...and now, For Something Completely Different

Photos Are Finally Ready

2010-02-07T08:04:00.007+01:00

-> Randy's 2009 Sabbatical Photos <-

It has taken a long time for me to make this final post for my grand adventure. The reason for the delay has mostly been the amount of time it has taken to select and process all of my photos, but in the back of my mind, I also knew that this post would mean that the trip is really over. Now that it has been over for about as long as I was gone, the denial phase must finally end.

For those of you who don't know, I ended up returning to work about 3 weeks ahead of schedule due to a major unexpected project that came up while I was away. Unfortunatley, that meant that my tour along the Pacific Coast did not happen on this sabbatical, but I can hardly complain. Having an opportunity like this with a job waiting when I returned was a unique and fortunate circumstance. The fact that it ended a little sooner than expected does not deminish it a bit. Like I said when I was leaving Europe, it is alway important to finish up wanting more, and I certainly do. I'm ready to do it again without hesitation.

Weighing in at 839 pictures, it is hard to believe that I have done extensive editing. Believe it or not, these are just the ones that made the cut from who knows how many that I took. Many of these will be familiar from my blog posts along the way, but a good number will be new as well.

Photo Organization

With so many pictures, I felt like I needed to organize them in a way that would allow them to be viewed in bite-size chunks. I chose to categorize them by location into 20 galleries. The galleries range in size from 3 and 94 images. The first couple of frames in each gallery provide a national and regional map to give a sense of where you are. The gallery description just above the photos contains the dates I was there along with a link to the blog stories about that location (e.g., "Stories posted on my blog related to this gallery: Articles about Riccione"). For deeper detail, particularly if you are ever interested in following any of my rides on your next trip to Italy, you can view maps and elevation profiles of every ride from the blog entries from the links labeled "View Today's Route Here".

If you are not familiar with the SmugMug gallery design, please be sure to play with the "Style" button to find the method for viewing the pictures that you like best.

What's Next

The Travel Center at Steamboat (the travel agency at my company) helped me throughout my trip making reservations on-the-fly as I planned my trip from the road. When I returned, I raved about the Italy Bike Hotel experience until Jeff Daniels finally said, "Okay, let's build a package trip around that for next Spring and see if we can find some interest". Well - that has happened, and The Travel Center is now offering a package that mirrors some of my experiences this April 30 - May 10! It will start in Milan, go to Riccione for a few days of riding, then to Siena for some rides around Tuscany and back to Riccione and Milan. A great Spring warm-up without the extremes of the climbs in the Alps. If we can generate the needed bookings, I will be going back to Italy as the on-the-ground facilitator to introduce a group of Americans to the unique form of travel that worked so well for me. How great would that be? Please let me know if you think you might want to be one of those Americans. I'll be happy to get you in touch with the right people.

Thank you

It was fun hearing from many of you who were following me throughout this trip. Let's do it again sometime (soon).

Last Dives

2009-08-25T00:57:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 3037.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Last day of diving, Dolphin Academy.
Activity - SCUBA diving, nitrogen purging
People - Just me.

This post if for August 23-24.

Over the course of 14 dives, I have undoubtedly accumulated a little nitrogen in my blood. That is not a problem unless it turns into bubbles when ascending or getting into an airplane. To be conservative, I decided it would be a good idea to skip diving on my last day to give myself a chance to purge some nitrogen, particularly since I have a very early flight out tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from my last day of diving, wandering around the resort, say goodbyes and a trip to the Sea Aquarium.

Suzy & Mark - a couple of Brits making a go of operating a dive shop on Curacao.

Mark calls these "biguanas"

Dolphins getting big air:

Around Curacao

2009-08-24T04:53:00.024+02:00

Miles from Home - 3037.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First days with a rental car. First independent shore dives.
Activity - SCUBA diving
People - Marco & Barbara (Austria)

This post if for August 21-22.

I broke down and rented a car for the first 2 days on my sabbatical. It was getting close to the point where I didn't want to rent one just to see if I could complete this entire adventure without a car, but I concluded that would be sacrificing part of my trip to Curacao just to make a point. To whom? I needed a car to see parts of the island on my day out of the water and to get to some good shore dives on the next day.

Curacao is an interesting place. It has no natural surface water, so the only source of fresh water is a very industrial-looking desalination plant along the waterfront. There is an even more industrial refinery on the interior. There seems to be a lot of angst among the locals over a deal where Shell Oil walked away from its environment remediation requirements by selling the refinery to the Curacao government for 1 Guilder. The deal was needed to preserve jobs, but apparently it caught everyone off guard when they learned that Venezuela would process the oil on the island, but require that any gasoline be re-imported at a very large markup. It's hard to tell how much of the story is supported by fact, but I don't sense a lot of warmth toward either Shell or Venezuela.

This is the industrial Curacao that you don't see in the brochures. It's interesting that this small island can have both a large oil refinery and a thriving diving / beach tourism-based economy. The two co-exist in close proximity, but are barely aware of the other.

The humidity is so high that I couldn't really take pictures as I drove around the island. As soon as I stepped out of the air-conditioned car, my camera (and sunglasses) fogged up. I could have driven around without air conditioning, but that just was not going to happen at 97 degrees and 80% humidity. A few images were worth waiting for the camera to warm up to the surrounding air temperature, but casual snapshots weren't practical.

Here is the image of Curacao that most people have if they have one at all. I arrived in Willemstad just as the sun was going down and the pontoon bridge was opening to allow an oil tanker to go through.

Suzy from the Dive Bus recommended that I go to a "Snack" for some local food, but I never worked up the nerve to shoulder my way through the locals and walk up to the barred windows to say, "So, what do you sell?".

After a day out of the water, I got together with Marco and Barbara from Austria for some shore diving on the west end of the island. They are both teachers living near Innsbruck - very close to where I was riding in Bormio earlier this summer. This was my first time diving without a dive master, but I felt like we did a good job of taking care of each other out in the big blue. We planned to do a night dive together the next night, but it had to be canceled due to strong currents.

Barbara was startled to see Neptune waiting for us in the depths.

Let's try a couple of movies. I don't know how well these will work. Give them a couple of minutes to start playing after you click on them. For people who receive e-mail notifications, you may need to go to the blog to view the videos (www.randyhowie.blogspot.com).

I believe these organisms are called Feather Duster Worms. Watch how quickly they retract when they sense that my swimming over disrupts the water current. I didn't touch anything around them. The only disruption I caused was the flow of water.

This one is of nothing in particular. I just turned the video on for a few seconds and captured what was going on in the reef. I started showing a soft coral flowing in the current, but when I panned away I saw a school of blue fish in the commuter lane. It is always busy down there.

Dive Re-Do

2009-08-22T03:54:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 3037.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First day at Lions Dive Resort
Activity - SCUBA diving
People - Mark & Suzy Pinnell (owners of The Dive Bus), Marco & Barbara (Austria), Family of 4 (Netherlands)

This post is for August 20.

I moved from the Marriott (see above) to Lions Dive Resort today. There was nothing wrong with the Marriott, but today was the first day that Lions Dive had availability. Lions Dive is not quite as luxurious, but I prefer the island atmosphere. It doesn’t feel like an American fortress in a foreign land. There are a series of resorts linked together here, so the choice of restaurants on the beach is great.

Due to strong currents caused by the hurricane brewing in the east, we dove the same sites as yesterday. Here are a couple pictures from today’s dive.

Fish explosion:

Squid:

Spotted Eel:

Wreck Diving

2009-08-20T04:24:00.011+02:00

Miles from Home - 3013.0 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First wreck dives
Activity - SCUBA diving
People - Mark & Suzy Pinnell (owners of The Dive Bus), Alex & Kimberly (D.C.)

This post is for August 18-19.

In the past 2 days, I have completed dive numbers 22, 23, 24 and 25. Until now, I had never done a wreck dive of any kind. Now I have done 4. They all have interesting names like “Car Pile”, “Superior Producer”, “Tug Boat” and “James Bond Pier”. They also have interesting stories. Superior Producer, for example, was a large freighter that sank right off shore in 1977 (see picture of me in the cargo hold and someone else’s video below). It was carrying whiskey and blue jeans, both of which were scavenged by divers within hours. It sits in 80 – 110 feet of water, so it was right at the advisable limit for my new nitrox certification.

Yes, I completed my educational objective for my trip to Curacao yesterday by passing my final exam for nitrox certification. While traditional SCUBA tanks contain 21% oxygen (the same as ambient air), enriched air (a.k.a., nitrox) contains a higher percentage, typically 32% or 36%. The higher O2 percentage means that you absorb less nitrogen, which means that you can stay underwater longer without requiring decompression. The official benefit is the greater bottom time. The unofficial benefit is that you get less fatigued by repetitive dives because of the reduced nitrogen accumulation.

You couldn’t have proved the reduced fatigue benefit by me yesterday. After two 100-foot dives and a ripping-strong current on the Superior Producer, I was ready for some power-sleeping. I went out for 11 hours! The current we ran into on the Superior Producer was the only affect we have seen of the hurricanes brewing further north in the Caribbean. We are too far south to be directly impacted.

Here is a picture of my reflection in a chrome bumper in the Car Pile dive site.

Yesterday was an exceptional treat. Although I have not had to dive with any big groups on this trip, both my dives yesterday were just me with the dive master, Mark. With only two of us, Mark was able to take me on some deeper, more advanced dives. There is plenty of good diving around here at shallower depths, but it was good to get those dives in when Mark didn’t need to be concerned about divers who he didn’t think were ready for them.

Here is an unsually bold Scopion Fish. They usually sit motionless on rocks where they blend in so well that you can very easily miss them. This one was laying out in plain view on a sponge. He was still sitting motionless, so I assume that he thought he looked like a sponge.

The James Bond Pier, whose name does not appear any any guide book other than Mark’s head, was pretty cool. It is an old commercial pier where the pilings are fully encrusted in coral. We saw the BAB (big-ass barracuda) there. Mark figured it was about 4 ½ feet long and “gurthy”. Unfortunately, he swam off before I could get close enough for a decent picture. I’m not sure who got away. Maybe it was me.

Getting Wet

2009-08-18T04:14:00.008+02:00

Miles from Home - 3013.0 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First time diving Curacao
Activity - SCUBA diving
People - Mark & Suzy (owners of The Dive Bus), Bas (divemaster), Chip, Janette & Jarett (New York), Mike & Bruce (NW Connecticut).

This post is from August 15-17.

Greetings from 12 degrees north latitude.

I have been successfully and safely reintroduced to SCUBA diving. I spent the first day at the Marriott’s dive operation just getting my feet (and the rest of me) wet. I snorkeled in the morning and went for a boat dive in the afternoon. It was a good dive, but I never intended to dive with the Marriott (Caribbean Sea Sports) operation throughout my stay.

I read about a small operation called The Dive Bus on www.undercurrent.org, and decided to spend most of my time with them. They use a bus (van actually) rather than a boat to get to their dive sites. Their approach allowed me to take advantage of the great shore diving on this island while still having a dive master along as a security blanket. With an experienced “buddy”, you could easily do all of your dives right from shore and not really need a dive operation except for tank rental. Since I am alone and fairly inexperienced, I feel better diving with a pro.

The owners of The Dive Bus are Mark and Suzy. They moved to Curacao from England about 6 years ago and are working hard to make the business work. Very nice people. Mark drives the bus and leads the dives along with a staff divemaster from the Netherlands named Bas. Mark is the guy diving with the rubber chicken. Suzy runs the hut at their house reef and was my contact as I set things up by e-mail. She got me started on a specialty diving course to learn how to dive on Enriched Air (nitrox) yesterday.

One of the keys to an enjoyable dive is to keep the group to a reasonable size. With The Dive Bus, I have never been in a group of more than 5 people, and tomorrow it looks like it will only be me for both dives (along with Mark as the divemaster). Until now, the dives have been fairly shallow (mostly less than 50 feet). Tomorrow, weather permitting, we are going to dive the “Superior Producer” and “Car Pile” sites. Both of these are going to be in the 80-100 foot range.

I’ll explain more about “nitrox” tomorrow when I will hopefully be certified.

Traveling Again

2009-08-18T00:01:00.003+02:00

Miles from Home - In transit
Firsts / Highlights - Traveling to the Southern Caribbean
Activity - None
People - Just me.

This post is from August 14, 2009.

It has been a while since my last blog post. I have been in Steamboat recharging my batteries before deciding what to do next and continuing the adventure. I considered a few options ranging from flying lessons, home repair work, bike touring, road trip and SCUBA diving.

After a good deal of thought, here is what I decided.

1) Although I would love to fly an airplane, the initial and ongoing costs of getting licensed were a bad match for my current no-income status. That one will need to wait.

2) My original plan was to do a self-supported bike tour from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Coast. After staying in Europe a little longer than planned, I wasn't anxious to simply touch-down in Steamboat and head right back out. I needed a little time to live my routine life in Steamboat so I could be ready to absorb more new experiences. Those two factors left me a little short on time to ride the Pacific Coast at a fun pace.

3) Home repair - well... that will always be there. It would probably be a good learning experience and needs to be done, but not the way I want to spend my (perhaps) once-in-a-lifetime sabbatical.

So that covers what I am not going to do. Here is what I AM planning to do.

View Curacao in a larger map

1) I am currently on a plane heading to Curacao in the southern Caribbean. It is part of the A-B-C Islands (Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao) just off the coast of Venezuela. From the earliest days of planning this sabbatical, I was disappointed that I had not been able to figure out how to incorporate SCUBA diving into my itinerary. I earned my certification last April, and have been anxious to do it again ever since.

There is no practical way to carry both a bicycle and SCUBA equipment on any trip (add the big camera and it would be like a full-blown expedition). Either sport makes for heavy travel, and combining them just wasn’t possible. By returning to Steamboat and making Curacao a separate trip, I should have better quality diving than I would have found in the Mediterranean and avoid having an anchor around my neck while cycling in Italy. Curacao appears to be a prime destination for diving just like Italy was prime for cycling.

I am making use of the flight time to review my SCUBA certification training materials. Most of it is still pretty fresh, but a little review can’t hurt. I would rather be reminded of something I forgot at 35,000 above sea level in the plane than 60 feet below sea level in a panic.

I will be in Curacao from August 14-25.

2) From Curacao, I will return to Steamboat for a couple of days, and then head out on a national park road trip. I visited my first park last week on a bike trip over Trail Ridge Road and a hike to Mills Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. That was a quick 2-day intro to the national parks that I hope will be just the beginning.

Kristen Lodge was the instigator who organized the Trail Ridge ride along with a friend of hers named George. Trail Ridge road is the highest continuous paved road in North America. It tops out at a little under 12,200 feet. We originally wanted to ride up from Grand Lake, up and over to Estes Park and return back over the pass to Grand Lake in one day. I think we could have done it, but the weather turned nasty at 12,000 feet. The wind blew so hard that I had to angle the bike into the cross-wind in order to track a (more or less) straight line down the road. It was an adrenaline rush, but literally being blown off the road was a distinct possibility. Combine the wind with a bit of cold rain, and we made the rational decision to turn around at the summit rather than dropping down to Estes Park. Although a disappointment for a goal-oriented cyclist, it was a great ride. I will post pictures when I return.

When I get back from Curacao, I plan to load up the car with cycling, camping and photographic gear and head north. I am a bit conflicted about how much driving I want to do, but here is the full loop that will most likely be cut short at some point when I’m tired of driving or the calendar says I need to get back to work.

a) Steamboat
b) Teton National Park
c) Yellowstone National Park
d) Glacier National Park
e) Banff
f) Lake Louise
g) Jasper
h) Vancouver
i) Olympic National Park (at Eric Weaver’s cabin)
j) Oregon Coast
k) Redwoods National Park
l) San Francisco
m) Yosemite National Park
n) Zion National Park
o) Arches National Park
p) Canyonlands
q) Steamboat

Next post should have some underwater pictures.

Back in the USA

2009-07-17T04:28:00.003+02:00

Miles from Home - 1734.7
Firsts / Highlights - Hearing English, driving a car for the first time in 2 ½ months
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No route today
People - Just me.

This post is from July 12-16, 2009.

View Falls Village in a larger map

I assumed that a plane ride across the Atlantic would solve all of my challenges with being a mono-linguist. I forgot to consider that my first stop would be New York City where one language is barely adequate.

Getting back to U.S. soil was a long process, but fairly uneventful. I took a train from Lausanne to the Milan, a bus from the train station to the airport, a plane from Milan to JFK, a bus from JFK to Grand Central, a train from Grand Central to Wassaic and was picked up in Wassaic by my sister to go to Falls Village by car. This was my 8th and final time passing through Milano Centrale train station on this trip. Although I did not spend much time in the city, it was certainly the hub for all of my travels.

I will be spending 4 days visiting my Mom, sister and niece in Falls Village, CT before heading back to Steamboat. Since I planned to spend one day in NYC and one day visiting a college friend in a nearby town, I decided not to assemble my bike. In retrospect, I think that was a mistake to miss the exceptional riding in this part of New England, but this stop was more about catching up with people than riding.

I tabulated my bike stats for my time in Europe. My miles per day decreased a bit after the first month, but my climbing per mile increased. The totals for my 2 ½ months were:

Miles ridden – 1,974.44 (3,178 km)
Elevation gained – 155,257 feet (47,322 meters)
Time in the saddle – 160 Hours, 30 Minutes
Calories expended – 120,288 (software over-estimates this a bit)
Riding days – 46
Travel / Rest / Tourist days – 20
Days driving a car - 0
Rain days – 0
Flat tires – 1
Mechanical failures – 1 (broken chain link)

Of all that information, the one I have the most difficulty wrapping my head around is the vertical feet (elevation gained). I tried to put that number in context by visualizing a single hill that climbed to 155,000 feet. Of course, no such hill exists, but if it did, it would climb through the Troposphere and Stratosphere, pass the ozone layer and begin to enter the Mesosphere (the atmospheric layers where meteors burn up). It is a little over half the elevation required to achieve low earth orbit and is 1/6 of the way to the International Space Station. I’ve always wanted to travel into space, but Italy may be the closest I will ever get.

I will be flying from Connecticut to Steamboat on Friday where I will decide how I will spend the remainder of my sabbatical.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along and participated on my adventure so far. I will make a blog post when I decide what is next.

Switzerlandy

2009-07-12T11:59:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - Gruyeres, Gruyere & ham sandwich at XXX, a last visit to the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Miles Ridden - Fri – 21.06, Sat - 64.06 miles
Vertical Feet - Fri – 1,685, Sat - 4,828 ft.
Route - View Friday’s Route Here, View Saturday’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from July 10-11, 2009.

Yesterday, I took a short ride back through the steep Lavaux vineyards between Lausanne and Montreux. The vineyards are inspiring, but it was a fairly light day for riding. I have posted a couple of additional pictures of the vineyards, but this post is really about Saturday, July 11.

I waited until my last day of riding in Europe to discover a brand new beautiful area. I had ridden in the direction of Gruyeres twice before, but never gone all the way there. Today, I did. Since I had ridden the farm country leading up to it before, I did not expect it to be as pretty as it was. It is located right at the foot of the Alps.

I discovered along the way that one of the roads I selected for my route is going to be part of the Tour de France a week from tomorrow. You can bet the tour organizers would not include a road in Switzerland unless it was plenty Switzerlandy. Since that’s my word, it can mean whatever I want it to. It had a castle, mountains, green fields. You know, Switzerlandy.

If I had my Lausanne stay to do over again, I would use the train to get up to that area and start a ride from Gruyeres rather than use it as a turnaround point. For future reference, the road that will be on the Tour de France looked very inviting. You can see a little stub on my GPS data where I rode out and turned around. I suspect it lead to a substantial climb. It’s going to have to wait for next time. Watch next Sunday’s stage and find out what I missed.

In the town of Gruyeres, I thought it was appropriate to try a little cheese. I couldn’t buy a pound to carry back on my bike, so I found a place where I could order a sandwich. This was the strangest bar I have ever seen. The town itself is typically quaint Switzerland, but right in the middle is the HR Giger Museum. Giger was the Visual Effects artist for the movie Alien and created the creatures in those movies. Actually, Giger used some of the money he won from his Oscar and bought the Chateau St. Germain in Gruyeres. He now uses it as his museum and bar. He has a scary imagination. Across the road from the museum is the bar that he designed. It was a little like walking onto the set for Alien and ordering a grilled cheese sandwich. A bit surreal - partially mechanical, partially biologic. The pictures don’t really show it very well, but you can tell it isn’t your normal corner bar. The sculpture to the left is called “Birth Machine” and the other must have been one of the prototypes for the Alien creature.

After leaving Gruyeres, I had a surplus of elevation that I had built up from the earlier climbs. That made for an enjoyable ride back to Montreux where I was able to carry some speed, but still enjoy the spectacular day.

I decided to make Montreux my final stop so that I could take one more pass through the festival and get some economical food like this enormous vat of paella.

With about five miles to go on the ride today, I started checking off my European “lasts”. Finished my last water bottle. Descended my last hill. Rounded my last traffic circle. Turned my last pedal stroke. It was over. Given such an invigorating 65-mile ride, I was sad for it to end, but thankful that it ended on a perfect day and a great ride.

I will be leaving tomorrow wanting more. Just as I had hoped.

Coming Home

2009-07-11T03:16:00.003+02:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I thought my time in Europe was coming to an end within the next 7-10 days. Jeff Daniels was able to find me a return flight that was a little earlier than I had planned, but I decided to jump on it while it was available. Like Jeff and I discussed, it is better to leave wanting to stay a few days more than to be be here a few days too long.

I will be heading back to New York on July 13 and will stay there until July 17 visiting my mom, sister and neice. After that, I will head back to Colorado for some R&R from my R&R. Once I have a few breaths in my own house, I will decide what comes next on the sabbatical adventure.

I feel a little sad that tomorrow will be my last ride in Euope, but I'm looking forward to deciding what comes next.

What’s in a Name?

2009-07-11T02:51:00.009+02:00

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - Saw Geneva
Miles Ridden - 45.93 miles
Vertical Feet - 1,521 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from July 9, 2009.

The destination of my ride today was a city called Geneva (in English). It sits on a lake called Lake Geneva (in English). Seems logical. In French, the city is called Geneve. So wouldn’t you think the lake would be called Lac Geneve? No, It’s called Lac Leman. Come on! Someone is just trying to make this difficult.

Consider this. A city in Italy is called Genoa (in English). The Italian spelling is Genova. If you thought the status sign was in English (they sometimes are) and got one letter wrong, you could board a train thinking that you were going to Geneva and get off in Italy. One letter and a language shift would put you in the wrong country.

I had no such problem on my ride today. I made it to Geneve without incident.

The route I selected was unfortunately uninspired. There was very little rural land anywhere along the lake in that direction and the scenery was nothing special except for several views of the lake. I know I am getting spoiled by the great roads I have ridden, but I hope to continue to be spoiled throughout the rest of my stay.

When I arrived in Geneve, I found a lively post-work gathering down by the lake. It was 7:30 pm on a Thursday, so I don’t think it was anything special. My sense is that this goes on every day after work. All of the young professionals were sitting on small lawns having drinks and smoking cigarettes. I wonder what happens on Fridays. A trio of 2 clarinets and an oboe provided improvised music as they roamed the lakefront (I was most interested in photographing the oboe player).

Due to the late hour when I arrived, I took the train back most of the way to Lausanne, then got off and rode the final 6-7 miles.

Jeff Daniels is doing research now to determine when I can get a return flight to the U.S.. I think I am getting close to the time to wrap up this chapter of the adventure. I’ll continue to ride and explore until I know when I need to start working toward an airport. I expect that I will be here another 7 to 10 days. I have to keep reminding myself that 7 to 10 days is usually called a vacation. I still have plenty of time to see new things.

Wine & Cheese Ride

2009-07-11T02:26:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - First flat tire (in my hotel room), first ride in Switzerland, walked my bike down a 22% grade cobblestone street, rode to tiny ski area Les Paccots.
Miles Ridden - 49 miles
Vertical Feet - 3,800 ft.
Route - Lost by Garmin again.
People - Just me.

This post is from July 8, 2009.

I got back on the bike today for the first time after 11 days off. It felt great, but it was noticeable that I had lost a bit of fitness over that time.

I started the day riding along the shore of Lake Geneva. I actually saw my GPS read 0% grade for a couple of miles. That has not happened much on this trip. The lakeshore was flat, but to my left, an 800-year-old terraced vineyards climbed steeply up a hillside. This wine region is called Lavaux, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The monks who built these vineyards did not have a thought of maintaining the vines with mechanized equipment. With such a steep slopes, a lot of labor must go into every bottle of wine.

After a nice warm-up along the lakeshore, I decided to head inland to see what this part of Switzerland looks like. Immediately, the GPS went from 0% to 14% and stayed there for a while. The views quickly got better with each switchback.

At one point during the ride, there was a closed road due to construction and the alternate route took me up the steepest paved road I have ever seen, much less ridden. It was 27% according to the GPS. Not very long, but it was a battle for each pedal stroke. The interesting thing about climbing a hill that steep is that you have to decide whether you can make it before you start. If you get bogged down half way up, you may or may not be able to get your foot down to stop yourself. I now know that I can ride 27% for a little while, but there has to be a limit to what they will pave around here. I also encountered a 22% descent on cobblestones. I lost my nerve on that one and walked down. That was a first.

The first part of the ride was dedicated to winemaking, but once I got away from the lake, I was in cheese country. I headed up in the direction of the town of Gruyeres, but didn’t get that far today. Obviously with that town as a seat, you know the region produces a good amount of cheese. I saw some dairy cows and production plants, but I suspect that if I get deeper into that region tomorrow I will see more.

A funny thing about Gruyere cheese. Swiss Gruyere is a solid cheese, while the same style in France must have holes. What we commonly call “Swiss Cheese” is actually French. I have not seen any type of cheese in Switzerland that has holes.

I ended today’s ride by going over to Montreux to see what the Jazz Festival scene looked like during the day. It was a fun festival atmosphere and the town was beautiful, but not as electric as my first visit at night. I think Montreux is best seen at night during the weeks of Jazz Festival.

I started to ride back to Lausanne along the lake, but some really ominous clouds rolled in. The great thing about riding along the lake is that the rail line also follows the lake. I just went to the next town with a stop and caught a train back to Lausanne before the rain started. That train saved me an hour of bike cleaning when I got back. It was nice of them to place it there for me.

Here is another addition to the WYLTBRTR collection.

Montreux Jazz Festival

2009-07-10T01:31:00.011+02:00

Miles from Home - 5,181.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Montreux Jazz Festival, saw Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller & Victor Wooten (S.M.V.), saw Eric Lewis (ELEW), saw Quincy Jones back stage, saw George Duke & Chaka Khan, saw 4:00 am for the first time in a while.
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No route today
People - Just me.

View Lausanne in a larger map

This post is from July 6, 2009.

Today started as another long transportation day, but it turned into much more. It only took 2 trains to get from Finale Ligure Italy to Lausanne Switzerland on Lake Geneva. Now that I am traveling with my bike again, having fewer segments was a big benefit.

The first thing I noticed was how much cooler it was here. Lausanne is a little farther north and 1,500 feet higher than the Riviera. That makes a big difference.

There were three reasons I selected Lausanne as my next city to visit. First, Rick Steves recommended it highly. Second, the Montreux Jazz festival, only 20 miles down the lakeshore, was going on from July 3-18. Finally, I wanted to see Lake Geneva, and Lausanne is supposed to be one of the nicest cities on the lake.

I really did not know very much about the Jazz Festival, other than that I had been aware that it existed ever since my days of playing in high school jazz band. I sent an e-mail to my friend Cary Kocher who did some research and found that an exciting concert was going on Monday night (the night I arrived). The trio of Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten (S.M.V.) were scheduled to play. It is always dangerous, and pointless, to use the word “best” about musicians, but all three of these bassists are near the top of most people’s list of favorites. I had no idea how 3 bassists could play together, but the idea was intriguing. I have listened to Stanley Clark since the 70’s and have heard Victor Wooten play with Bela Fleck a couple of times. I did not know Marcus Miller, but Cary said that he was also amazing. Two problems. I did not have tickets and I did not arrive at my hotel (20 miles away) until 7:00 pm.

As soon as I checked in, I took a quick shower and hopped back on a train to Montreux. I didn’t think I had a very good chance of getting into the concert, but I thought the festival would be fun to see. I arrived in Montreux a little before 9:00 and the concert was scheduled to start at 8:30.

I found my way from the train to the Mile Davis Theater venue. A guy approached me with a ticket available before I could get to the box office. He said it was a reserved seat and he wanted 100 francs. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but the face value on the voucher he was holding was much higher. I told him to wait for a minute while I checked at the box office. I was told that the concert was sold out, but there were a couple of Standing-room-only spots available if I wanted one for 90 francs (those Swiss prices again). He told me that concert had 3 acts and the first one had just started. First up was Eric Lewis (Elew) second was S.M.V. and the late-night show was George Duke with Chaka Khan. The surprising good news was that I had options.

Now I had to decide whether to take the sure thing with the SRO ticket or take a chance with the scalper. I figured that regardless of whether or not it was a good seat, it was worth 10 francs if I didn’t have to stand for 4-5 hours. On the other hand, the home-printed voucher could be a scam, the ticket office might require I.D. to exchange the voucher, I could be arrested for scalping and I had no idea how the venue was arranged and whether I would be able to see the stage from this seat.

The motivation to not stand for 5 hours was strong, and I decided to take a chance with the scalper (although I’m not sure it is appropriate to call someone a scalper when they sell for below face value).

I went to the ATM machine to get some Swiss Francs and handed over his bounty. He took me to the ticket window and handed over the voucher and they put a band on my wrist. The ticket office cut out a portion of the voucher and gave it back to the seller, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time.

The seller ushered me toward the venue where he said, “have fun” and disappeared.

I wondered, “Okay, when is this deal going to blow up?”

I got to the front of the line and was asked if I had a reserve seat ticket. I said, ‘Oui’ (I'm multi-lingual, you know), but then realized that my wristband was generic and had no indication of a seat number. I thought, “Ahh, that didn’t take long, this is when it blows up. Oh well, at least I can get in for SRO and I only wasted 10 francs”.

Rather than give up right away, I went back up to the ticket desk and found the woman who had given me the wristband. She remembered the transaction and started looking through the trashcan for the voucher that had the seat number. She had a couple of urgent looking conversations with co-workers, and then signaled for me to wait a moment. She came around the desk and started leading me back toward the venue. I think she was planning to give verbal approval for me to go in, but when we got back the entrance, the seller was standing there with the voucher that included the seat number. Apparently, it was an honest mistake that he forgot to give it to me.

With the voucher in hand, I entered the venue. Eric Lewis was already performing, so I had to wait until the end of the song in the SRO area. It was a pretty cool auditorium because they were doing Hi-Def recordings of all of the shows and they had large screens on either side of the stage showing live feeds of the 2 fixed and 2 mobile cameras. It gave the visual experience of a DVD concert with the audio of a live show.

The voucher was in French, so I wasn’t sure exactly what it said. I could tell that it was seat #9, but I wasn’t sure what the ‘1’ meant. Was it a section number, level number, or what? It couldn’t be row 1, could it? When the song ended, the usher took me toward my seat. We walked to the front of the auditorium until we got to the front row. I thought, “wow, front row, not bad for a poached ticket. Seat 9 though, I’m sure it must be at a terrible angle”.

Actually, the center seat was #1 and they went up in even numbers to the left and odd numbers to the right. That meant my seat was forth to the right of center and stage was at eye level. Do you remember my definitions of luck vs. fortune? This was clearly a case of luck being on my side.

The rest of the Elew concert was an interesting new exposure. I could best describe him as a “primal” piano player. The band’s instrumentation was piano, drums, electronics and violin. The most distinctive physical characteristic for Eric was that he did not use a piano bench. He played standing, kneeling, crouching, everything but sitting. He was a very powerful player, although highly non-traditional. I really enjoyed it.

The S.M.V. trio came on at about 11:00. The question about how 3 bass players make a band was quickly answered. Very well. The full instrumentation was 3 basses (mostly electric, but Stanley played stand-up at the end), keyboards and drums. Marcus also played bass clarinet on a couple of tunes. They arranged their music with Stanley playing low bass, Marcus in the middle and Victor playing the higher end. They each had a different approach to playing the instrument, but all three were jaw dropping. You rarely hear bass as a lead instrument. You never hear 3 basses together

Stanley Clarke went to the microphone to greet the audience after the first couple of blow-your-hair-back songs. He gave the usual welcoming comments, then asked, “How does it sound out there? Up here, it’s sounding a bit ‘heavy’”. Considering the instrumentation, that got a good laugh.

The entire set was a thrill to watch.

From my seat, I could clearly see the wings on the right side of the stage. About half way through the set, there was a little commotion that took my eyes off the stage for a moment. The reason for the movement was that Quincy Jones had taken a seat to watch the concert from the wings. Apparently, wherever Quincy goes, some serious ass-kissing follows. I saw Chaka Khan and George Duke working him pretty hard, then a parade of other people trying to get a word with him. His presence was never announced, but I could tell that the musicians were aware that he was there. As they left the stage, they lined up behind each other to pay homage to the “Q”. Victor actually bowed as he shook his hand. Apparently Quincy is royalty.

S.M.V. has released an album called “Thunder” recently. If your sound system can handle it, you might want to add it to your collection. As a live concert, the bass was chest thumping. I’m not sure how many home sound systems could create the same effect.

I finally left Montreux at 3:00 am and got back to the hotel at 4:00. It was a late night, but a memorable one.

BTW – Since I have taken all of the pictures on this blog, I have to disclose that these are not my pictures. They were taken by the person sitting to my left with his iPhone and he was kind enough to e-mail them to me. I did not have a camera with me.

Tour de France

2009-07-09T11:55:00.005+02:00

Miles from Home - 5343.0
Firsts / Highlights - Tour de France Stage 1 & 2, saw Paul Sherwin and Phil Ligget, got pictures of most of the race contenders
Miles Hiked - 0 miles (actually, I walked a number of miles on the time trial course, but did not capture any GPS tracks)
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No route today
People - Jeremy & Jenn from Wisconsin

Monaco auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

This post is from July 3-5, 2009.

10 Hours, 5 Trains, 4 Countries, 3 Languages, 2 Currencies, 1 Day

I don’t even know what language I do not understand any more.

Getting to Monaco didn’t happen easily. I passed through 3 different languages starting with German in Switzerland in the morning, Italian in the afternoon and ending with French in Monaco in the evening. In addition to the usual issues, this created a few minutes of intense travel confusion. Upon arrival at what I thought was my final train stop, I got off and found nothing that looked like the area where my hotel was supposed to be located. Nobody was around the station, so I eventually decided that I needed to backtrack 1 stop. A little lost time, but no big deal. When I looked at the train schedule to figure out when I could get the next train back, the previous train station wasn’t there. I examined the schedule for the rest of the day and the whole next day – there were no trains going back to the previous stop. How could that be?

The answer was a special case because the town I was trying to find sat at the border between Italy and France. Trains traveling west refer to it by its Italian name, and trains traveling east use the French name. In some cases, names are fairly similar, but in other cases like this, they are very different. By process of elimination I figured out where I needed to go and made it to my hotel. I wonder if this is how the city of Atlantis was lost to the ages.

On the “Where is Randy Going Next Sweepstakes”, it is now time to declare Kent Kirkpatrick the winner. He suggested that I augment my Giro chasing experience with the start of the Tour de France. At the time of the contest, his suggestion would have been an easy 2-hour trip, but my decision to jump up to Switzerland to catch a window of good weather made it far less efficient. Regardless of the extra travel, it was a great idea. How often do you get to see the start of the two biggest bike races in the world in the same year?

My plan when I left for Switzerland was to leave my bike and box in Finale Ligure (only 2 hours from Monaco). I would spend my week in Zermatt and Interlaken, then pick up my bike as I passed back through Finale on the way to Monaco. Having my bike in Monaco would be fun because I could ride the time trial course immediately before the start of the big race. It sounded feasible, but as I worked through the details, the final 15 minutes of the 10-hour journey proved unworkable.

Problem: The train for the final 15-minute ride into France did not accept bikes.
Possible solution #1: Ride the final miles – Not possible with all of my luggage.
Possible solution #2: Take a taxi instead of a train for the last short segment – not possible or difficult because taxis cannot transport you across the border between Italy and France. Even with that solved, I would need to disassemble my bike to fit it into a taxi, which was a big project for a small ride.
Possible solution #3: Rent a car – I’m not going to break down and rent my first car to drive 15 minutes.

As unlikely as it seems, I could not solve the logistics for the final six miles, so my bike remained in Finale and I went to Monaco.

How does the Giro compare to Le Tour? I’m sure there are more differences than meet the eye, but my observation is that they are similar, but everything at the Tour is just a bit bigger. The finish line bleachers are bigger, the sea of television trucks is bigger, the newpaper coverage is bigger and the overall hype is bigger.

I don’t know if they realized these numbers, but Monaco was expecting 250,000 spectators for “The Grand Depart” (opening ceremonies, Stage 1 and departure for Stage 2). With fans spread out over a course, it is difficult to estimate numbers, but whether or not the estimate is accurate, it is a big event.

My first full day in Monaco was the individual time trial for Stage 1. I arrived about 4 hours before the start of the race to get a feel for the city, wandered through the team bus/truck area and walked part of the time trial course. The bus/truck area was very similar to the final stage of the Giro in Rome with one big difference. All of the bike manufacturers were showing off the latest equipment that they would debut for the Tour. They were really only interested in showing off to the press, but spectators could see the bikes being prepped, so it was all out in the open. I didn’t see anything radically different, but there were some components that won’t be available to mortals for a while. Some of the headsets, in particular, looked more aerodynamic and integrated into the frames.

Monaco is a great place for the ultra wealthy. I am pretty sure that city (country) could absorb as much money as you cared to leave with them. I ended up leaving a bit more than I expected. One hour before the start of the race, my camera died again. Because of the issue with the image sensor, I was pretty sure that it was really dead this time. I found a camera shop with the Canon G10 in stock. It wasn’t as expensive as Switzerland, but still more than the U.S.. I didn’t see going without a camera for the rest of the trip as a viable option, so I am now the owner of a Canon G10. It is nearly identical to the dead G9 with a couple of extra megapixels and a higher resolution screen. Other than that, the biggest difference is that this one works.

With the new camera in hand about 15 minutes before the start of the race, I started walking the course to stake out my viewing location. Racers were still out doing recon on the course, but the energy was starting to build for the first competing rider. I decided that I would wonder this time rather than finding a single spot for the entire race. Since this was a time trial with racers going one at a time, I had more than 3 hours to work with. I walked the course (15k total) and watched each rider pass with his police escort in front and team cars behind. Whenever I got to a place that appeared to be a good location for photos, I stopped to shoot a few riders.

Unfortunately, I did not have a list of the start order for the racers. Typically, the order is determined by general classification standing with the top rider going last, but since this was the first stage, it was somewhat random. It appeared that the organizers put the leading contenders at the end of the start order, but that was not completely true. A Texan that you may have heard of was in the first quarter of riders to start after taking a few of years off from the race. Fortunately, I had stopped to take pictures when he went by. He was kind of busy and didn’t have time to wave, but I did manage to get another picture (see first picture in this post).

I got Lance, Levi, George, Frank & Andy, Mark, Fabian, Carlos, Cadel and quite a few others. Unfortunately, I only got a blur with the fading light when Alberto went past. He really was climbing well as he passed me, but apparently did not descend as well as Fabian who won the stage. I also saw Paul Sherwin and Phil Ligget (commentators) wearing shirts, ties and shorts after the finish, but couldn’t grab a decent pic.

Even though point and shoot cameras are better than they used to be, they still have annoying shutter lag. You press the shutter, and the camera captures the image about ½ second later. At one point, I was trying to catch some closeups at high speed around one of the curves. They would have been great pictures with my big camera, but it was hopeless with the point and shoot. In one case, I looked at the picture after the racer went past and there was absolutely nothing in the frame. Not the back of the rider, not even the blur of a back wheel. It was a complete wiff. That is the difference ½ second makes at the speed these guys ride.

The first stage ended with Fabian Cancellara in the Yellow Jersey. He was a member of the Swiss National team at the Bejing Olympics that were lead by Richard Steiner from Hotel Dory (I wrote about him in my “Easy Day in the Alps” post).

The second stage was on Sunday. It was a road race starting in Monaco, so I had an opportunity to watch them get started before I headed to Lausanne Switzerland. In a road stage, you never get to see the race for more than a few seconds. The racers are going for 4 to 6 hours typically, but spectators just get a quick glimpse. I took the train to one station short of Monaco and found a good elevated location on a switchback to watch them pass by. I staked out my spot for 1 ½ hours, then it happened. Police escort, helicopter, lead-out vehicle, peloton, team cars, more police and it’s done. With those 90 seconds taken care of, I was ready to fight the crowds to get a train back to my hotel and pick up my luggage.

