Photo: Afternoon tea at the Blackmore Tea Rooms, 67km in of a 113km ride through the lanes of Essex.

Last night we had beer, burgers, chips and whisky with our friend Peter from Fano. We were regaling him with a story from 2011. Six friends came out to Italy to watch the MotoGP at nearby Misano.

One of them was a huge Valentino Rossi fan (guess which one). Every time he saw anything with the name Rossi on it he shouted “Look, look, a Rossi van”,  “Look, look, a Rossi garage”, “Look, look, Rossi Ice Cream”. No matter how many times we told him that Rossi is a common surname in our part of Italy and that what he saw had nothing to do with Vale, he still got excited at seeing the name Rossi. Imagine the smile on my face when I saw this in the window of the Blackmore Tea Rooms this afternoon:

Year to date

2,546.6 km / 26 rides / 97.9km average per ride

19,265m elevation gain (2.42 Everests)