Day 350 – EU – Italy [Milan to Pavia]

20/03/21

38km

  From Milan (Italy) to Pavia (Italy)

Europe

300th Run of the journey! Officially entering Spring under a radiant sunshine and bright blue skies

The Milan San Remo cycling race

Winter is officially over – it seems it has been this way for quite a while, but there is definitely no turning back now. It was about 3 Celsius as I left Milan, still quite fresh early morning. I followed the Naviglio Pavese Canal, which connects Milan to Pavia and the Tucino river. There was a lot of commotion on the road, then a helicopter hovered above the canal, I spotted a few cars with bikes on their roof racing on the road parallel to the canal. Understood! Today’s the day of the Milan – San Remo race, a one-day 300km race. I waited with my phone in hand and filmed as the peloton passed me by. Awesome!

La Linea, Cava’s cartoon character

I kept going, it was absolutely flat, probably the flatest run of the journey so far (more than flat, slightly downhill actually). I am not complaining. The weekend cyclists, hikers and dog walkers were out in big numbers today, probably because of the cycling race. And then I spotted something drawn on the canal path. “La Linea”! The cartoon character which is drawn from an outline of its silhouette. I remember watching it as a child in the early 80’s. I learn today that its creator is Osvaldo Cavandoli (aka “Cava”) from Milan – hence the tribute on the road. (Note: if you don’t know what it is I recommend you YouTube it – episodes are very short and the language is Gibberish, very international).

Along the Pavese Canal

Though I had fixed a rivet issue on BoB the Stroller’s frame a few days ago, I was still not happy with it. I could tell something was off. I stopped by the side of the road and took off the wheels to inspect them. Damn. One of them didn’t freewheel correctly, there was a lot of friction and I thought either the ball-bearing is broken or there is an issue with the spacer. As I reached Pavia I went straight to the Garibaldi bike shop and they very kindly helped me. The guilty bit was a broken ball bearing. Luckily I carry 3 spare ones with me, they are a rare format for European standards (BoB is US made). It’s all fixed now… till next time!

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: