Day 201: Vlorë to Golem

Transfer stage

Just like in the Tour, where you get some stages that just get the peloton from one region to another, today was just about getting the kilometres done. Today was just about getting another 100km up the coast.

Tiger getting ready to pull out

We did see some new sides to the country on the way. Rural communities and isolated towns that were very different to the tourist centres we’ve been in.

Country roads

What they all have in common is that every town seems to be rebuilding the town centre. Being a stonemason in Albania is a boom business.  

A part of a town centre not being rebuilt

We’d heard that the Albanian roads weren’t good, but we’d spent the first few days on a good coast road. Today we saw the other side of the roads here, with potholes big enough to worry about breaking spokes. 

The main road was better but had the disadvantage of trucks coming closer than I’m happy with, there being no hard shoulder

Still, we made it to Golem, another seaside town. This one’s mostly full of Russians. We had a nice rest on the beach and are hoping for an easy day tomorrow. We need a rest.

The perfect end to a day