We booked half-board at the Agriturismo Podere Cortesi, which made me order more food than Liz suggested we should (a primi each and sharing one secondi). So we each had a secondi. Liz started with tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and I opted for the same – pasta but with fresh black truffles. And then we had a great wild boar stew (Liz) and a T-bone steak that the Nonno (grandfather) cut up in strips on a cart and then covered and smothered in Parmesan cheese and olive oil. So, so, good. With the food, we had some of the red wine that they produce themselves. A tiramisu rounded off the evening and we went to bed too late and too stuffed.
I did not sleep to well and woke up before the alarm at 4.30, probably because of meat sweats. We made some instant coffee and were on the road by 5.30, a new record.
For the first time, Liz took over routing for today. It would be our longest ride yet at just shy of 120km / 75 miles and with quite a bit of climbing. But we had a lot of time, so we were not too worried.
After the first 14km / 9 miles, we got to the top of the first climb and the sun just started to peek out over the hills, bathing the fields and grapevines below us in a beautiful light. I spent most of the climb regretting overeating last night, but the scenery quickly made me forget about feeling tired.
Then we descended on a super steep path down to the valley leading to Cecina, feeling happy about the fact that we don’t have to climb such a gradient. On this descent, Liz took the picture at the beginning.
A longer approach to climb #2 followed, which we pushed through averaging more than 21km/h / 13 miles/h. In Canneto, near the top of the climb, we rode past one of those Italian mineral water dispensing machines, where we paid 0.10€ to fill all our bottles with nice, cool, and sparkling mineral water (the still option wasn’t working, but nothing a few burps wouldn’t settle).
Rolling down from the top, we noticed whiffs of sulfur and lots of pipes running along the roads and through the fields. After seeing different sets of cooling towers, and signs warning about hot steam in the pipes, we realized that these must be geothermal power plants. And yes, a sign later announced that we are entering the Geothermal Natural Park Biancane. In plants across Tuscany, Italy produces about 1.7% of its electric energy using geothermal power.
Then started climb #3, the longest and highest of the day. The early start paid of again, the temperatures were still reasonable as we shifted into the granny gear around 9.30. Italian cyclists know this, too, and we saw many cyclists on the way up, and even some of the elusive female Italian cyclists (why do the appear to be in such a minority?).
Then it was time to descend again, and we got passed by super fast teams of road cyclists. My own max. speed downhill was 60km/h / 47 miles /h, which is not even at the speed that sprinters need (~70km/h) to win a stage at the Tour de France on flat terrain. Those guys can produce some crazy peak power levels!
The last climb of the day would only climb about 200m, but it started getting warm. We stopped at a bar/grocery store where the whole town seemed to be meeting, too, and got our sugar levels back up with some Coke and Pan di Stelle. At the top, I was ready for a cold shower, but we still had 30km to go, thankfully mostly downhill.
With temperatures now uncomfortably high, we pushed not only to get to the hotel, but also to cool in the resulting headwind. After cold showers and a nice swim in the hotel’s pool, we went back to our room for the siesta. Another long day tomorrow, but I will be smarter about food quantity tonight (knocks on wood).
Total distance/elevation to date: 3667km/27’849m
Rest days: 13
Route and Stats
Relive Video
The 1948 Tour 
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