BAC Le Marche - The Adriatic Coast to the Sibylline Mountains 2010

Please visit today's slide show

Riccione to Senigallia

We were up at 6:00 to finish packing. Breakfast buffet was at 7:00. Same good food including scrambled eggs with very yellow yolks. I got my bags on the van while Ann loaded hers into the rental car. I left the hotel at 8:30 with Kathy, Hal, Julie and Don. Our route for the day was parallel to the coast.

After 9 km, we began a climb up a bluff. We had excellent views of the countryside and of the coast. Near the top of the climb, we pulled off at a turnoff where there were several young Brits on a bicycle tour. We stopped, chatted and took photos. There were two tandems where the stokers were developmentally challenged. All the other riders were on single bikes. They left before we did, but we soon caught up to them and passed them in Fiorenzuola. This part of the ride was on a ridge where we had lots of rollers until we reached a good downhill into Pesaro. The weather was warming up but the wind was pretty strong at our back or our side.

At Pesaro, Julie and I decided to take today’s alternate route which was advertised as being non-scouted. It cut inland through the city in heavy traffic. Soon we turned south and rode parallel to the coast on deserted roads. We managed to take a wrong turn but got back on route in Fano. Our adventure included some very narrow country roads, some bad pavement that reminded me of some of the California roads and a couple of very, very steep climbs where Julie and I had to walk our bikes.

When we reached Fano, we stopped at a cafe where we had panini and chilled Nestle peach tea. As we were getting ready to leave, black clouds boiled overhead. It began to rain heavily and the wind kicked up with strong gusts. We decided to wait it out at the cafe passing the time with strong coffee.

Senigallia - View from Our Room

When the rain stopped, we started again and got back onto the planned route. Luckily we had on our rain gear because it started to rain again, lightly this time. We bagged the planned route which went inland and forged ahead on the main highway going directly to Senigallia. There was some traffic, but the shoulders were wide enough to ride safely. Julie got wet and dirty because she was drafting behind me and caught the spray from my rear tire. If my fenders had treated me well, they would have been on my bike and she would not have eaten my spray.

When we got to the outskirts of Senigallia, we caught up to Ron and Ellen. Julie lead us to Hotel Cristallo, our hotel for the night. It was still stormy, but it had cleared enough for us to rinse all of the grime off of our bikes.

Here is today's route.

Senigallia at Night

At Happy Hour tonight, we re-introduced ourselves with our Italian names. Then we talked about our careers. Very interesting people in our group. Ann took notes so we can review them later.

Dinner was at 7:30. It included a salad bar, spaghetti with shell fish or vegetable soup, mixed grilled fish, and sweets for dessert. Afterwards, Ann and I took a short walk along the sidewalk next to the beach looking at all of the private beaches with their cabanas, umbrellas, beach chairs, etc.

At 9:30 we wrapped it up for the night.