A stern test of the new crew on a Sunday morning in Pisa as we aimed to depart by 9.30am. After late night discussions with the hostel owners who had become confused with our slick change of personnel!! We set off at ten which isn’t too bad, and enjoyed a delightful 40km to Cecina, where we were met by Chris Spargo from Bradford University who’s here on holiday. Great to see Chris and to ride a few miles with him until he returned to relative sanity at his campsite and we pressed forward along the most delightful, tree and flower-lined roads through the best of the Tuscan countryside. The warm, perfumed air and the general sense of the Mediterranean make this the sort of section that was envisaged when this trip was planned on those cold winter nights in Haworth!