The amazing sprinter, Mark Cavendish, from Team Columbia won stage 2. He is already a well-known name in cycling, but I suspect non-cyclists will hear of him before too long. He is racking up stage wins like few others have, and he is only in his early twenties.

Speaking of sprinters, here is a leg of a sprinter (Tom Boonen). Obviously a sprinter needs to have power to sprint to the finish line after a 130-mile race, but you can also see how many times he has crashed. All of these guys have battle scars, but sprinters in particular get involved in all kinds of nasty jostling as the pack sprints for the line.

Update - Sorry Tom - shortly after publishing this post, Tom Boonen crashed hard on Stage 6. Fortunately, he was able to continue, but the battering of a sprinter goes on.

I have decided that it is a very good thing I am doing this trip alone. Although there are plenty of people who spectate, it takes a certain type of person to spend most of a day to watch 90 seconds of action. Traveling alone, I don’t need to worry about anyone else being bored out of their minds.

The heat and humidity are really starting to build in the Mediterranean. My clothes were soaked just from walking the course. The trains all the way from Switzerland to Monaco (10 hours) did not have air conditioning. How hot was it? The chocolate I brought from Switzerland was fully liquefied in the train without being exposed to sunlight.

With the heat climbing and the European vacation crowds growing, I think the window of opportunity for visiting warm destinations is closing. I will head back up to Switzerland and decide how much longer to continue the European leg of this adventure.

Knee Status

2009-07-07T16:21:00.004+02:00

A few people have asked about my knee since my posthole incident hiking in Zermatt. I haven't been back on my bike since then, but I think everything is okay. I don't have any new pain, so I think it was just a little scare with no real consequence.

Paragliding

2009-07-07T16:01:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5214.51
Firsts / Highlights - Paragliding, Hot chocolate at Shilthorn rotating restaurant, Swiss chocolate, riding in the engine driver’s compartment of a mountain train
Miles Hiked - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No route today
People - Simon – Paraglider pilot.

This post is from July 2, 2009.

Today was to be my last day in Interlaken, so if I wanted to experience one of the adventure sports that people do here, this was my last chance. Rather than leave the possibility of being shutout by lightning again, I decided to get going first thing. Okay, “my” first thing. 10:30.

Of all the sports I wrote about last time, I decided to go paragliding. I chose it because I thought it would be a safe thrill with great views of the lakes and would be a variation on flying glider planes like I did a few years ago. I think I made a good choice. Like flying a glider, paragliding is “pure flying”. There are no motors or instruments involved, and you ride the thermals just like a bird. There is no parachute opening to worry about because it is already open when you take off. There is a reserve chute for emergencies, but use is extremely rare.

George, the owner of Hotel Derby, made arrangements for the tour company to pick me up and take me to the landing area where I met my pilot Simon. Simon was a good-natured guy from Bern. His “real” job was as a PC tech, but he had a pretty flexible schedule that allowed him to drive to Interlaken a few days a week and take people flying on his tandem paraglider. He told me that his company has 90 commercial paraglider pilots, and 30 of them make their full-time living giving rides. That doesn’t even include people who fly non-commercially and all of the other outfitter companies. As you might guess, there are gliders in the skies over Interlaken most of the time.

I just realized that I never even signed a release form. Can you imagine? Simon just rounded up a driver and we loaded his 55-pound backpack into the car and we were ready to head up the mountain for our launch. A good indication that we were launching for a picturesque Swiss hillside is that Ricola (the candy company) was up there filming a commercial.

Simon’s tandem rig was big enough that you really would not want to hike very far, but there are lighter solo kits that weigh as little as 10 pounds. Small rigs create some interesting possibilities. You could hike wherever you want to go, and then fly home rather than do the painful downhill hike. Sounds like a fun day.

One of the things that made paragliding like nothing else I have done is the take-off. You don’t jump off of anything. You just run down a hill until the hill drops away from your feet. Simon’s strongest advice was, “don’t stop running, even when you think you have taken off, keep running”. That was good advice, because the first thing you think when your feet start feeling light is that you must be in the air. You really need to keep driving forward, however, to achieve flight.

Once truly off the ground, Simon told me to sit down in the harness. That was the only uncomfortable moment of the flight. I couldn’t get the harness to convert from the vertical running position to the horizontal sitting position. I could have safely taken the entire flight hanging vertically from the harness, but it would not have been very comfortable and it gave me the sensation that I was hanging on rather than being supported by the harness. It was a welcome feeling when I finally got situated.

Since I had previously flown gliders, Simon almost immediately turned over the controls to me. It was more fun for me and it allowed him to take more photographs. I took all of the scenery shots, but he was able to get shots of the two of us using a camera mounted on the end of a telescoping pole with a remote shutter release. This allowed him to get the camera far enough away from us that he could take really good pictures from all different angles. The photographs were a way for the pilots to have a little side-business apart from the tour operator. I was happy to help out Simon and ended up with some pictures that I could not have taken myself.

For the landing, I gave the controls back to Simon. We landed softly in a field right back where we started. A few feet above the ground, he stalled the chute and we set down gently with only a few running strides necessary. It was much softer than my previous parachute landings.

With my adventure sport objective satisfied, I still had enough of the day remaining for a trip into the mountains. Doug Allen had suggested that I check out the aerial tramway system leading up to Shilthorn. The destination was a revolving mountaintop restaurant that was made famous in one of the early James Bond movies. It is perched on top of a rocky peak with top-of-the-world views. It is impressive that it was possible to build a tram to reach such a rugged spot, much less construct a revolving restaurant. The tram gives access to a location that most people would never see in their lifetimes without.

The route to Shilthorn actually required 2 trains and 3 trams (Train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, Tram to Grutschalp, train to Murren, 2 trams to Shilthorn). There was some minor hiking between some of the stations, but this was not a bad day on the feet. The second train was almost like a hobbyist train set all grown up. I was able to sit in the front compartment with the engine driver. It was interesting to see that perspective on train travel after so many hours of looking only sideways.

I am starting to miss my bike, but all in all, this was a pretty great day.

Tomorrow is a long travel day to get down to Monaco for the start of the Tour de France.

Interlaken

2009-07-05T10:03:00.007+02:00

Miles from Home - 5214.51
Firsts / Highlights - Near miss with riding a zip line, near miss with being hit by lightning, Grindelwald, Top of First, seeing Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau peaks, hike to Bachalpsee
Miles Hiked - 10.45 miles
Vertical Feet - 871 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

Afficher Interlaken sur une carte plus grande

This post is from July 1, 2009.

My second stop in Switzerland is Interlaken. I didn’t have any strong reason to choose this city other than lots of people saying that it is a fun place to visit. It is a little lower elevation than Zermatt, so it is a bit warmer, but it is surrounded by huge Alps like Eiger and Jungfrau.

I had heard that Interlaken is the adventure sport capital of the world, but I wasn’t really sure what that meant. Right away upon arrival, I started to get the picture. There are many outfitter companies here that offer excursions for sports you are unlikely to have ever tried, and some you probably didn’t know existed. Here are some of them:

White water rafting
Parasailing
Paragliding
Hang gliding
Canyoning
Bungee jumping
Canyon jumping
Skydiving
Zip line
Zorbing

All of these activities are on top of the independent sports you can do, such as hiking, in the high mountains. The comprehensive transportation system includes trains, busses, aerial trams and funiculars which makes access to the mountains inviting.

Combine specialized sports with the generally high cost of doing anything in Switzerland, and it looks like Interlaken may be a great place to have fun and spend a lot of money. I am going to attempt to do the former while keeping the latter under control.

You may not have heard of some of the sports that are done here.

Parasailing – is like water skiing, but you use the wind pulling a parachute rather than a boat for propulsion.

Paragliding – is like hang gliding, but you hang from a steerable parachute rather than a fixed wing. You take off like a hang glider by running off a steep hill or cliff. No airplane is necessary like skydiving.

Canyoning – there is no firm definition for canyoning, but it is a combination of several crazy things you can do in a canyon. They include rappelling down waterfalls, jumping off rocks into a river and sliding down rock formations like a water slide.

Canyon Jumping – is like bungee jumping with the added element of being inside a canyon.

Zip line – is another name for a Tyrolean Traverse. You connect to a steel cable with a harness and slide down the line. There is a particularly steep zip line here that covers ½ mile in 45 seconds reaching a top speed of 84 km/hr. It drops 200 meters over the course of an 800 meter run (25% grade).

Zorbing – is rolling down a hill inside a double-walled inflatable ball. The ball protects you like a Mars lander.

Some of these look intriguing, a few don’t.

I started the day by taking the train to the high Alps just outside Interlocken to a town called Grindelwald. From there, I bought a ticket for a gondola that went to the top of First (First is the name of a mountain, not “#1”). The unusual thing about this gondola was that it had 3 angle stations that redirected the line as it climbed up the mountain. Two were sophisticated decelerate/reaccelerate stations where you could unload, and one was a simple redirection with only a cable change (no decel/accel). Once at the top, it was my plan to do a hike to Bachalp Lake, then take the zip line from the top down to the next station before riding the gondola back to Grindelwald.

I was excited to try the zip line because we have talked about installing one at Steamboat for a number of years. This one was by far the longest, steepest and fastest that I had ever seen, so it was a chance to see what is possible with such an attraction. Other than being particularly steep, the other thing that made this one unique was that it had 4 parallel lines so that multiple people could ride at the same time.

As I was approaching Bachalpsee, I saw that some dark clouds were coming over the ridge and that afternoon rains were inevitable. Since I wanted to be sure to get the zip line ride in, I turned around early and headed back down to the top of the First gondola (top of the zip line). I beat the rain back and thought I was home free. I went to the platform just in time to see a couple of guys take off. It was a rush as they kicked open the retaining gates and quickly accelerated to over 50 mph.

I was to be next, but just before the harnesses could be returned up the line, the rain started. The operator told me that this happens every afternoon. She said that since they could not operate in the rain, I should go to the restaurant and wait it out. I did.

Returning to the platform after the rain, I found the operator looking confused. They had been unable to restore electrical power or communication after the rain passed through. If the top and bottom stations of the zip line cannot communicate, the system has a fail-safe that prevents it from operating. They eventually concluded that the line had been hit by lightning during the rain and that they would not be able to get it functioning for the rest of the day.

So close. One adventure sport attempt foiled. I was disappointed, but at least the lightning didn’t take out the gondola, which would have meant a 3-4 hour hike down in the mud.

Luck Interrupted

2009-07-04T10:20:00.007+02:00

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - Hiking on Zermatt ski resort, Running of the Goats, more views of Matterhorn
Miles Hiked - 11.99 miles
Vertical Feet - -4,089 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from June 29, 2009.

Score one for the superstitious. The day after I blogged about the good luck and fortune I have experienced during my trip, I was hit with a rash of bad things. Superstitious people would say that I was asking for trouble by acknowledging that so many things had gone well. I prefer not to consider superstition, but those who believe would say that today proves their point. All in the same day, I had the following things happen:
1. My camera sensor started to fail – more later
2. My iPod froze
3. My GPS lost the record of today’s hike (later recovered)
4. A hiking mishap nearly took out my knee with the damaged meniscus.

My camera failed to shut down properly a couple of days ago and it overheated. I think this damaged the image sensor and the camera now only works intermittently. Returning it to the factory is the only way to repair a damaged sensor. That would be a 3-week process that isn’t practical while traveling. It is clear that the camera is going to fail, but I don’t know when it will become unusable. Canon will not do a replacement from a retail store because it is 2 months out of warranty. I could purchase a replacement, but that is very expensive in Europe and U.S. companies like Amazon cannot ship here. There are no good options, but I am going to roll the dice and keep using it until it fully fails.

The most serious problem happened while hiking across a snowfield today. I unexpectedly broke through the snow and my left leg dropped down to my hip where it became wedged between two boulders. This caused my right knee to abruptly go into full flexion, which is the one position I need to avoid while I live with my torn meniscus. It was initially very painful, but fortunately, by the time I am writing this, everything seems to be okay. Like my camera and my shoulder, failure is inevitable, but I am trying to live with their frailties until they impact my lifestyle enough that more definitive action necessary.

I figured out today why Matterhorn is so striking. Its shape and angles are distinctive, but the really noticeable thing is its apparent size. It is a high peak even by Colorado standards at 4,478 m (14,691 ft) and rises out of the town of Zermatt that sits at 1,620 m (5,315 ft). That makes the exposed vertical relief 2,858 m (9,377 ft) which is much larger than anything in Colorado and is a lot of exposed rock rising straight out of a valley floor. As you can tell by the pictures, I was just as captivated by it today.

On the good luck side of the ledger, the weather held out for another day. Considering the rain and snow that have been happening every day in Switzerland, I have been very lucky (there I go again). I’m starting to think that the locals are publishing bad weather forecasts to keep the tourists away.

While returning from my hike today, I was passing through Zermatt on the way to the hotel. I heard a chorus of clanking bells, and then saw a herd of goats heading toward me. Apparently the goats are moved between fields twice a day, and Zermatt sits in the middle. Running with the Goats is considerable less risky than Running with the Bulls.

Two days of intense hiking have left my legs more sore than they have been at any point during this trip. Since I was exploring the lift system today, most of my hiking was downhill. Going downhill is much more likely to make me sore than cycling or hiking up hill.

My last day in Zermatt ended with dinner in the hotel dining room (cheese fondue). The view of Matterhorn at sunset from my table was a good way to end this stay.

Exotic Lifts

2009-06-30T23:30:00.006+02:00

Warning – this post may only be interesting to people in the ski biz – and maybe not all of them.

Doug Allen told me that ski lifts in Europe were more exotic than we commonly see in the U.S.. My tramp around Zermatt today was my first opportunity to see for myself.

Before getting to the lifts, the ticketing process was an interesting deviation from the U.S. model as well. They used the Ski Data point of sale and access control systems, and there is no way they could sell their products the way they do without it. Take the side of the mountain where I wanted to ascend as an example. The lift ticket had 3 different prices depending on whether you wanted to go 1/3 of the way up, 2/3 or all the way to the top. There were then 3 more price points if you wanted to ride the lift back down. Before you even start talking about discounting, packaging, kids, multi-days, etc., there were 6 prices you could pay to get on the lift just once. I was a little surprised to see that they not only had turnstile access to get on the first lift, they also had turnstiles to exit the lift at the top of #2 (and I assume #3). I could not figure out how they would handle exceptions for exit controls, but it certainly keeps everyone honest and accounted for. They did not prevent anyone from getting on lift #2, which I thought was a control gap, but they validated that you had paid for the 2nd segment of the ride when you got off at the top. They must have had some method to collect from unpaid riders at the top of each lift.

Unlike most U.S. ski resorts, Zermatt has a significant portion of their lift system running during the summer to provide hiking and biking access to their extensive trail network and the back country. They were operating 12 lifts, including gondolas, trams, a funicular, a cog railway train and something I don’t even know what to call (like an elevator that operates on a diagonal rather than vertical path). 4 of them service glacier skiing at the top year-round.

The summer access prices were very high - like everything in Switzerland. A ride on one of the small base area lifts could be as little as 10 CHF (Swiss Francs ~$.90). A single ride from bottom to top of the mountain can be as much as 58 and if you want to ride back down, the total cost is 90. Every lift has a separate price, but those are the extremes. A 3-day hiking pass that gives you access to everything is 183. Those prices make U.S. lift ticket prices seem like a huge bargain. For a little more than the cost of a single lift ride at Zermatt, you can ski all day at Steamboat. Skiing is just an amenity to enhance the experience of riding the lift.

Now – on to those exotic lifts. Here is the experience I had getting to the top of the second lift for today’s hike.

1) I purchased the ticket

2) I walked through a tunnel to get to the first lift. I don’t mean a hallway, I mean a 500 foot tunnel deep inside the mountain. Think capital spending like a large-scale mine.

3) Electronic status signs indicated the departure time for the next lift, which was a funicular (inclined railway).

4) The train arrived at the bottom station on what appeared to be a 35-40 degree angle. There did not seem to be any means of articulation in the train, so I believe the track maintained that exact pitch from bottom to top. The entire ride was underground, obviously engineered so that the grade from the starting point deep inside the mountain was exactly what was needed to reach to surface at the top station. The evac plan was apparently to use an 18" wide stair case that ran from bottom to top along the track. I would guess there were more than 1,000 stairs. Wouldn't that be fun in ski boots?

5) When we arrived at the top, the doors opened and I walked the final steps back into the sunlight.

6) This was a typical mid-way station like many ski mountains (except most mountains don’t have a view of the Matterhorn). It had a lodge with a dining room and a bike terrain park. It also had a smaller tunnel that lead to the diagonal elevator. You pressed a button to call for a car and a gondola-like cabin arrived on either of two tracks. When you entered, you pressed another button (like an elevator) and the cabin descended on the track to the lower terminal, perhaps 100 vertical feet below. This was obviously a low-capacity lift designed for limited use, but it solved the problem of a short steep pitch providing access to beginner terrain.

7) The next lift was a Doppelmayr gondola. Very familiar.

8) At the top of the gondola, you could either board the final lift or take a pair of high capacity elevators up two floors to exit building. Not that big a deal until you think of the cost of moving that many people efficiently.

9) The final lift was a 100-person tram that went the rest of the way to the top. I did not ride the final leg.

So to recap – For one of three major summer routes up the mountain, you take a funicular to a diagonal elevator to a gondola and a tram. There are other routes that use a surface cog railway, other trams and gondola as well as glacier-mounted chairlifts. In terms of investing in lift capacity, this place spends money like a Vegas casino in 2006 (does anyone remember those days?).

Luck and Fortune

2009-06-29T01:04:00.007+02:00

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - Matterhorn, big hike, fondue, raclette, Swiss chocolate and rosti
Miles Hiked - 10.0 miles
Vertical Feet - 3,513 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from June 28, 2009.

My Dad and I have discussed the difference between “Being Lucky” and “Being Fortunate”. The essential difference is that being lucky is something that happens to you, while being fortunate is something that happens as a result of your actions and decisions. I think those are good definitions, but I am not sure I can define whether the results of my trip so far are lucky or fortunate. I’m sure there are elements of both. What was it that Chris Diamond decided to allow me to take the time off that I needed to do this? What was it that allowed me to get on the train with my bike even though the conductor was certain that nobody was going to ride the train without the proper ticket that could not be purchased? What was it that allowed me to break into my hotel instead of sleeping on the street outside the gate? What was it that the weather in Zermatt was perfect today, in spite of the fact that it has been lousy for weeks and the forecast was marginal?

In each case, I can identify one or two things that I did correctly to create a favorable outcome, but even with those actions, the outcome could have been far less favorable. I don’t believe in the supernatural, so that is out as an explanation. I think it is a probability game, and I have been the beneficiary of the odds a number of times now, and the laws of probability say that in spite of my best efforts, I am due for some unfavorable outcomes.

For now, however, I will take the good as it comes.

Today was a perfect day in Zermatt. I stayed in Finale Ligure just long enough to wait-out the bad weather before coming to Zermatt. If I had come here directly from Bormio, which would have been more efficient, I would have been sitting inside watching it rain and snow. As it turned out, I had a great hike to Edelweiss, up a big alpine climb, to Zmutt, Furi and back to Zermatt. Hiking in Switzerland is something I have wanted to do as long as I can remember wanting to do anything. What a great first day for doing it. It was one of the best days they have had this whole summer in Zermatt.

The big headliner at Zermatt is Matterhorn. I have seen pictures of that peak my whole life, but seeing it in person is mesmerizing. I found myself sitting down on the trail and starring at it for minutes on end. It has so many shapes and angles that are different with every view. It looks like a number of things. It looks like a movie company logo, like a piece of fractured quartz and like a piece of hand-broken parmesan cheese (enough to keep Maurizio going for a very long time). Whatever it looks like, it is big and impressive.

The fact that I was obsessed with views of the Matterhorn means that you will be seeing pictures of it multiple times today. Sorry. Hopefully, these will be some views you haven’t seen before.

