we can leave Dan performs his now twice daily cabaret “where is my wallet” routine only to magically produce it from the first pocket he checked 10 minutes later….honesty you have to see it, it never gets old, and I can big things for Dan in his Vegas future.

Shortly afterwards we become separated for the first time in nearly 950 miles when Marc and Dan fail to see me go straight on at a round about and so instead turn right. A couple of quick, slightly panicky phone calls and 15 minutes later and we are back together again.

I don’t want to seem like someone who just likes to complain (Marc and Dan read this and shouted simultaneously “yes he does!”) and to be clear I very, very much prefer the lovely hot sunny weather of today over the cold, drizzly and grey weather of the previous two days (not least because I can break out the replacement solar panel for the first time) but crikey it is hot (26 degrees) which means cycling is hot, thirsty and hard going.

We do make really good time as we crack on through Parma (where they make the violets I believe) and Reggio Emilia but as i am cycling all I can really concentrate on is constantly adjusting my position on the bike so I can move the pain around my body from hands, to feet, to legs, to downstairs areas, to shoulders and back to downstairs areas and so on and so on round and round. It is hard, tough, hot work and all I can think about is stopping. Unfortunately watching the mileometer on my handle bars tick down way too slowly tells me it’s just not time to stop yet.

Eventually after 106 miles we do arrive in the outskirts of Modena where the Giro also finished stage 10 just today. The professionals cycled a very similar stage in terms of terrain (I.e flat) of 145km today, albeit I accept a bit quicker. Three men and a tent covered 179km today and we were carrying panniers….do you know what, I think we might be legends!

The campsite is i am afraid far from delightful nestled as it is between eleventy billion motorways but frankly none of us have the energy to cycle elsewhere. Just as we arrive a biblical storm (and I mean skies darkened, teaming rain, thunderbolts and lightening, very very frightening….) breaks out so we take shelter before setting up camp. As I type now Marc is being unnecessarily insistent that it is time for me to take a shower…..whatever is he trying to say!