Giro d'Italia 2010

Hello from the Giro d’Italia 2010 where we are watching the “fight for pink”. Seeing as the race was in such close proximity in time to the finish of the TransPortugal I thought I should take this one off my “bucket list”.

Through a friend of a friend we were of the understanding that once we got to the race we should be able to pick up VIP passes for Stages 6, 7, and 8 of the tour. Once in Rome we rented a car and headed for the finish town of Stage 6. Stage 6 ended in Marina De Carrrara about 250 km north of Rome on the west coast of Italy. Our drive there deposited us in the town about 3 hours before the finish was expected. The stage was expected to produce a sprint finish with about a .5 km long finish straight after a fairly flat 200km stage.



We were told to seek out the organizing committee RCS “permanance” and ask for a specific individual but with our poor understanding of Italian and the usual Italian casual way, we wandered around for quite a while. Eventually we found the VIP suites and managed to find a young lady who spoke some English. She had the phone number of the individual that we were to talk to, but he would not pick up. Eventually she gave up trying his number, and just moved us into the stands near the finish. She said she would keep trying. Near the finish does not do it justice. We were parked at the 10m point of the finish and despite my fear that as the race neared we would get the boot, we were allowed to remain until the end.






The day ended with Australian Matty Lloyd winning on a solo break. A few stragglers from the break group were next and then came the sprint from the group. Too cool watching these guys charge the line. Liquigas’s Francesco Nibali held on to the pink jersey as leader of the race.








After the race we managed to find the RCS accreditation facility and not surprisingly, if we had walked about 50 m in the opposite direction from where we parked the car we would have been at the front door. Our contact sort of remembered our names and we were issued our pink passes for the start and finish of the race. We thought that we were “on the program” but events would prove otherwise.

We headed out to find our hotel which was near the finish of the next day’s stage and after another 3 hours of driving we eventually found our digs in the middle of Tuscany. I had not really done any research as to which stages we were about to see but as luck would have it Stages 7 and 8 may have a significant bearing on the final results of this years Giro. Stage 7 finished in the walled town of Montalcino and prior to arriving the riders had to navigate 20 km of "strade bianche" the white clay like dirt roads of the region. Further, when they enter Montalcino they also had to navigate several km of cobbled road before a slight uphill sprint to the finish.

The day dawned rather wet and cold, and the rain continued to fall all day long. This made the dirt and cobbles especially treacheraous to ride and for this reason the pace was pushed from the very beginning as several of the GC contenders saw an opportunity to put time into their opponents.

We headed to the finish, expecting to be treated in similar fashion to the day before with covered grandstands and a live TV feed. After waiting for several hours to be let into the “seats” we figured out that “space” was severely limited at the finish line at the top of Montalcino and we were never going to be let into “prime” territory. Boy, I can tell you when Italians think they have the stuff, and then do not get it, do tempers ever fly. We headed back down the finish straight to where we could see the Jumbotron, and waited with the rest of the plebes for the riders to arrive.

What a crazy race. More mountain bike than road bike, sort of like Paris Roubaix in the middle of a three week tour.

The racing was unbelievably intense with GC contenders Cadel Evans and Vinikourov going ding dong for the last 30 km. The pink jersey crashed about 50 km out and never did make it back to the front. Evans won in a sprint and Vini was in pink.

Once out of Montalcino we headed toward the finish of the next day's stage and our hotel for the night. We accidently ended up in the middle of all the team buses as our route took us through the start town of the next day. Garmin Transitions was behind us and for much of the drive all I could see in my rear view mirror was a bound up Giro mascot sitting in the front seat of their bus.

We eventually ended up in Rieti the closest town to the first mountain top finish of the race Monte Terminillo. Stage 8 finishes with a climb up Monte Terminillo; 16km long with gradients between 6 and 10 %. (16 km at 7.3%, 1168m of gain)

Once again, Stage 8 dawned very wet and cold. We drove up the mountain and headed for the finish thinking that we might get covered seating and the live feed, but again were foiled by the small size of the finish area. So much for our VIP passes.

It was very cold at the top, about 2 to 3 C, with recent snow and very foggy, actually in the clouds.

The rain intermittently fell and eventually we were so cold that we made our way back to the car and turned on the heater to warm up. We had no way of knowing how the race was going so atabout 1630 hr we headed back up toward the finish to watch the riders come by. The fog rolled in even thicker as the riders ascended the mountain. It was very, very miserable to say the least. From the look of the riders, it was clear to us that the the pace of the day before in association with the difficulty of this stage, had cracked a large portion of the field. There were quite a few hurtin individuals at the end of this day.

Sorenson from Saxo Bank won on a solo break. The GC contenders came in together about 1 minute back. The L'Autobus farther back then that.

Pretty cool experience but I sure wish the weather had been a bit better. I am not sure I have yet thawed out from our walks up and down Monte Terminillo.

Tour TransAlp 2009: Day 3

Day 3 saw the 1100 riders in the 2009 Tour TransAlp head from Ischgl, Austriato Solden, the site of the opening events of the FIS Alpine World Cup. Once again the weather was stellar. (Profile here) Just like yesterday, the day started with a 20 km neutral start, only today it was all downhill. When we reached the first climb, the race would be on. As in past days, we discussed again whether it would be better at the front or the back of our start block as we descended the first 20 km. We elected for the back but as soon as we started it became abundantly clear to me that this was the wrong decision. So began a rather tiring next 90 minutes.

I headed for the front to avoid what I felt was a very dangerous situation as the neutral pack descended at close to 35 km/hr. Obstructions caused quick braking situations and I felt that it was way safer to be in front of the majority of riders than behind. Dave held back and we became separated. The first climb appeared and I was up it in a flash, immediately starting to gap out on the C block riders. Unfortunately, Dave was not with me and knowing we had well over 100 km ahead of us I pulled up and waited for Dave to appear. Minutes seemed to go by very slowly, and more and more of the riders that I knew passed me by. Where was Dave? Eventually it became clear that I was now seeing the very back of start block D and I knew that I must have missed seeing him go past. Oh My God, now comes the hammer as I have to try to bridge back to his group. Off I went full tilt, passing riders left and right for the remaining part of the climb, many times doing it cyclocross style by riding up the grass beside the road. Who says mountain biking skills cannot contribute to road racing results. Thankfully, I quickly hooked up with a very fast rider who had flatted on the downhill start and had even more distance to make up. Between the two of us pulling for 60 second bursts we, caught Dave and the rest of the TNA team as they started up the Pillerhohe 42 km in. What a way to start the day, and certainly not conducive to having a strong finish.

The Pillerhohe was one nasty climb with quite a few sections approaching 15% gradients. The temperature was very high and we started to see a great deal of suffering as the heat and the combined efforts of the past 2 days took its toll. Can you say tick, tick, tick, BOOM!!!! Dave was starting to get his legs and was really flying. It seemed it was all I could do to stay with him on the climbs. The next 30 km were over in a flash despite some roads on the down hills that seemed more suited to the mountain bike TransAlp than road racing. Eventually, all that remained was a long 40 km uphill slog into Solden. We put our heads down and pushed the pace as high as we dared pulling past several other trains as we approached the finish.

Once again as soon as we finished our great support team of Jeremy and Clive had the recovery drinks and roast chickens waiting. The daily pasta party saw then get an award for their efforts at helping not only us but any rider who needed assistance. Once again, thanks to all the volunteers who make these events happen! You know who you are. Tomorrow is hump day. The race will be one half over. (Results here)