I won’t have my bike for about a week, but that didn’t keep me from getting a good workout today. I started out by taking a steep hike up to Edelweiss – a small lodge about 1,000 feet above Zermatt. It has no access that I could see other than the hiking trail to get there. That probably justifies the price I paid for lunch. 16 CHF for Rosti (pan fried potatoes), 2 for an egg and (this was the shocker) 6 for a ½ liter of water. Altogether, lunch was 24 CHF (1 CHF = .90 USD). I knew that Zermatt was going to be expensive, but that is why I am keeping my stay short. In spite of the price, it was a great lunch to keep me going the rest of the day and the view was hard to beat.

After Edelweiss, I continued hiking up. My intended destination was a small town called Zmutt. I eventually got there, but not without a substantial uphill detour. I suspected that I was on the wrong trail for some time, but I didn’t care because it was a nice hike. I eventually ran into 3 men in their 60’s and 70’s hiking down toward me. I was WAY above tree line, and they were hiking down to me. They spoke only French, but we spent a little time pointing at the map and figuring out where we were. They were obviously fit hikers, but they had no better idea of where they were on the map than I did. We concluded that I needed to turn around and take the low trail to get to Zmutt.

I hiked down the mountain with the gang of old men and eventually found a branch that lead to Zmutt. The detour meant that I climbed over 3,000 feet today. For those keeping score, the climb portion of today’s hike was about 3 miles at over 22% average grade.

Tomorrow I will hike again, but I think I will take advantage of the extensive cable car and mountain train system to get to the high country. Like everything here, using the lift system is very expensive. I think it will cost almost as much to ride the lift once for hiking as it would to buy a lift ticket to ski all day in the U.S. (a 3-day hiking pass costs about 180 CHF!). Zermatt apparently out-Aspen’s Aspen. I expect having access to the high alpine zone will make it easy to forget the pain of buying a 1-day ticket, although it is hard to believe the scenery could be a lot better than today.

Leaving Finale Soon

2009-06-27T23:28:00.005+02:00

Miles from Home - 5362.7
Firsts / Highlights - Stayed warm & dry, unlike much of Italy and Switzerland
Miles Ridden - 39.15 miles
Vertical Feet - 4,209 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Lorenzo – Manager of Hotel Florenz.

This post is from June 26, 2009.

The common tread of all the Bike Hotels is that the owner / manager is actively involved with the guests. The services provided from one hotel to the next are not identical, but so far, I personally know the owner of every one where I have stayed.

Lorenzo is the manger of Hotel Florenz in Finale Ligure. He has helped me build routes in my GPS each day to be sure I find the best roads in the area. The landscape here is a series of parallel valleys all flaring open at the Mediterranean to the south. Ridges rise as much as 3,000 feet at the top of each of these valleys as you head inland toward the Alps. The way you plan a ride around here is to ride along the shore until you get to the valley you want to climb. You then ride into that valley and cross over as many ridges as you care to tackle riding parallel to the sea. Some of the valleys have exposed rock cliffs and some have beautiful beach wood forests. Lorenzo helped me find a good combination.

When it started to look like there might be rain inland, he built a route for me that climbed the ridges closest to the sea. It’s good to have a local expert available.

My reason to spend a few days in Finale was to avoid bad weather that seemed to be everywhere else. As the train pulled out to begin my trip to Switzerland, the umbrella that had protected me was lifted and it started to rain. I am now officially out of safe-havens from the weather. I am going to have to take whatever hits me, and I’m afraid Switzerland knows I’m coming.

This is going to be a fairly condensed trip to Switzerland. First, everything seems to be much more expensive there, starting with lodging. Second, I want to be back down to the Riviera in Monaco for the first stage of Le Tour de France on July 4.

I have another logistical house of cards building. I am leaving my bike & box in Finale while I go to Zermatt and Interlaken. I then return to Finale just long enough to get my bike, but leave the box while I go to Monaco. This will create a very long day of travel, but it allows me to have my bike and hopefully ride the time trial course in Monaco before the race. After I see off the racers on stage 2 of the Tour, I return to Finale and pack my bike into the box before spending one last night at the convent. What happens next depends on the weather forecast. I will either go back to Switzerland on Lake Geneva to see a few days of the Montreux Jazz Festival, or move onto Croatia. If Croatia, that sets off a whole new chain of plans with where to take the bike and box in order to be able to ride ferries and busses where I need to go.

Thank you to Jamie Bischoff at The Travel Center of Steamboat for all of her help getting the lodging logistics worked out for these next few jumps between countries. By design, I left the decisions for the last second, which I know must drive her nuts.

Photographic note – I find that I have been taking a lot of pictures of roads as I am riding. As a photographer, I know there is no reason to take a photo that has no subject or activity, but I am regularly breaking that rule in order to try to capture the mood of these wonderful riding roads. With as lightly traveled as they are, I could wait around for hours before any activity took place that would provide a subject, so I just compose the best I can (with light that is almost always too hot) and shoot. Once I get back home, I think I will create a collection of road pictures and call it “WYLTBRTR” (“Wouldn’t you like to be riding this road?”).

Breaking into a Convent

2009-06-26T10:58:00.007+02:00

Before coming to Italy, I was under the impression that cycling was the biggest popular sport in the country. While cycling is much more followed here than in the U.S., football (soccer) is, without a doubt, the biggest sport in Italy.

Late last night I was in my hotel room and kept hearing the sounds of a football match from the field about 2 blocks down the street. I decided that watching some football needed to be part of my Italian experience, so I walked downstairs and headed (no pun intended) over.

There were a series of city league games going on, so I paid my 3 Euros toward their pizza fund and went in to watch. The quality of play was very good. They were not professional, but they were post-collegiate players who obviously had been playing all of their lives. I stayed until the end of the last game, which ended a little past midnight.

The hotel where I am staying is a converted 19th century convent in a very quiet neighborhood, except for the football field. By midnight, the streets are fully deserted.

When I got back to the hotel, I found the 10-foot gate in front of the parking lot closed and locked. A substantial gate with pointed spines from the old days as a convent, in fact, surrounded the entire hotel. The gate was too far away from the building for the night watchman to hear me rattling it, so I needed to find another solution.

A phone number for the hotel was posted on the gate, but I did not have my cell phone with me. There was a side door with an access code keypad and a telephone, but the phone didn't work and they had not given me the access code when I checked in.

Another piece of information that is necessary for this story to make sense is that Finale Ligure is a tourist destination, but it is almost entirely European tourists. In my 3 days here, I have only encountered 2 people who speak English and not a single person (tourist or otherwise) who speak it as a primary language. This made stopping people and asking for help getting access to my hotel fairly complicated. I stopped a couple of people passing by from the recently ended football game, but none of them had a phone or understood what I was asking.

I found a public phone down the street, but it only took phone cards – no coins. Next, I went back to the football field and managed to get one of the players to loan me his cell phone. I had memorized the number posted on the gate, so I called the hotel and reached the night watchman, who spoke no English. I said who I was and my room number and he seemed to understand that I was locked out, but I didn’t have nearly enough Italian in my 12-word vocabulary to say that I was two blocks down the street and would meet him at the gate in 5 minutes. I think he assumed that I was calling from the gate and would go outside to let me in while I held on the phone. When I figured out that while I was holding I was missing my opportunity to meet him, I hung up the phone and gave it back to the football player.

By the time I sprinted back from the field to the hotel, there was no sign of anyone at the gate. I waited for 10 minutes, but no activity. I went between the front gate and the side door a couple of times, but no sign of life either place. I felt like the watchman could have been a little more resourceful if he knew that a guest was locked out and was not at the gate – like try a second time. There was no sign, however, that he was doing any follow-up after his first attempt failed.

I eventually decided that my only two options were to somehow climb the gate or sleep on the sidewalk outside the hotel. I assessed whether or not I could safely get over the gate, and decided it was worth a try.

I successfully climbed up and over, assuming that would be the end of this mis-adventure. When I got to the hotel door, it was also locked and the night watchman was not at the front desk. I figured that he was not a desk attendant, just a watchman who slept in the basement and answered the phone if it rang. I pounded on the door for a while, but no one answered. Checking every door yielded no joy.

Just as I was becoming reconciled to sleeping on a deck chair next to the pool, the watchman appeared. He didn’t seem very happy, in fact, I think he literally growled at me. As far as I could tell, he never even questioned how it was that I got inside the gate. I gave him a grunt of acknowledgement and went to my room.

I’m not sure if this place was built to keep people in or out, but convents are tough places to break into.

Seaside

2009-06-25T17:46:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5362.7
Firsts / Highlights - Began to explore Ligure
Miles Ridden - 50.75 miles
Vertical Feet - 4,060 ft.
Route - My GPS lost my route today. I have a message into Garmin tech support to try to get it resolved.
People - Just me.

Visualizza Finale Ligure in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

This post is from June 24-25, 2009.

This was my first day at a Bike Hotel in Finale in the region of Ligure. It is the heart of the Riviera, and I selected it really for one reason. It wasn’t raining here. Much of Italy and everywhere I checked in Switzerland were looking like rain or snow most of this week. I may have painted myself into a logistical corner by coming so far south, but the objective of staying warm and dry were met. The sun was out and the beaches were busy all day.

I didn’t subject the sunbathers to my biker’s tan (tan up to about 3 inches above the knee and 6 inches below the shoulder – everything else is pasty white). For me, tan is a relative term, but there is a noticeably different shade of white. Whether you call it a biker’s tan or a farmer’s tan, it’s not going to see the beach.

This bike hotel is a bit of a step down from the great experiences I have had so far. Not terrible, but not quite so exceptional. Walking from the train station ¾ of a mile with my backpack, bike and bike box on sidewalks that were not wide enough for 2 people to pass was a bad start. The pay-for-a-guide and pay-for-laundry models were also a step down from the other hotels. Finally, the quality of food included with the half-board package was not as good as my previous stays and the dining room was overrun with screaming kids (the sound of screaming kids does not seem to be language-dependent). I dropped half-board for the remainder of my stay, so the food and screaming kid problems are solved. I think overall everything will be just fine.

Somewhat like Riccione, the mountains climb immediately out of the sea here. A thin strip of flat oceanfront, then the climbing begins. After the Alps, the grades here were a welcome relief. I climbed 4,000 feet today, but the grade rarely went outside the 4-7% range. That allowed me to do some “tempo” climbing where I could maintain a higher cadence than has been possible for the past week. It felt good and my legs have a different type of fatigue tonight.

At the top of the 3,000’ pass, the road passed through some kind of military fortress. This seemed more modern than the medieval walled cities I have seen everywhere. It had a stone trench around it like a mote, it was built into the mountaintop and it had chimneys coming out of the top. The tunnel passing through it was 50 meters long with an atrium in the middle and the building was at least 300-400 meters wide. I need to learn more about it, but it created some interesting photographic opportunities.

Another uncategorized observation is street markets. I frequently come upon markets during my rides. Almost every one of any size has at least one vendor selling all purple clothes. Sometimes there are 3 or 4 stalls in a row with nothing but purple. The odd thing is that I don’t see a disproportionally high percentage of people wearing purple. Another one of those mysteries. I’m sure Daniele’s response would be a shrug, and he would say, “It’s Italian”.

Leaving Bormio

2009-06-25T00:17:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Just a transportation day
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No route today.
People - Ned from Scotland.

This post is from June 23, 2009.

Today was a transportation day, so there isn’t much to report. Just a couple of loose ends.

Daniele has been telling me about his “second wife” since I arrived in Bormio. I couldn’t leave town without getting a picture of the two of them together. He claims that wife #2 is less expensive, only requiring a water bottle and a strong pair of legs. For the bike geeks out there, yes, that is a Pinarello Prince – there is no more coveted bike in Italy. For the fitness geeks out there, no, I can’t lift my bike straight off the ground that way – and it’s not my bike’s fault.

The other loose end is an interesting story. There have been very few single people in the bike hotels. One such person was Ned, a lawyer from Scotland. He checked in the day before I was scheduled to leave. At dinner one night, he mentioned that he had seen my Moots in the bike storage area. He asked, “Moots – aren’t those made in a tubular shaped former foundry building in Steamboat Springs?”. I must have been dumbstruck for a few seconds, then said, “They haven’t been made there for over 5 years. That is now Orange Peel Bike Shop, but how in the world did you know that?”

He said that he had seen it in a magazine article about 5 years ago. Not only did he remember an article he saw 5 years ago about a bike brand that is nearly unheard-of in Europe, he remembered and could describe the building where they used to be made.

I’m still shaking my head about that. I guess I see how he got through law school. His legal library needs must be very small.

Challenge

2009-06-22T22:49:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Rode Passo del Mortirolo from Mazzo (the difficult side)
Miles Ridden - 35.77 miles
Vertical Feet - 6,706 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from June 22, 2009.

Today was original scheduled to be my check-out day at Hotel Funivia in Bormio. Since I had not made adequate progress on planning my next steps, I decided to extend for a day.

With my extra day, I set out to ride the "easy" side of Mortirolo Pass. I had the route in my GPS, I was dressed and ready to go. I pulled my bike out of the deposit in the garage and walked outside and it started raining. It wasn't a warm rain. It was in the 50's, blowing and overcast. Not the best way to set out on what promised to be a challenging day.

I ran into Daniele and he assured me that the rain was moving north, and if I headed south toward Mortirolo that I would avoid it. He even offered to shuttle me down the valley to a lower starting point and I took him up on it. When we arrived 15 miles down the hill, it was just as promised. Warmer and no rain. Unfortunately, the wind continued. Daniele has been a fantastic host throughout my stay.

Since I had the jump-start from the van ride, I decided I should take advantage of the opportunity to ride the even more evil side of Mortirolo. My new plan was to ride up the Mazzo approach and down to Grosetto rather than up and down Grosetto. The Mazzo approach has more elevation (it starts lower) and climbs to the summit in 12 km rather than 18. That makes for a significant difference in grade. If I'm going to do the climb of a lifetime, I may as well do it right.

The pictures I selected for today's post are not for scenery. They are an attempt to give a sense of how steep the pass is. Pictures have a way of flattening out terrain, so these only give a little bit of the flavor.

The question of, "what is the steepest climb you have ever done?" has now been answered and will probably stand for the rest of my life. It wasn't the longest or the most vertical gain, but it was certainly the steepest. If Lance Armstrong can call this the most difficult climb he has done, I don't feel too conflicted saying that it is probably the steepest I will ever do.

The average grade is over 10%. That is deceptive because it honestly seemed as if it almost never dropped below 10%. It was mostly 12-15% with frequent blips above 20%. It's amazing how 10% can begin to feel like a recovery zone after pulling 15% for a while. Only the somewhat flatter section near the top caused the average to drop near 10%.

Key Stats for climb:
Distance: 7.18 miles
Time: 1:28:28
Avg Speed: 4.9 mph
Vertical Feet: 4,184 ft.

On both the climb and descent, I had a couple of mountain bike sensations that you usually don’t get on a road bike. Climbing some of the steeper pitches, I could actually feel my front wheel lifting up from the pavement. Not so much that I was going to flip over backwards, but enough to know that the grade was affecting my weight distribution. On the way down, I had the sensation of diving over the edge. I extended my butt off the back of the saddle like you do on a mountain bike to assure that my rear brake could be effective. Neither was scary or dangerous, but not sensations you usually attribute to a road bike.

Mortirolo is a challenge that has been in my mind since starting to think about visiting Italy. It wasn't a challenge I was committed to achieve, but I knew it was there. Riding it today, I thought about challenges in general. Anyone who has ridden a bike uphill at 12% knows that it isn't easy or comfortable. When you hear that there is a pass in Italy that sustains that for nearly 7 miles, most people's response is that they couldn't do it. They can go 100 feet at that grade if they need to, but 7 miles? No way.

I have observed during previous big challenges, and confirmed today, that everyone is capable of so much more than they know. Do I think I can sustain 12% for 7 miles each time I encounter a 12% hill? No. Like everyone else, I think it is ridiculously steep. If that 7 miles happens to be the 7 miles in front of your wheel, however, you find a way. Not only do you survive the challenge, you realize that it isn't the limit of your capacity. I'm not saying I want to get any closer to discovering my climbing capacity any time soon, but it is useful to know that self-imposed limits are not necessarily real.

The climb back up to Bormio was made substantially more difficult by a head wind. Between the pass and a headwind climb back to the hotel, today was my slowest day of riding (maybe ever). All things considered, I’ll take it.

Daniele will be driving me down to Tirano tomorrow to catch a train to Fianle on the Riviera. It will be Bike Hotel #4, so I will continue to build some miles. From there, I want to do a fast pass through Switzerland without the bike and do some hiking and sightseeing. If I can find a place to stay, the next stop will be Monaco to see to first stage of Le Tour de France. Beyond that, my itinerary is again blank.

My original plane ticket was scheduled to return to the U.S. on July 7. Given how much I have left to see and do, I am going to extend that return date and cancel my plans to ride the Pacific Coast. I will need to leave that for a future adventure. I have managed to keep the budget in line so far, so I think I should keep my run of good experiences going in Europe for a while longer.

Bormio

2009-06-22T22:45:00.003+02:00

Bormio is a ski town sitting at 1,200 meters in the Alps. As you can tell from my recent posts, it is a great home base for cyclists and motorcyclists to ride the high passes of Italy.

This picture tells the story. At this intersection, you can turn right to Gavia Pass, left to Stelvio or do a U-turn for Mortirolo. How would you like to climb today?

Cioccolata Calda

2009-06-22T22:29:00.003+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Rode Bormio 2000 and had the best cioccolata calda (hot chocolate) ever made
Miles Ridden - 11.54 miles
Vertical Feet - 2,368 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from June 21, 2009.

The day was cold and windy, so I didn't plan any big activities. I didn’t want to be completely inactive, so I rode the Bormio 2000 climb that starts 50 meters from the hotel. At the top of the gondola (Bormio 2000) there was an open concession, but not much going on. To give myself a head start on staying warm for the descent, I ordered a cioccolata calda (hot chocolate). I was expecting something functional to keep me warm, but what I got was far more than functional. It was called hot chocolate, but it was really more like hot chocolate pudding. It would have been possible to drink it, but I ate it with a spoon.

At 2.30 euro ($3.25), I assumed the high price was attributable to being at the top of a ski resort. I don’t think anyone would ever complain about the price of hot chocolate if we could make it like this at Steamboat. I asked the concession owner what chocolate he used, and he went into the back to bring out a bag of powdered chocolate called Moretto. He said he used 1 ladle per cup and the ladle looked like about 2 oz. I have not searched yet to see if this is available to purchase in the U.S., but if it is, you will be welcome to try it at my house because there will certainly be some in my cupboard.

I may have done something else after this, but it is all a blur after to cioccolata calda.

Actually, there was one more thing. I spent the afternoon planning next steps for the trip and not finding much. A lot of rain is forecast everywhere this week. I finally decided to go to the Italian Riviera where chances of dry weather are better, but not guaranteed.

I considered going to a city in Switzerland so that I could do city activities if it rained, but nightly rates were outrageous. I do want to do a quick pass through Switzerland, but with costs as high as they are, I want to do a little more planning. I also considered going to the Pyrenees to continue climbing in western France, but the place I would like to go did not have availability this week. I may still go there later depending on availability in the schedule. In an effort to keep my economical and active streak going, I found a 4th Bike Hotel in a town called Finale on the Mediterranean. I will be extending my stay in Bormio 1 day and checking in at Finale on 23 June. My travel looks like a child’s scribbling on a map of Italy, but it’s working for me so far.

A Taste of Mortirolo

2009-06-20T23:36:00.005+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Rode to Tirano and part of Passo Mortirolo. First equipment breakdown
Miles Ridden - 61.40 miles
Vertical Feet - 5,782 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from June 20, 2009.

I set out today with a route planned to go from Bormio to Tirano and back. With one exception, it is 25 miles downhill to Tirano and 25 miles uphill back. The picture above is the valley I passed through in both directions. A little more than ½ way there, a sign appeared saying “Passo Mortirolo”. The dreaded Mortirolo.

Daniele has said a few times that, “you must ride Mortirolo once in your life”. He may be right, but I’m not sure if this trip is my time. I knew that I wasn’t prepared to ride it today. I had not eaten yet, only had one bottle of water and still had at least 35 miles left to ride after the pass. Curiosity got the best of me though, so I made a deal with myself to ride just the first 3 km (2 miles) of the climb. There are three ways to climb that pass, and this one is considered the “easy” route. “Easy” is certainly only relative to the other 2 approaches. I have never heard a single person say that any of the approaches are, “not that bad”, much less “easy”.

