I
decided not to rush and take some time with my family and say good bye. I
finally left my home in McLean at 8AM.
For a Saturday the traffic was quite
light. The countryside was green and flat, the route attractive and full of
history.
I was very lucky, 80% of my ride I could enjoy with a nice tale wind which carried me South. My aim was to reach Charlottesville at a reasonable time in order to
get some rest before going to sleep. However, it took me 9.5 hours to get
there, which for the first day was ok. Charlottesville is a bigger town of some
45,000 people. It is home to the University of Virginia and has an attractive
pedestrian mall downtown. It has bike lanes on major streets in the center.
The
forecast for the next two days, as I cross the Blue Ridge mountains, is overcast
with some chances of rain. The top of the Blue Ridge is about 1,000 m above sea
level, so I have some major climbing to do. I will ride 20mi (40 km) to where
the steep part starts, get to the top, ride another 20mi along the undulating
ridge, and descend to Vesuvius with the aim to reach Lexington in a single day
(a total of about 80mi)
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