Ride 167 - Cycling Lake Trasimeno, Italy. Holy elephants Hannibal, it's hot out here!

Today is Monday, May 16, 2022. This is day 2 of my 6 day cycling adventure in Umbria, Italy. In addition to Tim and Roberto from Inspired Italy, our group is comprised of David from LA, Bob from Florida, Oscar from Majorca, Robyn from Aberdeen, Scotland, and Leonard, Jatin and Calvin from various parts of England. We are also joined by Brian, a longtime client of Inspired Italy who was in the area and wanted to ride. Yesterday, we cycled 75 kilometres in the hot sun to Citti di Castello for lunch. Today, we are going to ride around Lake Trasimeno, then climb 6 kms up to Lo Scoiattolo for lunch and then finish the ride with a nice 6 km descent to the farmhouse for a total of about 85 kms. Because we expect today to be a very hot day, we set off around 9:30. When I looked at the itinerary for this trip, I was quite excited about today’s ride because of the history surrounding the lake. A number of years back, Hannibal Barca and his Carthaginian horde rampaged through this area as part of a revenge play against the early Roman empire. Hannibal wanted revenge against the Romans for what Rome did to both Carthage and to Hannibal’s father in the 1st punic war so he gathered an army and marched it through southern France, across the Alps, and down into what is now Italy. Along the way, the Carthaginians battled various Roman armies, including a famous battle on the north side of the lake. On June 21, 217 BC, a Roman legion marched along the north side of the lake. Because the gap between the lakeshore and the forest was relatively tight, the legion was strung out over a large distance. Hannibal assembled his troops in the forest on the hillside and, as the legion passed by, the Carthaginians attacked their flank catching the Romans by surprise and driving the soldiers into the lake, killing or capturing approximately 25000 soldiers. Several days later, Hannibal’s troops ambushed and destroyed a Roman calvary passing through the area. Hannibal went on the several stunning successes against the Romans over the following months but he lacked the ability to actually conquer Rome. Eventually he and the remainder of his horde fled back to Carthage. However, as with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, Hannibal’s campaign only really managed to anger and inspire the Roman Empire to assemble a large army, invade Carthage and wipe it from the map. That’s we like to call unintended consequences. As we neared our final climb, Leonard said that his computer was reading a temperature of 35 celcius. I was greatly overheated and quickly made a decision. As a Clint Eastwood character once said, a man has to know his limitations. Well, I knew mine at that point. There was absolutely no way that I would be able to climb 6 kms in that heat given my current situation. So, I decided to pass on the climb and catch a ride to lunch with Vanessa. We sat in the restaurant and cheered everyone as they completed the climb. All agreed that it had been brutal, especially since it was full sun exposure up the entire climb. Tim admitted that he grabbed on to a passing trailer and was pulled up the final 500 metres. Good move. Lunch was great, though I could barely eat my pasta dish. The descent back to the farmhouse was a lot of fun though it was quite tricky. The road was quite rough in patches and that often coincided with a change from sun to shade making it difficult to read. Inspired Italy - https://inspireditaly.com/ Agriturismo le Fornaci - https://www.le-fornaci.it/en/ Leonard Lee "The Cycling Diaries" -    / leonardmlee   If interested, please support me in the Tour de Cure to benefit the BC Cancer Foundation https://tourdecure.ca/participant/288...