The party got started quickly. Immediately the hill climbed at 13%. I expected that, but I didn’t expect the leveling that came next. After a short recovery, it went back to 11 and 13%, then 15%. Very steep and difficult, but surprisingly, the recovery sections continued every so often. When I got to my 3 km goal, I was feeling good, so I decided to go another 2 and see what was ahead. The pattern of steep and recover continued. I recognized that if I went much farther, goal-orientation would take over and I would start to think I should just do the whole climb. I knew it wasn’t a good idea without food, but I also knew that I was likely to talk myself into it. I went 1 more km to 6 km and then turned it around. I did not even get up to tree line, so it is entirely possible that the character of the ride changes higher up, but the part I rode was merely torturously difficult, not impossible.

After descending off Mortirolo, I continued toward Tirano. Shortly after passing through the town of Grossetto, I had my first mechanical breakdown of the trip – my chain broke. One of the links came loose, caught on the front derailleur and got mangled. Fortunately, I was pedaling lightly enough that I don’t think I did any damage to the derailleur. Also in the fortunate column, Brock had the foresight to sell me a tool kit that included a chain tool and a spare master link to replace the broken one.

The only explanation I have is that I generated such an overwhelming amount of torque climbing Mortirolo that the chain just couldn’t handle it. It was either that or something else.

I was able to remove the broken link and install a spare master. Since I had never fixed a chain, I was happy that it went well, but the break happened on the link right next to the existing master link needed to remove the chain when packing the bike. Having 2 consecutive master links in the chain was not a good long-term solution, but the fix got me rolling again.

Throughout this trip, I have been quite surprised at how few bike shops there have been in Italy. That made it startling when I found the biggest shop I have seen in 6 weeks just 2 miles down the road from my breakdown.

We had no language to draw on to discuss the problem, so I showed the mechanic what had happened and asked “Una link” or “Tutti chain”? I was trying to ask if I had to replace a single link or the entire chain. He got the idea and changed just the broken link and gave me back the master link for the next emergency. Between my front and rear brakes and this chain, I have visited bike service shops 3 times in the Alps, including the house call. My total labor charges so far are 0.00 euro. It must be tough to earn a living as a bike mechanic in Italy. No wonder I can never find one.

On the way back to Bormio, I found this little church up on a pass hidden back from the road. Something about it made me want to explore. There was a sign saying that it was built in 1392 and survived a landslide in the 1500’s that destroyed everything else in the area. Being a mountainside chapel rather than a city church, I was taken back when I looked inside one of the buildings and saw a room full of perfectly organized skulls and femur bones. Mike from Ohio had told us about that tradition on our tour of Vatican City, but I didn’t expect to see it here.

Good luck to everyone in Colorado who is doing the MS Bike Ride next weekend. I was thinking of you today. Sorry I won’t be on the team this year.

Easy Day in the Alps

2009-06-20T23:17:00.007+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Visited Daniele and Elisa’s family cabin for lunch
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No route today
People - Lunch with Daniele, Elisa, Elisa’s father, Richard Steiner from Hotel Dory and spouses of Dutch riders.

This post is from June 19, 2009.

Unlike yesterday’s “recovery”, today was a true rest day. There was forecast of rain, but it did not come until very late. As it turns out, it would have been better to ride today since the weather for tomorrow does not look promising. It is amazing how one day of inactivity makes me feel lazy after establishing such an active routine.

In spite of my sluggish ways, it was a fun casual day. Rather than risk the weather up at 2,000 meters at Daniele’s family cabin in Stelvio National Park, we went to his father in-law’s cabin just above Bormio. He cooked us lunch with a big pan of local polenta, salami, cheeses, bread, 2 types of grilled sausages, pork chops, grilled vegetables, local wine and peach torte for desert. Just another lunch in Italy.

It occurred to me on my ride yesterday that the very same PowerBar that arrived with me in Italy is still in my saddle bag. That means that over 1,500 miles of riding has been 100% fueled by local “real” food. Not a single Gu or energy bar. That not only says something about Italian food, but also the frequency of availability. There has not been a single stretch of road between cafes that was long enough that I needed to carry food. It also says that I have been taking a slow enough pace that I don’t mind stopping to eat. I keep the PowerBar with me as an emergency backup, but who wouldn’t rather have a prosciutto panini, pizza or plate of spaghetti than a bar of extruded “stuff”?

Richard Steiner checked into the hotel last night. You might remember his name as the lead of the guide program at Hotel Dory, the very first bike hotel where I stayed in Riccione. Like Maurizio from the Lake Garda Hotel, Richard is 66 years old. He was the coach of the Swiss National Cycling Team at the Olympics in Bejing and rides 20,000 km (12,000+ miles) / year. Being Swiss, he is the reason that rides at Hotel Dory scheduled to leave at 9:30 almost never leave at 9:31.

Richard is visiting this region because he is getting ready to personally ride the Trans-Alp race next month. It is a 7-day race with 2-person teams that climbs 19,000 meters (62,000 feet) over the 7 stages. He is bringing the Dory guides to Bormio in a couple of weeks to ride 3 consecutive days that will include the ride I did 2 days ago and two others with comparable effort. Not bad for 66 years old (not bad for 26 years old).

Thank you for the responses on the “Where should Randy go Next Sweepstakes”. I am leaning toward going to Switzerland first (since I am only a few miles away from the boarder), then either Kent or Mary's suggestion for Monaco or Croatia. I have a whole lot of logistics to work out in the next couple of days.

I hope tomorrow will let me get back onto The Machine, but if not, I will try to make logistical progress toward the next chapter of the adventure.

Where Should Randy Go Next Sweepstakes

2009-06-18T22:42:00.007+02:00

I only have a few days left in Bormio, then my itinerary is completely blank. I think I am going to extend beyond my origainally planned return date of July 7, but it's time to start building my extended plan. I need your help.

I can't offer any big prizes, but whoever makes the best suggestion for where in Europe I go next will get a souvenir from that location. Bike, hike, beach - anything is in play. I have an unlimited Eurail Pass, so I can go about anywhere, just keep in mind that I have a bike and all the related weight to lug around.

In case you don't already do so, please click on the "...and now, For Something Completely Different" link in your e-mail to go to my blog. From there, you can enter a comment so that everyone else can share and chime in with their opinions.

Here is the map of all of the destinations that have been suggested so far. Green have already been visited, blue have not. My current location (Bormio) is in red. (remember - you can you view maps if you go to my blog - not from your e-mail message). Also, remember that you can zoom and pan around the map to make it easier to view details.

Visualizza Possible Destinations in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

Please don't wait. I have let this go too long, and I need somewhere to go!. Such a problem to have.

Thank you.

Recovery Day vs. Rest Day

2009-06-18T21:58:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Rode to Cancano
Miles Ridden - 21.44 miles
Vertical Feet - 2,704 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - 2 Italian kids escorted me to the bike shop in their matching race kits. Same mechanic as Monday installed front brakes and trued my rear wheel.

This post is from June 18, 2009.

I learned today the difference between a “recovery day” and a “rest day”, at least by Daniele’s definition. I asked him for a route selection that would let me recover from yesterday’s big climbs. He suggested that I go to a couple of lakes called Cancano in Stelvio National Park where his family has a cabin. All of the hotel guests are invited to visit his cabin tomorrow for some homemade polenta.

So, what is a recovery ride? It was 47 switchbacks and 2,700 vertical feet. Nothing like yesterday, but not the kind of ride I would seek out the day after doing Tour de Steamboat. Your legs are toast? Why don’t you take it easy and just climb Rabbit Ears Pass.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast looks like I may be rained out for the first time in 6 weeks. Given my need for a rest day, it couldn’t come at a better time. After 26,000 vertical feet in 4 days, kicking up my feet at Daniele’s cabin and maybe making some progress on my upcoming itinerary sounds pretty good.

On my way off the mountain today, I encountered the woman in this picture who put all of my recreational effort into perspective. She was walking up a very steep hill to her house after it appears she spent the day cutting and raking hay. Even after what must have been a demanding day, I said, “Buona sera” and she lit up with a big smile.

157 Switchbacks, 10,000 Vertical Feet

2009-06-18T21:02:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Climbed Passo Stelvio from both sides. Rode through Switzerland and back to Italy. Limoni torte at the top of Stelvio
Miles Ridden - 62.66 miles
Vertical Feet - 10,454 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Dinner with Geert from Belgium.

This post is from June 17, 2009.

I told you today might be a big ride.

Today was an all-time record for me in a couple of ways. I have never ridden anything close to 157 switchbacks, and the 10,000+ vertical feet beats the Bicycle Tour of Colorado day when we climbed over Berthoud Pass, Loveland Pass and Ten Mile Canyon in one day. It took 6 ½ hours in the saddle to go 63 miles, but I don’t think I could have managed a much faster pace. At least 5 of those 6 ½ hours were spent climbing in my smallest gear. The final climb was a sustained 20 mile, 6,000 foot climb.

You can count the switchbacks on Today’s Route GPS data, but I’m pretty sure 157 is the correct number. It makes your head swim.

Like Day 1 in Bormio, I started by climbing the near side of Stelvio Pass. This time, however, when I got about 3 km from the top, I took a left turn and dropped down the Umbrailpass into Switzerland. I have long wanted to visit Switzerland, and plan to spend more time there later in this trip, but it seemed appropriate for my first view to be entering from the highest paved road in Italy. Getting through “customs” was a complex process. There was a white stripe in the road that said, “Stop”. I did so, re-clicked into my pedals and continued. There was nobody around, so I guess that is S.O.P.. I may have been photographed, but that was all it took. Returning to Italy at least had a staffed station, but I was just waived through on my bike.

The road through Switzerland was beautiful. Geographically, of course, there was no big change, but the architecture, language and clothing changed immediately. I stopped at a hotel restaurant for a salami sandwich to keep me going for a little while, but I forgot that Switzerland does not use the Euro for its currency. Fortunately, they accepted my money at what I’m sure was a greatly inflated rate. Whatever the exchange rate, the sandwich tasted good and was needed.

After returning to Italy, the road continued to go downhill until it reached the base of Stelvio on the opposite side from Bormio. My next challenge was to climb Stelvio again, but this time from a lower elevation, which made this even more challenging than the first ascent. If you remember the picture of all of the switchbacks from “The Mighty Stelvio” post 2 days ago, that was the back side of Stelvio that I was about to climb. As impressive as that set of switchbacks were, the thing I didn’t realize was that those were only the top 4 miles of a 20-mile the climb. There was a 16-mile approach before you arrived at the bottom of those final switchbacks. Here is a picture that shows the final 14 of 49 switchbacks from the bottom rather than the previous view you had from the top. Unfortunately, the backlighting makes it impossible to see much of the striking detail.

The pass is located entirely within the Stelvio National Park, and the scenery was enjoyable throughout. That helps provide some distraction from the suffering that is inevitable on any climb that long. In fact, the road I ascended for the final climb has been rated the most scenic alpine road in Europe. That could explain the number of sports car drivers and motorcycles out testing their cornering abilities.

The switchback count started over at the bottom on the far side of Stelvio. Although there were 49 of them, this was the first where I could pull off to take a picture.

I have to admit that my fuel tank was getting pretty low by the top, but I made it with no real drama. I made a few more photo stops as I approached to top. Yes, I stopped, and yes, I took a photo, but if I didn’t carry a camera, I probably would have been taking time to examine the composition of the asphalt. The good news is that it was much more comfortable than the time I climbed Alpe di Suisi with the cold back in mid-May. By the time I reached switchback #1, it was time to smile again.

I was happy to have arm warmers, tights and a jacket for the descent back to Bormio. It all helped hold off the shivers that make riding a bike downhill a little bit adventurous. Although these may look like the same switchbacks I showed a couple of days ago, this picture is actually the Bormio side of the pass where you can see all of the tunnels below the switchbacks. The tunnels are dark and leaky. I just concentrate and get through them as quickly as I can. I was thankful that in spite of the long ride, much of the descent was still in sunshine.

After 3 days of riding these passes, I am going to take an easier day on Thursday. Daniele helped me find a recovery route that is shorter and less climbing than the past few.

Another Day, Another Epic Pass - Gavia

2009-06-16T22:36:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Climbed Passo Gavia and Bormio 2000 (the top of the gondola at the Bormio ski resort), drank hot chocolate at Rifugio Bonetta (restaurant at top of Gavia).
Miles Ridden - 47.9 miles
Vertical Feet - 7,173 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Rode alone. Dinner involves cross-talk between tables of 11 Dutch, 1 Belgian and 1 Yank.

The anxiety has not been fully eliminated, but I ventured on today and increased my mileage and vertical feet. I continued to follow Andy Hampsten by riding Gavia Pass. I have mentioned a few times that Andy is the only American to ever win the Giro, and it was on Gavia in a blizzard where he clinched the win. I thought of what he must have been going through many times on today’s ride. I think Andy is the most respected American cyclist by Italians, probably even more than Lance due to the courage of that win.

At a particularly difficult part of the climb today, I looked down at my computer and saw that my heart rate was 176. I’m not sure what my true maximum is, but that is pretty darn close. That is my body exclaiming like Scotty from Star Trek, “There isn’t any more. I’m giving you all she’s got”.

On the descent back to Bormio, I passed through a little mountainside town and accidentally became part of a funeral procession. I don’t know who died, but this tiny town came out in force. At the front of the line were a flag color guard, band and a priest. Behind them, people from the town seemed to drop whatever they were doing and joined one by one until there were over 100 people walking in a silent line. Most of the men had their hands clenched behind their backs. The sounds were stricking. In addition to the band playing music, the church bells were ringing at the end of the street drawing the procession toward them. I was behind the line and didn’t think it would be appropriate to ride past, so I became part of the procession for 20 minutes. It reminded my of a New Orleans style funeral, but I never heard the part where the band broke into celebratory Dixieland.

This last picture is a good view of Bormio from the second climb of the day called Borio 2000. Bormio 2000 is actually the name of the gondola that goes to the mid-way point of the ski mountain, but the road goes by the same name because it climbs to 2,000 meters.

Tomorrow may be a very big ride, but let’s not put that into the books until it happens.

Personality Test

2009-06-15T23:05:00.004+02:00

Personality Test

Step 1) Click on the image above so you can see a full-size version of it, then come back to this page.

Step 2) Answer the question below.

What was the first thing you noticed?
a) Wow - what a beautiful mountain
b) The clouds are building, I hope Randy got off the mountain before the weather turned bad
c) Check out the black Ferrari

Interpretation
I know that my mom answered 'b' and switchboard Kent answered 'c'. I hope everyone else answered 'a'.

Speaking of cars, Kent - BMW was up on Stelvio today test-driving prototype hybrid cars. I guess the black tape over the emblem and lines is supposed to keep us from recognizing them as BMW's. Take a look at the brake dust on the wheels compared to the spotless exterior of the car. Do you think they were driving them hard?

All of the exotics were out today. Ferrari, Lotus, Porche and a couple of open wheel roadsters.

The Mighty Stelvio

2009-06-15T22:12:00.008+02:00

Miles from Home - 5309.75
Firsts / Highlights - Arrival in The Alps, Climbed Passo Stelvio, ate a bratwurst from Richard’ls Wurststandl at the top of the pass.
Miles Ridden - 36.83 miles
Vertical Feet - 5, 580 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here - Sorry Chuck, I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor.
People - Met Daniele Schena – owner of Hotel Funivia, cyclist and former ski instructor.

View Bormio in a larger map

This post is from June 15, 2009.

I went to bed last night feeling anxiety and woke up this morning with the same feeling. The picture above explains why. I have arrived in the Alps right at the border between Italy and Switzerland and the riding here appears that it will be as difficult as anything I have ever done.

For the third time on this adventure, I am staying at a Bike Hotel. This time, it is Hotel Funivia at the base of one of the ski resorts in Bormio. Also for the third time, I have received unexpected personal assistance and attention from the owner of the hotel. This time, the owner’s name is Daniele Schena. It took 3 trains to get from Siena to Tirano, but that was still 40 km from the hotel in Bormio. Daniele drove down to pick me up personally. After a long day of lugging my backpack and bike through train stations, it was very nice to not need to make a bus connection to finish off the trip. On the way up, Daniele told me about the area and the rides. Some of his descriptions probably contributed to my anxiety beyond just looking out the window (e.g, “Mortorolo will make you cry…”). He knew about Steamboat and is anxious to visit Colorado some day.

Whenever someone asks me where I come from, I first say, “U.S.”. If they seem to want more, I say, “Colorado”. The almost universal response is “Ahhh… Colorado”. Most people don’t know very much about where it is, or anything about it really, but they almost always have an image in their minds that I assume is like most of our images of Switzerland. The truth is, this area right at the edge of Switzerland does look quite a bit like the big rugged mountains in Colorado. There is a lot more vertical relief here, but the vegetation and snow-covered mountains are noticeably similar. Of course, the big difference is elevation. These mountains are not nearly as high as the Rockies, but the difference between peaks and valleys is far greater and tree line is much lower here.

Unlike the last two bike hotels where I have stayed, this one does not offer guided group rides. That was a little bit of a disappointment, but also a bit of a relief. Riding with a group on huge climbs can be difficult because the group is quickly splintered. I was happy to plan a solo ride. The ride I selected could never be called “easy”, but there is nothing short of making circles in the parking lot that is. I decided to ride up Passo Stelvio and back down. Not a long ride, but a substantial climb with 13 miles up at 7-8% average grade (almost exactly 2x Rabbit Ears). It is the highest pass in Italy.

There is an extension off this ride that I hope to do before the end of the week. It splits off the pass just before the summit and goes into Switzerland. It drops down back into Italy to the bottom of Stelvio on the far side. That gives you the good fortune of being able to climb Stelvio a second time from the even longer far side before dropping down the front to Bormio (over 10,000 vertical feet total for the day). That is a similar amount of vertical to the Triple Bypass ride in Colorado, but it all happens in 65 miles instead of over 100.

All in all, today went well. I was a little tight in my lower back, but other than that, I felt pretty good physically. I am glad I didn't go for one of the bigger rides to start my week of monster climbs, but I had a good solid start. Tomorrow will tell whether I get stronger or more tired as I go along.

Stelvio is one of the three huge passes that can be accessed from this hotel. The big 3 are Gavia, Stelvio and the all-time killer Mortorolo. Mortorolo is only 8 km long, but it averages 10.5% grade and maxes out at 20%. Lance Armstrong claims it is the hardest climb he has ever ridden. I can see why Daniele says it will “make you cry”. I am not sure whether that one is in my future or not.

Speaking of Lance, he will be staying at the hotel at the top of Stelvio for the next 2 weeks leading up to the Tour de France. The theory is that to peak your conditioning, you should “live high, train low”. Stelvio is one of the highest places where you can live, so that is where he will be for 2 weeks to stockpile some legal red blood cells.

Every switchback has a sign saying how many more switchbacks there are to the top of the pass. It's nice to know what progress you are making, but it's pretty discouraging on the first turn to realize you have 39 to go. The side of Stelvio that I rode today has 40 switchbacks - the other side has 49.

I started off this morning by replacing my rear brake pads. They had been worn down during the Giro because I had to ride the brakes so much descending the passes in the post-race traffic. I got the pads installed successfully, but getting the cable tension correct was nearly impossible to do with only 2 hands. Daniele offered to help, and with 3 hands we were able to get the cable tension correct, but they were still not right. Neither of us wanted me to head up onto a monster pass with my brakes in a questionable state, so he offered to drive me with The Machine over to his favorite mechanic’s bike shop about 5 miles away. When we arrived, we discovered that the shop was only open a couple of hours on Monday and they had already closed for the day. Daniele called the mechanic at home and he said to come over. We did, and the mechanic was able to get the brakes working after some effort. Total cost for transportation, house-call and repair – nothing. These bike hotels just have a different idea about service than any place I have encountered. Oh… housekeeping just dropped off my cleaned cycling clothes at my room from today’s ride -- what was I saying?

Lunch with Antonio

2009-06-14T23:28:00.002+02:00

Miles from Home - 5499.3
Firsts / Highlights - Another lunch at al Palazzo della Chigiana, climbed to the top of Torre del Mangia
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No Route Today
People - Antonio de Miccoli.

This post is from June 13, 2009.

Today was my day to break down my bike and prepare to move to the Dolomites for what will probably be my last week in Italy. Breaking down my bike is not something I look forward to, so I compensated by visiting al Palazzo della Chigiana for lunch (the scene of the Sampler Platter that I wrote about earlier).

