Page 19 - PBCOctober2017

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 14 No.2 October 2017 @19

George - The Embarrassed Gentleman goes travelling….
and finds the Grand Fondo del Po

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Friday 3 March saw Mrs Phiz (Lesley) and I up early and heading to Bristol along the M5
to meet Lesley’s friend Karen, my daughters’ godmother, who was visiting from New
Zealand. We were then flying to Venice, and catching a train
to Ferrara to see our daughter Gina for a long weekend. Our
journey was uneventful, and we arrived in Ferrara some
eleven hours after leaving Shropshire. The journey was well
worth it, just to see this beautiful city! Our reasons for
being there were simple. Karen was here, her god-daughter
was in Ferrara. Gina was there on a six-month placement
from Cardiff University, studying Spanish and Italian. Gina
had enjoyed the previous six months in Mexico City where
she turned a hesitant Spanish into an almost fluent ability. GeorgeTEG, Mrs Phiz,& Gina

The ‘normal’ George the Embarrassed Gentleman came out Friday night as we enjoyed the
local cuisine with more than a little local wine, excellent food & drink for an extremely
reasonable price. The next day we escalated the event to the ‘walking and looking’ phase. As
we wandered towards the very impressive castle in the centre of the walled city, I could
hear the voices yelling through the PA, and my limited skill in Italian recognised “bicicletta”,
“corso della gara” and “Gran Fondo del Po”. I was off and moving towards the source of the
blast of words. It transpired that our trip to Ferrara had (neatly!) dove-tailed into a
weekend of bicycle racing of the grandest type – all amateur and typically full-on Italian!

The Saturday was a veteran’s (bikes and/or riders) event.
The ‘arrival’ was a fairly quiet affair, with at most around
fifty or sixty people applauding the riders home. There
followed a very grand ceremony with lots of comments over
the (VERY) loud PA, and some well thought out prizes,
although none-of us could work out what they were! We
wandered away and took a look around the town, and did the
tourist thing and walked all the way to the bottom dungeon,
and the top tower (see picture) of the castle.
Vintage Bikes and spares for sale
including a 1934 Ganna 5-speed