Thursday's ride

All of this exquisitely beautiful and picturesque scenery is getting a little boring!  After all, if you've seen one quaint mountain/pastoral village, you have seen them all.

Only two climbs today, and the distance was rather short.   Only 51 miles of riding and 5,600 feet of climbing.  The equivalent of a rest day, as we have two epic days ahead of us.  We broke up into our usual three groups and off we went at 8:30.

First, around Lake Bled, where I caught a picture of the church that is on an island in the middle.

Lake Bled

Then, after rolling for a little while through some farm country, it was up the first climb, an 8.5 km appetizer with a fairly steady 9-10% grade throughout much of it.  Our group spread out (not surprisingly) as each of us summoned whatever he (we were all guys) needed to make it to the top.  We all did.

And then it was the descent.  We were rewarded with a 14 km sweeping descent, with great views of the mountains and various other monotonously beautiful, pastoral settings.  Like the one below . . .

The setting sort of reminds me of Vermont, but without any vowels (the name of the village was unpronounceable).

A village awaited us at the end of the descent.  You guessed it - another incredibly picturesque church with the distinctive style of architecture you see in the country.  Perhaps a blog reader with some knowledge of Eastern European architecture can post a comment and tell me what the style of architecture is.

Had a coffee at a cafe on a lake at the base of the mountains you can see in the photo above.  And then it was off to do the second climb of the day.  This one was the main event.  A 12 km climb that - I kid you not - for much of the ride was between 11% and 14% grade.  There were times when the grade went above 15%.  It required at least as much mental discipline as it did physical exertion.  The trick is not to let yourself think that what appears to be a flattening out in the horizon is actually a less steep section of the climb.  It usually is not and the trick is all about setting expectations.  We all made it (for me, slow and steady) to the top.  A quick descent down and we were back in Bled by 2 o'clock.

Devoured the pizza I mentioned in the last post and did some sightseeing.

Tomorrow is our biggest day - almost 100 miles and over 10,000 feet of climbing.  And only two climbs, but they will no doubt be killers.  I'll sign off and hope to get a good night's sleep (that hasn't really happened yet, despite being exhausted each day).  Hope to post again tomorrow.