The owner, Antonio, recognized me when I walked in. He told me that today he would make “an even better platter than before”. I said, “Okay, have at it”. He put together an amazing assortment of prosciutto, salami, roast pork, cheeses and couple of kinds of bread and a pureed carrot mixture that is a cousin to his pesto that I had last time. He set me up outside to eat where I could draw in other English-speaking customers. He also delivered a glass of Chianti Classico along with the bottle and invited me to have as much as I wanted on the house. It is fair to say that I have found my favorite place to eat in Italy.

After lunch, I asked Antonio to calculate what it would cost to ship 6 liters of olive oil back to the U.S.. I knew I wouldn’t like the answer, but I thought it would be a great answer to most of my souvenir requirements. I was right, I didn’t like the answer, so I asked him, “What makes this olive oil special?”. He said, “I am a vat of oil. You make me and later come back. This oil is only from here up (indicating somewhere above his waist). Everything else goes to someone else. This is extra extra virgin oil”. I don’t know if it was the taste of the oil or the Chiani Classico, but the explanation worked. I decided to ship it back home.

Next the conversation moved on to his desert wines. They are not actually called wines, so he is allowed to ship them. He poured me a flight from least expensive to most. The least was not very interesting, and the middle is what he had poured for me on my last visit that I enjoyed. The last was something very special. Made from grapes that were aged to nothing before being pressed. Very sweet, but very enjoyable. It was the smallest bottle and twice the cost of the next less expensive. He said, “This is the very best. What the pope drinks”. I fell for it again and had a couple of bottles shipped home.

In all, I spent about 4 days of my total budget at lunch today. I hope it all makes it home.

As my last act of procrastination before packing my bike, I climbed to the top of the Torre del Mangia. That is one of the tallest secular towers ever built in Italy and is the focal point of the Piazza del Campo in the middle of Siena. It was built starting in 1325, so I think the stairway gets a pass on meeting building codes. It was a very narrow steep marble staircase with a great view at the top. I would have guessed that 387 steps would be a challenge, but the payoff for all of those hills I have ridden in Italy was that it was not so difficult.

Back in Siena Again

2009-06-14T22:17:00.008+02:00

Miles from Home - 5499.3
Firsts / Highlights - Made the ride, ferry, 2 trains and another ride to get back to Siena. Excellent dinner at a medieval restaurant.
Miles Ridden - 19.59 miles
Vertical Feet - 2,158 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Just me.

Visualizza Siena in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

This post is from June 12, 2009.

I returned today from Elba to my quickly-becoming-home-base of Siena. This is a lively place on a Friday night. It is midnight right now, and I just returned from il Campo (the main town square). Everyone is dressed up and socializing. There is a lot of being seen, some eating, some drinking and the usual flirting. It was noticeable, however, that I didn’t see anything that looked like excessive drinking with a very young crowd late on a Friday. I have also not seen any open signs of drug dealing or use during all of my time in Italy. Obviously it exists, but you could easily convince yourself it didn’t from outward appearances.

When I say the crowd was young, I mean that if I could divide myself into two people, both of us would be in the prime demographic (I'm not talking about the kid on the scooter). As it is, the one of me felt a little like the lecherous old man mingling in the crowd. There were a few of us old farts sitting around the edges of the plaza, but it didn’t seem like a scene where I was going to be pulled into too many conversations.

There always seems to be a young heart to Siena, but on Friday night, it is really out there to be seen.

Getting here today was a little tense a couple of times. I rode my bike from my hotel to the ferry station as planned (15 miles). Once I got to Portoferaria, I thought I was at least ½ hour ahead of schedule. I grabbed lunch to take on the boat and casually headed to the ferry. There was not a lot else to do, so I decided to board early. At least I thought I was early. In reality, I was rushed on at the last second just as the ship blew its whistle and pulled out of the harbor. I later checked my itinerary, and found that I simply mis-remembered the departure time. If I had missed it, I could have caught another ferry an hour later, but my train schedule might not have been so easy. Just got lucky.

After the ferry landed on the mainland, I rode to the train station in the same town (only about 1 mile away). The station was unstaffed, but since I had a Eurail Pass, I didn’t give it a second thought. When any train arrives, it is a good idea to get on immediately since some stops only last about 1 minute. I carried my bike onto the designated bike car, and was met by the conductor asking where my bike ticket was. Bike ticket? I have never needed a bike ticket. He did not speak a word of English, and the only thing I understood was that he wanted a bike ticket, he was very insistent on it and he wasn’t going to be the one to sell it to me. Without anyone in the train station to sell a ticket of any kind, I was a little stumped for what to do.

As the discussion developed, my bike was already on the train, so my plan was that if the train started to move, I would make a dive for an open door. I couldn’t let the train leave with my bike. Through gestures, the conductor took my backpack and helmet and locked them in the locomotive compartment. He signaled for me to follow him down the platform. If the train were to leave now, I would be without my bike, clothing, money or passport. I didn’t think he was kicking me off the train, but the language barrier was becoming more serious than any other point on the trip. I was a little surprised that I understood enough to know what he was upset about, but I couldn’t make out anything about what he wanted me to do about it. I guess that represents a little progress in Italian, but not enough to be of the slightest practical use.

It turns out he was walking down the train looking for a car with someone who spoke English. In this part of Italy, it took a few cars before we located someone. We eventually ran into a Norwegian woman who had just spent the weekend on Elba taking an Italian language course. She told me that the conductor was trying to tell me that the train would stop for 15 minutes 2-stops down the line where I could get off and purchase a bike ticket. The woman accompanied me into the station and we were able to get it straightened out. The ticket only cost 3.50 euro, but made things a little more interesting than they needed to be. The funny thing was that the conductor never even checked to see if I had a ticket for myself. He was just very concerned that my bike didn’t ride for free.

In spite of the tight spots, the logistics-laden trip from Siena to Elba and back was a success. Bike, ferry and train only. Still no car on my itinerary after 1-½ months.

Speaking of language. I am still learning how much I don’t know. The other day, I learned how to pronounce the letters of my last name like you would if you spelled your name over the telephone. It hadn’t occurred to me that learning to say the letters of the alphabet would be such new territory. In Italian, H-O-W-I-E is pronounced

H = Acca
O = Aw
W = Doppia-Voo
I = Ee
E - Eh

I also learned that Chuck Cerasoli would not be a Sar-ah-SOLE-ee if his family still lived in Italy. It would be something more like CHAR-ah-sole-ee. I may not have that exactly right, but I am pretty sure about the Ce being pronounced Che. Chuck – come clean. What’s your REAL name?

I had my last dinner in Siena at a restaurant that looked so cool I might not have noticed if the food was marginal (it wasn't). If a U.S. company wanted to make a chain of restaurants with a midieval Italian theme, this is probably how they would try to make it look. The only thing they couldn't match is that this place was actually 700 years old. You can't see in the picture, but the open staircase goes up 3 stories to some unknown destination.

The flags on the walls represent the districts of Siena. There are 17 very strong neighborhood districts in this little city. Each has their own flag and drum corp that march through the streets regularly. It isn't just for show. I walked through a neigborhood where they had closed off the street for an outdoor dinner party in preparation for the upcoming Palio horse race. All of the people wore their district flags around their necks. No tourists to perform for, just flying the colors for themselves -- and maybe to show up their neighbors.

Arrivederci Siena.

Coppi’s Climb

2009-06-13T22:42:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5487.8
Firsts / Highlights - Coppi’s climb, sea kayaking
Miles Ridden - 37.81 miles
Vertical Feet - 4, 079 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here.
People - Just me and the ghost of Fausto.

This post is from June 11, 2009.

I found the road today that Andy Hampsten takes his tour groups on Elba. The climb is a bit of a legend because it is said that Fausto Coppi (possibly the greatest Italian cyclist) rode it frequently as a training ride. It is also claimed that he drank from Napoleon’s Spring near Marciana each time he reached the top of the climb. I never found the spring, but I didn't really have a description of where to look. Just about everything here is named for Napoleon since he spent his exile years here gazing at the coast of Corsica where he was banished.

Anyway, Coppi's climb was a tough one. I haven’t studied the distance in the GPS data, but I can tell you the grade was tough. It was rarely less steep than 10%, and it frequently kicked up to 16% for some non-trivial stretches. In Coppi's day, bikes had only 2 gears. One was for the flats and one for climbing. It was necessary to get off the bike, remove the rear wheel flip it 180 degrees and remount it to shift from one gear to another. As laborious as that may be, I'm thinking even Fousto shifted gears for this hill.

In addition to the ride, I explored the town where I am staying, Fetovaia. This island has white sand beaches, black sand beaches, pebble beaches and rocky shores. After my ride around, I think Fetovaia probably has the nicest beach on the island. As long as it was out my door, I took advantage by renting a kayak for a spin around the harbor.

Elba Island

2009-06-13T22:21:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5487.8
Firsts / Highlights - Complex logistics worked. Blue water, perfect weather. First very nearly English-free zone.
Miles Ridden - Arrival day – 28.4 miles
Day 1 – 42.26 miles
Vertical Feet - Arrival day - 1,464 ft
Day 1 – 4,366 ft
Route - Arrival day - View Arrival day Route Here.
Day 1 - View Day 1 Route Here.
People - Just me.

View Elba in a larger map

This post is from June 9-10, 2009.

How could you spend this long in the Mediterranean and not get to an island? My answer was, “you can’t”, so Elba was my choice.

How did I pick Elba? There were a number of factors. John Cowell and Callie have ridden Corsica and love it. Much like the Italian-only language on Elba, Corsica is French-only. Although I am illiterate in both languages, I can fake a little more Italian. I assumed that since you can see one island from the other, many of the things they loved about Corsica might also apply to Elba.

Next, Bruce from Garda Bike Hotel recommended it as the location for the Carpenter / Phiney cycling camps. Finally, when I started researching it, I found that it is also the location where Andy Hampsten (the only American to ever win the Giro) brings his cycling tour groups. For such a tiny island, those seemed like strong endorsements. I even selected the same hotel where Andy stays tucked down on the southwest corner of the island. I figured that would put me in the heart of the best riding, which I think worked as planned.

One of these days, my complex logistics are going to burn me. This time, however, I got away with it. My objective was to get from Siena to the far side of the Island of Elba without disassembling my bike, renting a car or taking a $100 taxi ride. I decided to attempt it by leaving my bike box and most of my luggage at the hotel in Siena. I packed the essentials for 3 days into my bike bags and a day backpack (you may notice from the picture that the bike is a little differently configured than on previous rides). The steps for making the move were:

1) Leave hotel
2) Ride bike to train
3) Take a train
4) Take another train
5) Ride bike 10 miles to the ferry terminal.
6) Take a ferry
7) Ride bike 15 miles to the remote western side of Elba
8) Arrive at hotel.

I had to make every connection without delay and arrive before dark. It all worked. I will need to do it all in reverse in 3 days to get back to Siena. Hope for good weather and no public work strikes.

My backup plan is that I am carrying my coupler wrench with me. If the weather turns bad, I can break my bike into 2 pieces and get it into a cab to drive to the ferry. There would still be some unpleasantness in the rain, but it can all be done once I get to the ferry.

Elba is the Etruscan word meaning 'little island with lots of hills that descend only so that they can ascend again'. Rather a lot for a 4-letter word, actually. (Notice all of the divot marks in the asphalt where the rock retention fences didn't quite work).

There is a 3,000 foot peak on the island, but I don't think I ever climbed much above 1k on Day 1. That means that to accumulate my 4k of climbing, I had to go from sea level up to big overlooks many times throughout the day. I think the pictures tell the story.

Lesson learned - when planning a route to circle the coast of an island where people drive on the right, go counter-clockwise. That puts you closer to the scenery and you don't need to cross the road every time you want to look over the cliff.

Cinghiale

2009-06-09T10:19:00.010+02:00

Miles from Home - 5499.3
Firsts / Highlights - Cinghiale sighting, back on the bike
Miles Ridden - 47.85 miles
Vertical Feet - 4097 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Just me.

This post is from June 8, 2009.

View Siena in a larger map

I was reunited with The Machine today after 9 days without a ride. My legs were a little tired, but it felt good to be back out there.

Since I left my bike in Siena to travel light with Brad, I had to come back to Tuscany to retrieve it. Not such a big sacrifice. I am staying for a second time at the Albergo Cannon d’Oro. I will stay a third time at this hotel when I get back from Elba in a few days (I will not have Internet access while on Elba, so if I don’t post any updates, it doesn’t mean I fell off the planet). You would think that with 3 stays on my itinerary that I must love this hotel. Not really. The breakfast is inadequate, 4th floor walk-up isn’t always welcome after a long bike ride, no A/C, bad bathroom, etc.. What it does have is a location in the middle of Siena and they allow me to store my bike and bike box here as I travel to other locations. I have really come to like Siena.

For Elba, I am finally doing some light touring. I will leave my bike box and backpack behind in Siena and only carry what I can transport by bicycle. I’ll ride to the train station in Siena, take the train to near the coast, then ride to the ferry. The ferry will take me to Elba Island, then I will ride to the other side of the island with my minimal pack. That will put me in a prime location on the west side of the island for the next 3 nights. I then reverse the whole routine and work my way back to Siena at the end of the week. (In case you’re wondering, that explanation was for my worrying mother – see the itinerary for details).

On most of my rides in Tuscany, I have heard rustling in the bushes next to the road. Not the little rustle like the lizards that are everywhere, a bigger, unidentified rustle. Today, I figured out what it has been. I heard the sound again and looked over. A cinghiale (Tuscan wild boar) was in the bushes looking at me. He gave me a distinct snort just to be sure I knew he was a pig. My first thought was, “that’s a cinghiale”. My second thought was, “why did I know that?”. The answer to the second question came quickly. I had cinghiale for dinner last night. Knowing how Italians treat people who mess with their families in American movies, I decided not to stick around to get to know him. I left him to go on his way and dig for truffles.

Can a Guy Get a Slice?

2009-06-09T10:17:00.003+02:00

I got off the train today to do some more touring of Venice. I decided to get a quick lunch before starting, so I went looking for a slice of pizza. I wanted a hot slice ready to eat which you might think, would be a common thing in Italy. I turned left and walked away from the train station. It was nearly a block and a half before finding a slice shop. Now, I have to admit, I walked past 3 bars selling ready-to-heat pizzas and 4 pizzerias that could have made me a fresh pie, but to find a shop that sold slices ready to go with a carry-out window required nearly 2 full blocks of walking. Shocking.

Second Full Moon Over Venice

2009-06-09T09:55:00.007+02:00

Miles from Home - 5420.52
Firsts / Highlights - Deeper exploration of Venice, Muarno, Vaparetto through Grand Canal
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No route today.
People - Brad Frazier

This post is from June 4-6, 2009.

View Mestre in a larger map

Here is a real sign that I have been in Italy for more than a typical vacation. You may remember that last time I was in Venice, I wrote a post called The Circus Has Arrived with a picture of a (nearly) full moon rising over the city. That was just before the start of the Giro. As Brad and I were eating dinner in Venice last night, I looked up and saw a full moon. I am quite certain that I have never before experienced 2 full moons on the same trip, much less in Venice.

The trip to Venice started a little rough when we arrived to find our hotel room reservation had been canceled. There was something going on in the city that caused nearly every alternate room to be filled. We found one on the Lido (a ferry ride away), but it was 400 euro / night ($560). That obviously wouldn't work, so we ended up getting a room in Mestre - 2 stops away by train.

That could have been a tense situation, but fortunately, Brad and I were able to get assistance from the Travel Center back in Steamboat. It was a good test of travel flexibility, and fortunately, I think we passed.

Most of our time in Venice was spent wandering and getting lost... just as you should. We ran into an interesting contemporary art exhibit from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, but we didn't do too many structured attractions.

Our random wanderings brought us to the same plaza both evenings (Campo Santa Margherita). It had a great vibe with people hanging out, kids playing football and dancing and lots of cafes. There was a performance art exhibit going on that I didn't quite understand, but it involved bees. When I went over to investigate, a woman approached me and kept saying, "man bee" and handing me a jumpsuit. She wanted me to join a dozen other people to dress up in a yellow jumpsuit, wear a a black helmet and circle around the plaza buzzing while she and a few other people danced. That would normally be my queue to leave, but since we were so close to Rome I remembered the old saying about "doing as Romans do", so I did it. Fortunately, Brad didn't think to grab his camera, so I don't think there is any direct evidence.

For those of you who won't let it go, here is a picture of my bald head taken at the art exhibit.

Cinque Terra

2009-06-05T01:10:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - Forgot to check
Firsts / Highlights - First time in the Italian Riviera, hike from Monterosso to Riomaggiore, ferry from Riomaggiore to Monterosso
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - See map in post.
People - Brad Frazier

This post is from June 3, 2009.

As difficult as yesterday was, today was exceptional.

We arrived in Sestri Levante late last night due to the train delays, but we made it. We were fortunate to get into our hotel at all. We saw the sign turn off as we approached from the train station by foot. We had some communication difficulties with the front desk person, but we were able to get checked in. He took us to our room and we discovered that a “double room” meant two twin beds pushed together in a room that was 12’ x 12’. With a little pantomime negotiation, we were able to be moved to a room with a little more breathing space. Once we were in our room, the desk manager gave us a key to the back door, turned out the lights, left the hotel. He was gone and we were on our own.

The reason we are in the Riviera is to see Cinque Terra, which is now managed as an Italian National Park. The Cinque Terra is a series of 5 seaside fishing towns that were formerly only accessible from the sea. The rugged terrain makes any other form of access challenging. Over the years, a road and a railroad have been built to connect them, but the preferred method to see them is a hiking trail. From north to south, the towns are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

Since we are trying to squeeze 3 destinations into Brad’s week-long stay, we only had one chance to do the hike. Fortunately, the weather cooperated with a perfect day, and we were able to get it done. Brad had plans to hike half of the day and find a beach to relax. It was so spectacular, however, those plans changed as we went along.

For future reference, I think the technique we used to see Cinque Terra is one of the better ways to do it. A variation of this plan was suggested to me by Don and Jane Volta on my Experience Plus trip a few weeks ago. Here is how we did it.

1) Stay overnight in a town near Cinque Terra (in our case Sestri Levante).
2) Take the morning train to the northern-most or southern-most town. We selected the north end to start, which was a good idea because it placed the most difficult part of the hike at the beginning.
3) Hike the trail through all five towns
4) Take a ferry back to the starting town so you can see the towns from the sea as well as from land.
5) Take the evening train back to Sestri Levante

Since the hike took about six hours (including lunch), it was a full day.

The ferry loading process was interesting. I have never seen a commercial ferry that has no dock. This boat approaches the shore head-on and gets within 5 feet of the loading platform. They throw ropes ashore and tie off. With the boat pitching in the waves, a plank is extended from the bow to the loading platform and passengers load and unload. The captain constantly applies and relieves throttle to keep the boat in position as waves try to carry it into the platform. Once everyone is on board, they retract the plank and go full speed backwards away from the platform. It requires some skill, but they pull off this maneuver many times every day. I wonder how many passengers need to be retrieved from the water each year.

This is a day where pictures will say more than words, so here are some pictures that give a flavor of the day.

Tomorrow is a travel day. We leave the Riviera and go to Venice.

Sorry Folks – Rome’s Closed

2009-06-05T00:51:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5612.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Republicca Day
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No Route Today.
People - Brad Frazier

This post is from June 2, 2009.

Today was our day to leave Rome and head to Cinque Terra. When I woke up this morning, I went across the street to buy some fresh bread to make sandwiches for our train ride. We had some leftover buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto and salami, so prime sandwiches were to be had with the addition of some bread. Since there was a good bakery across the street, I didn’t expect any problems. There were.

It is unusual when I can pick out enough words from a flurry of Italian to make sense of what I am being told. I was surprised this morning when I was able to determine that the man at the bakery was telling me that today is a national holiday, and therefore he has no bread. I understood what he said, but I didn’t understand the implication. I also didn’t understand why a national holiday would stop you from making bread if the bakery is open, but that is a tangent.

It turns out that today is Republicca Day. It is the anniversary of the date in 1947 when Italy first became a republic. A rough equivalent to the 4th of July in the U.S.. Since today was a travel day, I thought the holiday might mean that we would see a parade, and that would be about it. I should have known better after encountering All Saints Day in Spain back in 2000.

The ordeal began walking to the Colloseum Metro (subway) station with our luggage on the way to the train station. As we approached, we could see a large parade was going on and getting through to the Metro station was going to be difficult. Turns out, it wasn’t difficult, it was impossible. The station was closed for the holiday so we walked to the next station up the line with our luggage in tow.

