Daily Archives: September 19, 2014

I don’t know how many in our group of 23 cyclists were religious, but I’m certain we were all thanking the heavens when we took a short break outside a tiny church in a tiny town on the Adriatic coast. We were halfway through our first ride of a weeklong trip through Croatia’s north and central Dalmatia regions. The day’s distance, just shy of 50 km, wasn’t notable. But we had just completed our first major climb of the week, several hundred metres on an incline of 12.5 per cent. In a week, I would want to take on the hill again, certain I could conquer it with a smile on my face. But after that first run, as the Sunday-morning church service was broadcast via loudspeaker to the vacant town – we were the only people milling about; everyone must have already been in the church, or at home still in bed – all I wanted was water, and a scoop of sladoled (Croatian for ice cream).