Your train from Venice arrives at Treviso Centrale at 14:32. We meet you at the station with the van: send us a message when you are on board and we will be there when you step off.

The drive to La Casa Vecchia takes about 45 minutes, climbing gently out of the plain into the vineyard country. It is also your briefing: on the way we go through the week together — the race, the three rides, the bikes, the app and who to call.

Your bikes are waiting for you at La Casa Vecchia, ready to be fitted. The rest of the afternoon is yours: a short spin to check the set-up before Sunday, or simply a glass outside among the vines.

The day you came for, and it is entirely yours: about 100 km and 1,500 m of climbing on closed roads through the Prosecco hills, starting and finishing in Piazza Marconi, Valdobbiadene — a few minutes from the house.

Elspeth, a note on the e-bike: like every e-bike sold in Europe, the motor stops helping above 25 km/h.

The three rides that follow were drawn to stay off the race roads as much as possible: from Monday you see the country around the hills, not the same climbs again.

A big day in distance, gentle in character: the legs raced yesterday, and this loop asks for rhythm more than strength. From the door of La Casa Vecchia you head west along the foot of Monte Grappa, through the villages that line the mountain.

At Possagno, the birthplace of Antonio Canova, the sculptor’s temple dominates the village from the top of its avenue, and the Gypsotheca below holds his plaster models. From there the old Ezzelini trail leads on towards Bassano del Grappa.

Bassano is the halfway point and the reason for the day: the Ponte degli Alpini, the covered wooden bridge designed by Palladio over the Brenta, and at its end the Grapperia Nardini, pouring grappa on the same spot since 1779. A good place for lunch and a long stop.

The way home runs back east through the Asolo hills: the Madonna dell’Acqua sanctuary, then Asolo itself, the hilltop town of Caterina Cornaro, and the vineyards of the Colli Asolani, before the Piave at Vidor and the last kilometres to the house.

The morning is shared. From the house you climb the Montagnola, where First World War trenches still cut through the woods, then drop through the Rive di Vidor, the steep vineyards above the Piave, and cross the Palù del Piave, a patchwork of meadows and hedgerows shaped by the monks of Follina eight centuries ago.

At Follina you split. Elspeth, the abbey is yours: the twelfth-century cloister is the treasure of the valley, and Cison di Valmarino, with CastelBrando above it, is a short ride further up the road.

Matthew, the San Boldo is yours: up through Cison and Tovena to the pass at 706 m, where the road climbs in hairpins carved inside the rock during the First World War, and back down the same way to Follina.

Together again for the ride home over the Tenade and the Serre, the gravel tracks that were part of the course of the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships. Matthew, be warned: after the San Boldo this is another proper climb. Then the hills of Guia, and a flat finish to the house.

Bags to the van after breakfast: today you ride out rather than home, and your luggage meets you in Treviso.

The route drops to the Piave at Vidor, past the abbey of Santa Bona, and follows the river on white gravel before climbing onto the Montello, the long wooded hill that Venice kept as a reserve of oak for its fleet. Its numbered roads, the prese, cross it from side to side, and the woods hold the memory of the First World War: the great ossuary above Nervesa, the ruins of the abbey of Sant’Eustachio, the memorial to the airman Francesco Baracca.

From the Montello you come down through the vineyards of its southern slope and across the plain to Treviso, where the ride ends at the station. We hand over the bags and take the bikes back there.

Elspeth, today you choose on the morning: ride with Matthew, or travel in the van with the luggage.