Running a little behind schedule, we arrived at Rome Termini (the train station) with 1 hour to spare. That is far more lead-time than I had allowed at any other train station in Italy, but I assumed it was appropriate since Rome was so much larger than any previous stop. Brad needed to buy a ticket and I needed to reserve a seat with my Eurail pass. We encountered a stationary line so we used an automated ticket machine to learn that tickets were not available for our train -- or the next -- or the next. We got back into the stationary line (now longer) and eventually got an agent to sell us a ticket for 6 hours later than our planned trip. We eventually figured out that the reason for the lack of seats was that the Tuesday holiday had created a 4-day weekend, and everyone was traveling today to get home.

With the alternate ticket secure, we needed to find something to do for six hours. Obviously, we didn’t want to carry our luggage with us all day, so we heading to the bag storage area. There we encountered another 1-hour line. With no viable option to go without bag storage, we waited.

Okay, now what? Our first choice was to go see Angels & Demons at the English-language Cinema to give our feet a break. That seemed like a good movie to see while in Rome. After a Metro ride and some walking, we arrived to find the theater closed for Republicca Day. Next, we walked to the Borghese Art Gallery and found that no reservations were available for the rest of the day. I got on my Blackberry and found a bike shop where I might be able to get some replacement sunglasses. I suspected they would be closed, but we had nothing to loose, so we walked again. We found it, but, you guessed it, it was closed.

Giving up on getting anything done today, we headed back to the train station. There we found our train sitting abandoned on the track with a growing number of confused people milling around (including the conductors). We eventually learned that the train had no locomotive.

The locomotive has been found and we are now underway to Sestri Levante (Cinque Terra). I hope tomorrow marks the return of good weather, manageable schedules and our feet stage an overnight recovery. Tomorrow is our only day to hike Cinque Terra, so we are hoping that our feet are up to a more scenically rewarding hike than trekking from one closed location to another.

Rome Tourists

2009-06-05T00:38:00.003+02:00

Miles from Home - 5612.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Vatican City, Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Square, St. Peter’s Basilica, Castle St. Angelo, first rainy day in Italy, Spanish Steps, Niccione / Chocolate / Cherry gelato
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No Route Today.
People - Brad Frazier

This post is from June 1, 2009.

Visiting churches is a major part of seeing Europe for many people. I am interested in the architecture, but find much of the history very disturbing, so I don’t spend a lot of time touring churches. Although Brad and I feel the same about this, we both wanted to spend our second day in Rome seeing Vatican City and the related sites. Whether or not misdirected, the effort and accomplishment on display are as impressive as I imagined they might be.

It has been my goal throughout this trip to never be one of those people in a tour group who follows a guide holding up an umbrella. I accept the fact that I am a “tourist”, I just don’t want to scream it to the world by following someone with an umbrella. Motivated by the promise to bypass 2 hour-long lines, however, we were persuaded that taking a tour through the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica was a good idea.

Being a raining day, the guide wasn’t the only person holding up an umbrella, but I knew it was there and that I was following it. Our guide’s name was Mike-from-Ohio. Every time a new person would join our group; he would introduce himself as Mike-from-Ohio. In spite of the indignity of following an umbrella, the tour really did enhance the visit. Mike-from-Ohio knew the subject matter well and was fairly entertaining. The promise of by-passing the 2 lines was only partially true. I think we waited about an hour to get to the security screening area after Mike-from-Ohio estimated that it would take 5-7 minutes. We avoided a major line at the Colloseum by pre-purchasing a Roma Pass, but in general, waiting in line is part of the Rome experience.

After finishing the Vatican City visit, we walked around the city some more and ended up at the Spanish steps after dinner. The walking miles are starting to add up, and both Brad and I are starting to hear the dogs barking.

Giro Finish

2009-06-03T08:53:00.009+02:00

Miles from Home - 5612.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Lunch on terrace overlooking the Colleseum, Giro Stage 21, Colloseum, Forum, Capitol Hill, close-encounter w/ Lance and Team Estana
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No Route Today.
People - Brad Frazier

This post is from May 31, 2009.

Brad humored me today and followed along for all of the Giro viewing around Rome. Time trials are not usually the most exciting stages to watch, but this one had some extra drama heaped on. It was the final stage of the 100th anniversary of the race, and it was being held in Rome for the first time. Not just Rome, but a circuit course setup through many of the iconic images of Rome. The starting ramp was in the Venezia Plaza, then it wound through the ruins of ancient Rome, past Villa Borghese, into Vatican City, St. Peter’s Square, Castle St. Angelo and finished with a lap around the Colloseum. Closing down Rome for a bike race must not be an easy thing to get done.

Prior to the race, Brad and I walked through the team staging areas and watched the mechanics working on bikes and riders warming up. Just as we got to the Astana bus, there was a big commotion. I recognized from my time at the race three weeks ago that something was likely to happen and be over within seconds. Moments later, the team emerged and got on their bikes to go to the starting area 500 meters away. Levi Leipheimer brushed past me while I fumbled to get my camera. Then by coincidence, I found myself standing directly in line with Lance Armstrong who was about 10 feet away moving directly toward me. He was looking down trying to clip into his pedals without being taken out by the crowd. I knew that I would only be able to get one shot with my slow point-and-shoot camera, so I waited. I didn’t want a shot of the top of Lance’s helmet, so I continued waiting as he slowly moved toward me – still looking down. When he was 5 feet away, I needed to decide whether to step aside or wait just a little longer. At the last possible moment, he got clipped in and looked up. I was only about 2 feet away by the time I got the picture. It was simply fortunate that I was there when I was and recognized the commotion and was able to get to my camera quickly.

One of the unique things about bike racing is that the stars are so exposed. You can see from the picture how tight the crowd was. Someone as recognizable as Lance Armstrong needed to make his way through that crowd unprotected just to get to the start of the race. That is a lot of risk in an already dangerous sport just to get to the starting line. I mentioned to Brad that it would be like Tom Brady having to walk through the parking lot on his way to the Super Bowl. It just wouldn’t happen.

In the end, Denis Menchov rode well enough to slightly extend his 20-second lead and win the Giro. It wasn’t without some tension. After 2,200 miles, he had managed to get a lead over the second place rider of only 20 seconds. That was considered an insurmountable lead for Sunday’s short time trial, as long as nothing catastrophic happened. As the race leader, Menchov had the advantage of being the last racer to start on the course, which meant that he knew at every time check whether he was going fast enough to preserve his lead. Brad and I were positioned on the course at a place where we could see the riders pass once at 1 km from the start, and again at 3 km from the finish. Menchov took off quickly and extended his 20-second lead on the first half of the course. By the time he passed us for the second time, a light rain had started to fall on the Giro for the first time in 21 days of racing. It wasn’t much, but enough to make the cobblestone streets a little slippery. I said to Brad, “There goes the winner of the race, unless he crashes. With this rain, that isn’t out of the question”. Since we did not have access to a television, that was the end of it for us and we started climbing Michelangelo’s steps up to Capitol Hill.

It wasn’t until the next day that I learned Menchov’s advantage of being the last to start turned into a disadvantage. He had the advantage of knowing all other rider’s times, but he was the only person who had to negotiate the final turns around the Colloseum on wet cobbles. It turns out that he crashed in the final kilometer just as he was about to cross the finish line and claim the pink jersey for 2009. A team mechanic in the chase car was alert enough to stop the car and get a replacement bike off the roof before Menchov even stopped sliding following his crash. The mechanic ran the new bike up to him and Menchov was underway in time to preserve his lead and win the race. If the crash had happened 300 meters later, the chase car would not have been available because they were required to exit the course on the final curve. Who knows whether he would have been able to finish the race on the crashed bike? You can’t take anything for granted in bike racing.

Following a hike around Capitol Hill and The Forum, Brad and I returned to the team staging area to see what was going on. I expected that everything would be torn down and moved on like it is on a normal stage. Since this was the final stage, the riders just milled around talking to fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures. This was the first time I had seen them when they were not in motion. The most notable observation was that they all had significant scrapes and scars. Some wounds obviously happened during this Giro, and some had happened earlier in their careers. It made me realize that like football, no one gets out of professional bike racing without permanent damage.

In addition to all of the race-related activity, Brad and I covered the archeological section of Rome fairly well in one day. We toured the Colloseum walked through much of the Colloseum neighborhood. We know that it will be impossible to fully cover Rome in the 2 days we have here, but we will see what we can.

Arrived in Rome

2009-05-30T21:41:00.008+02:00

Miles from Home - 5612.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First time to Rome
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No route today.
People - Marina - owner of the apartment. Brad arrives tomorrow.

Visualizza Roma in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

This post is from May 30, 2009.

Traveling without a bike is a piece of cake. I walked 25 minutes from my hotel in Siena to the train station with my backpack, got through the station easily, changed trains in Chiusi, made my way through the Metro in Rome and walked to the apartment I will be sharing with Brad for the next three nights. I now see why traveling light is the accepted standard. If it weren't for the fact that being without my bike would completely change my reason for being here, I would be all in favor of it. Until I am reunited with my bike next week, I will just enjoy being light.

When I arrived, I met Marina who owns the apartment where I will stay for the next few nights. I am renting (with help from Paula Sears) through VRBO.com. Vacation Rentals by Owner are a bit unpredictable, but this one looks like it will work well. The location is good (3 or 4 blocks from the Colloseum), and Marina spent a full hour with me prioritizing sights in Rome, showing me where to find food shops, restaurants, coffee shops and even a mozzarella shop. Turns out that buffalo mozzarella is the real thing, and you need to go to a shop that sells nothing else to get the best (needless to say, I've already been there). They have a vat of Mozzarella balls soaking in milky water. You ask for a large or small ball and she fishes one out and puts it in a plastic bag with about a liter of the water. I have a pretty good stockpile of breads, pastries, meats, cheeses and olive oil in the apartment. The cheese bread was a real find. To buy the best bread, meat, cheese, tomatoes and pastries took visits to 5 different shops.

Visualizza Possible Destinations in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

Rome is as far south as I am likely to get on this trip. If you go back to the "possible destinations" map, every pin is a recommended destination (remember that you can zoom and pan the map to see more detail). The blue pins are not yet visited, and the green are either already visited or on the itinerary. The Amalfi Coast south of Rome is probably going to have to wait for another trip. The biggest concentration of blue pins is now in the far north of Italy and Switzerland. I will probably be working north in June. I am actually a little surprised that I have visited as many of these places already as I have.

Tomorrow is the Giro finish and is within walking distance of the apartment. Brad will probably be badly jet-lagged when he gets here in the morning, so I may just prop him up and tell him to watch the fast bicycles go by.

Chianti

2009-05-30T10:10:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5499.3 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Chianti
Miles Ridden - 42.47 miles
Vertical Feet - 3,480 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Just me

This post is from May 29, 2009.

With my belly full of salami and cheese, I headed off to the Chianti region north of Siena. Nothing fancy with trains or ferries. Just out-the-door riding.

Today is my last day scheduled in Tuscany (more on that later). I realized while reviewing maps last night that I had missed the Chianti region altogether. As it turns out, that would have been a terrible mistake. While riding between hill towns for the past two days has been a good way to see them, today’s ride through the vineyards was even better pure cycling. I would call it 5-star. The description would sound like many other days – great scenery, fields of poppies, interesting old towns, high quality pavement, little traffic, hills and curves. I’m not sure how to differentiate this from some of the other good rides, but put this one on the list if you are going to ride in Tuscany.

Like I said earlier, today is scheduled to be my last in Tuscany. I now enter a very busy week with Brad Frazier coming to visit from Steamboat. I will be taking the train to Rome tomorrow and be there in time to watch the final stage of the Giro on Sunday – a time trial through the downtown artifacts (I hope I get to the right city on the right day this time). Brad arrives later on Sunday and we begin our whirlwind. A couple of days in Rome, then Cinque Terra followed by Venice. Brad flies out of Milan and I continue on my way. Since our week together is going to be so busy, I am going to be off the bike for a full week. If fact, I have made arrangements to leave it here at the hotel in Siena fully assembled so Brad and I can travel light.

After dropping off Brad, I will come back to Siena, grab my bike (and maybe make another trip to the meat and cheese shop), then take a train and ferry to the island of Elba. John Cowell and Callie highly recommended Corsica just north of Elba, but Elba is the closest I am going to get to it. Bruce Hodgkins from Boulder (who I met at the Garda Bike Hotel) told me that the island used to be a regular stop on the Carpenter / Phinney bike camps. In addition to being small enough to circumnavigate in a day and its virtue of being a Mediterranean island, the Carpenter / Phinney endorsement bodes well for its riding quality.

After Elba, the agenda opens up again. Maybe I will head to the Dolomites and attempt some of the great passes of the Alps (Stevio, Gavia and the dreaded Mortirolo).

Since I will be off the bike for the next week, this marks the end of the first month of riding in Italy. It is really only 27 days, but the month boundary will be crossed before my next ride. What a month. Here are some of the key stats. Turns out I’ve gathered a lot of information:

Miles ridden – 1,099.97
Elevation gained – 73,153 feet (from sea level to top of Mount Everest 2.52 times)
Time in the saddle – 77 Hours, 26 Minutes
Heartbeats while riding – 514,642
Average heart rate while riding – 111 bpm
Maximum heart rate while riding – 178 bpm
Average speed – 14.17 mph
Maximum speed – 41.1 mph
Calories expended – 63,642 (software over-estimates this a bit)
Calories ingested - Untold. Lots
Liters of water – (see calories ingested)
Pedal rotations – 371,642 (approximate)
Longest day – 110.96 miles
Shortest day – 6 miles
Riding days – 22
Travel days - 2
Rest / tourist days – 3
Days driving a car - 0
Rain days – 0 (don’t let acknowledging good luck change that luck)
Flat tires – 0 (see rain days)
Mechanical failures – 0 (see rain days)
Broken sunglasses - 1

Return to the Scene of the Crime

2009-05-30T00:22:00.003+02:00

After my faux pas with the cheese sampler platter, I decided to go back to that shop and make things right. I went inside and requested my own sampler platter. That was one of the best culinary decisions I have made since arriving in Italy.

The person who I assume is the owner is a bit of a clown. He told me that I was going to get, “the very best” from a “famous shop in Siena”. Then just to be sure I understood, he said, “yum, yum, yum”.

He cut up some salami, roast pork, prosciutto and something I think he called “bull” (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Rocky Mountain Oysters). Then the cheese guy selected 3 types of cheeses and 2 types of bread. They finished off the platter with a small cup of pesto and some unfiltered olive oil. With that done, the owner didn’t ask if I wanted a glass of wine, he asked what type of wine I wanted. I went with a mid-level Vino Rosso from one of the local vineyards.

I was determined to give away some of my food after my last incident. When a customer came in and was having difficulty deciding, I offered him a piece of my cheese, and after tasting it, he immediately knew what to do. I’m not sure that evens the score, but I felt like I at least tried.

This shop, al Palazzo della Chigiana, is like the Zingerman’s of Siena. They have excellent food and are not afraid to charge for it. The platter is sold by weight rather than product. Anything you get is 50 euro per kg (a little less than $31 / lb) plus wine. For lunch, that gets pretty expensive, but I would gladly do it again.

I can’t share any pictures of this place, although I would like to. The owner is a little eccentric and really does not like pictures taken inside his shop. He has a sign up saying “no photos, no film” in a couple of languages. When someone shows up and tries to take a picture, he pulls out a halogen lamp that he shines in their face and tells them, “is illegal”. The photographer is usually a bit stunned and the customers think it’s pretty funny, but I’m not sure he intends any humor. After my previous experience with stealing his customer’s food, I decided not to press the issue.

When I was finished, I told the owner that it was the best lunch I have had in my month in Italy. He announced that to the other customers in the shop, and then served me a complimentary glass of desert wine.

Giro d’ Tuscany

2009-05-29T10:23:00.007+02:00

Miles from Home - 5499.3 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Open jaw train-assisted route, Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino and wine tasting with Ron Famiglietti
Miles Ridden - 42.47 miles
Vertical Feet - 3,480 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Ron & Lisa Famiglietti

This post is from May 28, 2009.

The 2-train assist was a success – barely. As you know from the plan I described yesterday, I planned to leave Siena by train and go to Montepulciano xxx. From there, I wanted to see 3 Tuscan hill towns that had been individually recommended as well as in the guide books. In order, they were Montepulciano, Pienze and Montalcino. After the last town, I was to ride to a train station in Buonconvento to get back to Siena. I intentionally scheduled a shorter ride because I wanted to have time to spend in the towns along the way.

The first town, Montepulciano, was on my list because I had heard high recommendations, but also because it is where Ron Famiglietti, a pediatrician from Steamboat, has lived for the past month with his wife Lisa learning Italian. Their pre-school son, Primo, is also in a school that teaches 100% Italian. They rented a nice little one-bedroom apartment inside the walled city and have stayed there the entire month, only leaving town by bicycle.

Ron showed me their apartment and gave me a quick tour of the city. After a slice of pizza for lunch, we went to a Cantina (wine cellar) and did a little tasting. I was off to a slow start for seeing 3 hill towns in one day, but it was good to spend some time with Ron.

Next stop was Pienze, another beautifully preserved city. I spent a little time exploring, but not nearly as long as Montepulciano. By the time I reached Montalcino, I felt like Clark Griswold from “Vacation” standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon. I climbed up into the town, took a picture, and said, “Gotta go”. Fortunately, the final 8 miles to the train station were mostly downhill, but I knew that any delay was going to mean that I would miss the train back to Siena. I was in the middle of rural BFE, but the GPS said I was close. I rode into town hoping that the GPS would guide me right to the station without incident. With ½ mile to go, I saw the train-crossing light start flashing and the gate dropping down. Was my own train going to prevent me from getting to the station? I considered sprinting through, but thought better of it. When the gate finally lifted, I rode into the station, and there was my train waiting. I got on and looked at my computer. 3 minutes to spare on a 6-hour ride.

Addendum

I just got back from dinner at the same restaurant where I had the pumpkin risotto a few nights ago. Not only did the waiter remember me. He remembered what I ordered and where I sat. He recommended an antipasto and second course that would be a good contrast to my last meal. This time it was crustini with ewe’s cheese & honey and gnocci with meat sauce. Both were great. The kicker was that when he presented the check, he would not accept a tip. At first, I was afraid he was offended by the size of the small tip (I have been told not to tip like we do in the U.S.). That wasn’t it. He said that I was a repeat customer and he would prefer that I have a coffee tomorrow and think well of their restaurant.

Train-assisted success - Volterra

2009-05-28T00:51:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5499.3 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Train-assisted route, San Gimignano, Volterra and descending 18% cobblestones through medieval streets of Colle di Val d’Elsa
Miles Ridden - 62.57 miles (+3 or 4. Forgot to start GPS when I got off the train in Poggibonsi)
Vertical Feet - 6,322 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Just me

This post is from May 27, 2009.

I attempted a new technique today. I rode The Machine from the hotel to the train station and took the train for ½ hour to a town called Paggibonsi north of here. This accomplished 4 things. 1) It allowed me to reach some towns that would have been a real stretch if I had done them from the hotel, 2) big sections of the ride would have been out-and-back if I had left from the hotel, 3) being “out there” committed me to my ride (if I didn’t make it back to Siena, I would have none of the comforts of home and have to pay double rent for a second hotel – I made it back at 7:30), and 4) purely by coincidence, the train’s part of the journey was into a headwind, so I had a tailwind for a little more than half of the ride.

Tomorrow, I am going to attempt the ever-perilous double train-assist route. I will take one train to my start location, ride my route and catch a train at another location back to Siena. There are plenty of things that could go wrong with the plan, but I am leaving enough time that I should be able to spend time in the towns along the way and still catch the train. If I miss it, it’s going to be a hard ride back to Siena before dark (or an unplanned hotel with stinky clothes).

The GPS has been nearly a necessity for all of my self-navigated rides, but for the train-assisted route, it worked beautifully. First, the GPS lets me know when to get off the train if I can’t see a station name. I have used that feature a number of times. More importantly, it found a route out of Paggibonsi so I could find the roads I planned for my route. Then, of course, there is the usual benefit of having it beep at me for every turn and traffic circle throughout the day to let you know where to go. I carry a map as a backup, but I almost never need to use it. Everyone who has used a GPS knows that they are not yet perfect, but I would not want to be without it on this trip. The level of detail it has in its maps for all of the tiny little roads throughout Europe is impressive.

