Bergamo - Riva Del Garda (110 miles)

Fuel:

Cornflakes – 3 large bowls

Coco-pops – 1 bowl

Bread rolls x 4

Yoghurt x 1

Cappuccino x 2

Snickers x 3

Kit Kats x 4

Sprite x 1

Ham Prosciutto x 1

Chocolate Milk – 1 pint

Ice Cream – 3 scoops

Pizza x 1

Lasagne x 1

Beer – 2 pints

Mountain passes x 1

Tunnels illegally rode through x 2

Highways illegally ridden on x 1

Beautiful lakes x 2

Torrential downpours x 1

Near death experiences x 1

Up

Today was one of 'those' days that will stay with me forever. I feel changed as a person. The intensity, the stress, the beauty, the highs and lows, these do not fade away. They change they way you think about the world. After 120 miles, after all the introspection and soul-searching and feeling like the next breath may be my last, what has stayed with the most is the realisation that in at the end of it this is not that hard to do. A bike, food, water and hope and you're off into a new world. Its that simple.

Down

As I sit in a fairly normal bar on the bank of Lake Garda I have no delusions of grandeur. There is nothing incredible about riding this far through this terrain. I would do it every day of my life if I could. Its just different to how I normally experience life and that's the only reason I see it as something exceptional - because the rest of my life is so unexceptional.

I was always going to make it because...well, I had a bike and food and water. The rest is just physical endurance and mental persuasion. I am not sure I am quite in prime condition with the former but I am much more relaxed in my mind. Is it age? Is it that I am too tired to process thoughts? Is it because I just don’t care?

Balance

Whatever, there is something in me that feels this is the right way to be. I am more balanced. I don’t have unnecessary emotions and because of this I don’t feel impressed at what I have done. Thousands of people have done this before, I am no-one special. I have done worse. Its the same reason I don’t pass out when I see a woman naked, but still appreciate the experience. I guess the intensity manifests itself in a more considered way.

Can intensity last forever, or do you eventually balance it all out with tedium and routine? I am resigned to getting old, I understand that my body will not be able to do this in twenty years time, but does that mean I should just stop, settle down and live off memories of my glory days? Everyone else does this. Does that make it the right thing to do?

Today I don’t think I'm ready to give up. What a world! How beautiful...it, it still fills me up, and I know there is more, just like this. There always is isn’t there – and that is what makes the world so fascinating.