Today’s route visited 2 of the medieval hill towns that were on my “possible destinations” map before leaving the U.S. - San Gimignano and Volterra. You can see Wikipedia descriptions of the towns with the links in the “Highlights” section above if you are interested.

If you find yourself in Siena with a bicycle (or and Italian or German sports car), go to my GPS route and do the last 20 miles of today's ride. It is like a cycling test track. A tough climb followed by a long descent with curves, perfect pavement, forest, shade and no traffic. A good way to finish the ride.

I have been hesitant to say anything about the weather, but after a full month with nothing but clear days, I suppose I have to risk the jinx and say it has been great. Apply whatever superstitions you like, but please keep the good weather coming. I can't assume it will stay this good throughout my stay, but I'll take it while I can get it. As I am writing, the wind just kicked up dramatically. That didn't take long. This town has been around for a lot of years, but it sounds like it is about to blow away. Shutters are slamming around town and roofs are clattering. I guess I shouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure Siena has seen a wind gust before.

Sampler Platter

2009-05-27T00:55:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5499.3 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Good dose of Tuscan Sun. Meat and cheese sampler platter.
Miles Ridden - 51.00 miles
Vertical Feet - 4,167 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Just me

This post is from May 26, 2009.

After getting lost again walking home from dinner last night, I am finally doing a little better finding my way around Siena. I managed to plan and execute a course more-or-less without incident today. The meanderings you can see on the GPS track upon return to Siena were mostly intentional exploration.

In spite of the relatively high dose of rest I have had (I believe it has been 3 of the last 7 days off the bike), I did not feel particularly comfortable in the saddle today. The route was very good considering that I just made it up by looking at paper and GPS maps, but I seemed to want to be standing up and getting off the bike more than normal for a 50 miler. Not really sure why.

I needed a long night’s sleep last night, so by the time I was ready to ride, it was getting too late for my planned train-assist route. Instead, I headed south from the hotel. I did, however, build the train-assist route for the GPS that I hope to do tomorrow.

When I got back to Siena after my ride, I was making my way through the crowded pedestrian street. In front of a specialty meat and cheese shop, I saw a nice looking sampler platter with slices of 3 different types of meat and as many cheeses. A young boy was standing behind the platter and seemed to be tending to it. I tried a piece of cheese, which was excellent. The boy was too young to work in the U.S., but I figured this was a family-run shop. He said something to me, which I assumed was an explanation for the type of cheese I was eating. “Cow’s milk?”, I asked, since I thought I heard a word that sounded like “Cow”. No luck. I then tried one of the pieces of meat. No comment from the boy.

I decided to go into the shop. Although I cannot really buy meats and cheeses while staying in a hotel, I saw some baked goods that looked like good road food for tomorrow. I was nervous about leaving my bike outside for more than a few seconds, and I was unsuccessful getting anyone to help me, so I left the shop. I decided to grab one more piece of cheese before getting back onto The Machine. This time, the boy’s father was there and said, “No…No”. It suddenly dawned on me what had happened. I asked, “Privato?”, and he said, “Si”. Fortunately, “I’m sorry” is one of the few phrases I know in Italian, and I got to use it. I was really embarrassed, but he had good taste in cheese.

I thought about this at dinner tonight from the kid's perspective. "I'm watching our things, just like dad asked. This guy walks up wearing lycra and a helmet and starts eating our food. I ask him to stop, but he just smiles and takes more. Being little sucks. What am I going to do? Kick him in the chins?".

Back to Florence

2009-05-27T00:50:00.005+02:00

I will be processing and posting most of the pictures I am taking when I get home, but here is one from Florence that probably shouldn't wait. This will tell me who is paying attention.

0 for 1 on Self-Navigation

2009-05-27T00:27:00.003+02:00

Miles from Home - 5499.3 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First pedal strokes in Tuscany. Pumpkin & mushroom Risotto at Guidoricco’s
Miles Ridden - 29.81 miles
Vertical Feet - 2,791 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Just me

This post is from May 25, 2009.

Some of you may remember that I nearly got lost on my underwater navigation exam for my SCUBA certification. Getting out of Siena today, I’d have drown if I were underwater. I attempted to locate a bike shop that was only about 1 mile from my hotel, and it took me an hour, 6 miles and 500 vertical feet to do it. When I finally got there, they were closed for the afternoon break.

Such was my first introduction to self-navigated bike travel in Europe. Until now, I have been with bike hotel guides or Experience Plus. I haven’t had to establish or follow my own courses. In my defense, there probably could not be a more confusing city than Siena to get started. Even with the GPS telling me where to turn, it was almost useless due to unmarked streets, incorrectly marked streets, construction, police kicking me off pedestrian-only roads and turns so close together that the GPS cannot differentiate them, particularly with the narrow view of the sky from the little streets. Take a look at the GPS route, and you will see my circles and figure-8’s as I attempted to get out of the maze.

I had hoped to get some route recommendations and tighten my front hub bearings at the bike shop, but the only real success I had was to inflate my tires. While I was waiting for the shop to open, I went in search for some food to get me started on my ride. I didn’t want a full restaurant, just something simple, like, maybe… Pizzaland. Fortunately, there was one just around the corner.

The riding changed dramatically almost as soon as I passed outside the walls of Siena. It became the rolling Tuscan countryside of legend. I can see why this is so popular with cyclists. Quiet country roads, little traffic, rural scenery and the grades are not nearly as fierce as the other locations I have visited before now.

This is certainly the most rural place I have visited yet. Today was just an orientation (apparently needed), but I think I will actually need to plan for food and water on longer rides. At the other places I have ridden so far in Italy, I have never been more than a few kms from the next town and the next sidewalk bar (café). We’re not talking about stretches from Steamboat to Kremmling here, but you could get thirsty if you ran out of water.

My one café stop today happened to be during the magic live-coverage hours for the Giro. Popovich was on a solo break-away on one of the famous white-dirt roads in Italy. There is a special name for those roads, but I don’t remember what it is. Almost immediately after leaving the café, I found myself on one of them. It wasn’t by design. Neither the paper nor the GPS map showed it being unpaved, but having just seen it on the Giro, and because one of the criteria for The Machine was to be able to handle dirt roads, I decided to proceed. As usual, the more difficult path was the more rewarding. I found some beautiful villas and even a castle that most people will never see. Of course, I also found some 16% grades that most won’t find either. It starts to get difficult to keep the rear wheel from slipping on a road bike at 16% on a loose surface. I was able to keep the rubber side down, and overall, it was a good trade-off.

I was startled by how quickly things turn rural outside of Siena. This picture was taken only 1.5 km from the city wall.

There are a number of hill towns I would like to see near here. The recommendations I hear again and again are Volterra, Gimignano, Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano. I would still like to do a 2-day tour to pick up a couple of those towns with an overnight out there somewhere. Tomorrow, I think I will go for the train-assist. Ride a train in the general direction of Volterra, then get off and ride the rest of the way there and back to Siena. The train will extend my reach and motivate me to get back if I want to eat and sleep. It also avoids doing an out-and-back route that is sometimes unavoidable on unfamiliar roads.

So far, my experience is that city hotels in Europe are more typical of what you are warned about with European travel. Expensive, noisy and lacking in the amenities the American take for granted. I rarely do this, but I had to ask to be moved to another room last night. Mine was almost in the lobby and next to a marble staircase. Since there is no elevator, the stairs get a lot of traffic and I could hear every step and word said in the lobby. Today, they moved me to the third floor, which seems to be quieter, but is sweltering with no A/C. Fortunately, I have a ceiling fan. That shaved head seems like a good idea right now.

Bathrooms here are a new adventure every day. Today’s has a tile floor and a curtain in the corner. There is no type of shower pan to keep the water in a specific part of the bathroom. There is a drain in the floor on the same side of the room as the showerhead, but that is the only thing that differentiates it from the rest of the bathroom floor. There are also an infinite variety of toilet flush mechanisms. I have not seen a U.S.-style handle yet, but just about everything else. The most common is the two-button system. One for the big flush and the other for the little flush. Choose your flush based on the desperation of your situation.

If you don’t hear from me for a few days, I am probably lost riding around the Tuscan countryside. I will have my credit card, so I can’t imagine being lost could be too bad. I’ll make it back for my luggage eventually.

Not as good as I thought I was

2009-05-25T00:08:00.003+02:00

I knew that the Italian spelling for Florence was Firenze. I knew that the Giro had a stage finish in Firenze this year. So far, I had it right. What I MISSED was that the finish was in Firenze on Friday, the day I arrived, and the stage finish on Sunday that I thought I would pick up by spending the weekend in Florence was actually in Faenza which is nowhere near Firenze. It's looking like the order of the vowels really does matter.

For Giro watching, it looks like my last chance is going to be on the final timetrial in Rome. I have an apartment and a railroad ticket, so I'm hopeful that I really will be there.

Day of Museums

2009-05-24T15:28:00.005+02:00

Miles from Home - 5473.6 miles
Firsts / Highlights - City exploring.
Miles Ridden - 0.0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No ride today (or the next couple of days).
People - Just me

This post is from May 24, 2009.

I had a day of playing hard-core tourist today. I don't get as much from that as actually DOING something, but when you have 48 hours in a city like Florence, you kind of need to just collect trophies. My trophies were:

The Academia (home to David - you may recognize the shadow of his rather familiar pose).

The Uffizzi Gallery - Museum of Italian renaissance art.

DaVinci Museum - This was not an A-list attraction, but it looked interesting, so I went in. This was a collection of models built from DaVinci's drawings. They were not functional, but they were 3-dimensional and helped me visualize what Leonardo had in mind. It is so impressive to realize how far his concepts were ahead of his peers ability to create them.

Piazza della Signoria - center of historical Florence and home of a good number of statues and scale replicas.

Pitti Palace - just took a quick walk along the front. It was too big to take on with the available time.

Santa Croche - Tombs of Michelangelo and Dante.

Il Duomo - The famous domed chuch. It was built hundreds of years before the design and engineering capability existed to built a dome, but they knew it would eventually be possible, so the built it and left it uncovered for a couple of centuries.

Ponte Vecchio - a bridge built in 1345 lined with jewelry shops across the Arno River.

I decided to ship home about 7 pounds of things that I can live without. The weight of my lugguge getting from city-to-city was becoming a problem. I felt pretty good about finding 7 pounds of excess until I learned the cost for shipping. It was about $100 for 7-day delivery. I didn't need it there in 7 days, but that was the least expensive option available from the fairly rare shipping company that I found. Ouch.

Time to lug my bike and slightly lighter backpack to the train station. Heading to Siena for the next week.

Visualizza Siena in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

Florence

2009-05-23T10:09:00.003+02:00

Miles from Home - 5473.6 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First time to set foot in Tuscany.
Miles Ridden - 0.0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No ride today (or the next couple of days).
People - Just me

This post is from May 21-23, 2009.

Visualizza Florence / Firenze in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

I left Lake Garda yesterday and moved from bike riding in the countryside to big city adventures. My original plan was to go directly to Siena, but the hotel closed out availability for the first 2 nights of my stay. I could have stayed at Garda for a couple of more nights, but my bike was already packed, so I decided to improvise. End result, I’m in Florence (a.k.a., Firenza).

The guide books say that the Academia and Uffizi require reservations months in advance, but I was able to get both last night when I arrived. I am heading to the Academia now to see Michelangelo’s David. Later, the Uffizi for one of the great art collections in the world.

The Giro has a stage finish in Florence tomorrow, so I will stick around for the circus before catching a train to Siena.

It’s easier to bleed money while in the city than the countryside, so I am going to head off and try to keep my credit card idle for as much of the day as possible.

Panoramica

2009-05-20T23:43:00.003+02:00

Miles from Home - 5370.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Last day riding Lake Garda. First topless sunbathers.
Miles Ridden - 57.33 miles
Vertical Feet - 2,806 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Yesterday’s theme was Colorado cyclists, today’s theme was ski industry connections.
Roger & Helen – Basalt, CO
Gary & Brenda – Whistler, BC – property managers
John – Whistler, BC – Intrawest employee. Former partner in Whistler Heli-ski, now guide
Mike – Whistler, BC
Maurizo & Alberto – Guides

This post is from May 20, 2009.

I just finished my final ride at the Garda Bike Hotel. It has been fun riding with the Aussies, Fins, Coloradans, Canadians and the Italian guides, but it is time to move on and sample something new. Next stop is Siena as a base camp for exploring Tuscany. There are no bike hotels in the area, so I am going to be on my own to explore solo. I plan to get a hotel in Siena for a week, but not stay there every night. I think this will be my chance to do some light touring where I strap a change of clothes and a credit card onto The Machine and head into the countryside. I don’t have a route set yet, but I do have some towns I would like to see.

I think I am going to stay at this hotel an extra day tomorrow to get some planning done while I still have an Internet connection. I need to plan my touring route and the following week when Brad Frazier arrives for a whirlwind visit.

Today was a much easier ride than yesterday. Less distance, less climbing and less pace. There was still a bit of fatigue in my legs, but after the first climb, I felt all right. The ride was called Panoramica due to the well-earned views of the lake.

Maurizio is amazing. Sixty-five years old and does this every day without a break. He said today that he rode 1,000 kms last week. Not only is he doing those distances week after week, he is nearly always on the front doing the most difficult riding into the wind. He speaks about as much English as I do Italian, so there isn’t a lot of conversation. He just speaks Italian as if I understand, even though he knows I don’t. Occasionally I get the drift. The English phrase that he uses over and over is, “come on, come on, come on”. It isn’t so much encouragement as a command. It means, “be decisive – get through the intersection”, or, “close the gap”. He has recently added, “come on, baby” when there is no safety element to his command.

I probably will not be making any posts for the next couple of days, but my itinerary (in the right hand column of the blog) will be updated as my plans solidify.

4 Lakes – Big Daddy Ride

2009-05-20T23:07:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5370.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First century ride of the year. 7 km tunnel at –7% grade. 7 hours of saddle time.
Miles Ridden - 110.96 miles
Vertical Feet - 6,485 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - 5 of 7 guests riding today were from Colorado (?!)
Bruce & Tracy – Boulder, CO (last day)
Roger & Helen – Basalt, CO
Mika & Ira – Helsinki, Finland. (last day) Found out today that Mika is a harbor worker in Helsinki. This is their first trip away from their 4 children (3, 5, 7 & 9).
Nicola & Maurizo – Guides
Anrea – drove van

This post is from May 19, 2009.

Today nearly ended for me before it got started. We had a big ride scheduled with over 100 miles of riding and two substantial climbs. Departure time was set for 9:00, but at 8:57, I was in the lobby and everyone was just milling around. I assumed it would be another late start, so I casually went back to the bike locker to get my bike. I figured I had a little time, so I wiped down my chain, lubricated it and filled my tires. Apparently, as soon as I left the lobby, Maurizio realized that it was 9:00 and they needed to leave immediately to catch the ferry crossing Lake Garda at 9:50. He rallied the group and they were off. Five minutes later, I showed up to an empty lobby. The front desk clerk said that the van driver could take me to the ferry, but he was nowhere around, so I decided to start riding. I later found out that the route I selected wasn’t the most direct, so not only was I behind, I was taking the long way to get there (we won’t talk about the wrong turn and construction stops in addition to bad route selection). Fortunately, the van found me and drove me the last 3-4 miles and pulled right on board just in time to pull away from the dock. Other than a little ribbing the rest of the day, I was back on track.

The hotel rotates their rides so that a guest staying for a week will never ride the same route twice. Today’s ride is the pinnacle of their weekly schedule, and as far as I am concerned, their crowned jewel. It is the longest and among the most challenging that they do. It requires more logistical planning than others because of the distance covered and the time it takes to complete. Since we departed the lobby at 9:00 am and did not return until 6:30 pm, we had a van to follow us all day with extra clothes, lunch, snacks, water, and hot tea (very refined).

We crossed the lake by ferry like we did a couple of days ago, but this time had the van with us in addition to our bikes. Rather than ride back along the lakeshore, we headed into the mountains surrounding the lake. There is a narrow flat ribbon all around the lake, but as soon as you go 50 feet inland, the climbing begins. Let’s just say that we went more than 50 feet inland.

The name of today’s trip was “4 Lakes”. Not too much explanation required. The name doesn’t tell you, however, that we also traveled through 3 Italian regions. We started in Veneto, passed through Lombardy, into Trentino and back to Veneto. That is the equivalent of riding in 3 states in one day. Mountain ridges separate the lakes; so moving from one to the next took us over a pass into another world. The first climb of the day was the most spectacular. Leaving Lake Garda, the road passed through a national park-like area on a very lightly traveled road. It was a bit worrying when I saw a sign for the town at the top of the first pass that said it was 27 km ahead. After suffering on the 25 km Alpe di Siusi, I thought this might be a very long day. The climb was challenging, but nothing like Siusi. The grade was considerably less and there were opportunities to recover along the way. Several people commented that the road was a “cyclist’s paradise”. I couldn’t argue with them.

The lunch and snack breaks were something to look forward to. For snacks, they brought an industrial size pan of apricot pastries. Lunch was penne pasta and pizza.

Maurizio revealed the secret of his energy and power. He pulled out a kilo bag of Parmesan cheese chunks and started dipping them in honey. Not little nibbler size pieces, but chunks the size you would buy in a cheese shop (the photo is one of the small pieces). Not 1, but 2 or 3. I tried it, but couldn’t believe I was eating it. Yes, it was good, but it’s not a taste I think I should develop unless I plan to do a lot of 111-mile rides.

Tunnels were an interesting part of today’s ride. The first was close to a km long and was not lit. Fortunately, it was straight and you could see the far end, even though it was a small point of light. There were no cars, so navigating was just a matter of pointing your bike toward the light and hoping there were no big road divots. This is one case where "going toward the light" is the only good choice.

After the second climb of the day, we did something I have never done on a bike. We entered a 7 km tunnel that declined at a 7% grade! That is like descending a pass inside a tunnel. There is absolutely nothing to give you a horizontal reference, so it looks as if you are riding on a flat road, but coasting at 35 miles per hour. Fortunately, this one was lit and the van was following behind us to protect us from any cars. I wouldn’t choose to do it every day, but it was a pretty exciting experience.

For the techies, you may wonder how I knew that the tunnel descended at 7% since GPS should not work inside a tunnel. I was a little surprised at first too that I was getting readings, but then I realized that elevation is a function of barometric pressure which doesn’t need a satellite link, and speed/distance can be measured by the wheel sensor when the satellite link is lost. With elevation and distance, the GPS can measure grade. If you look at the GPS track of the ride, you will see a very straight segment running north near the northern-most point of Lake Garda. That was the tunnel.

Last comment is that the “The Machine” passed its first century test with ease. I have never done an “easy” century, but this was the most comfortable I have ever been. 110 miles without and significant neck or shoulder pain is something to celebrate. Thank you to Brock for getting the fit right.

Day Off in Verona

2009-05-20T18:51:00.005+02:00

Miles from Home - 5370.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Visited Verona (by foot)
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft
Route - No ride today.
People - Triumphant return of Bruce Hodgkins

This post is from May 18, 2009.

Between yesterday’s fast 70-mile ride and tomorrow’s 100-mile+ hilly tour of 4 lakes, I decided it was time for a day off the bike to go to Verona.

My hotel is about 20-25 miles from Verona, so Nicola, the hotel owner, gave me a ride to the bus stop down by Lake Garda. It’s funny how little things can trip you up. When he dropped me off, he said that I must flag down the bus rather than assume it will stop for me. I agreed and he went on his way. I didn’t think to ask, “what does a city bus look like?”. I could have tried to flag down every one of the 50 busses that passed in the next 45 minutes, but instead, I decided to stand out by the road and look like someone who wanted to be picked up. The bus was ½ hour late, but it eventually arrived and stopped without flagging. Buying a ticket was the next trick. For most transactions, you have a cash register display or restaurant check to tell you how much to pay. There are a few situations, however, where your only communication is verbal, such as getting on a bus. I can understand numbers very slowly, but this bus driver did not accomodate. Nothing says dumb American like holding out a fist full of change and letting the bus driver take what he wants. Studid tourist.

Exploring Verona was interesting. As you can tell by my photos, I am a bit fixated on food. It’s hard not to let that happen in Italy, particularly when you need to eat so frequently to ride. I had a pizza and 2 ½ liters of water. The gelato, pasta and basalmic vinegar were just window-shopping this time.

I mentioned in a previous post that I met and rode with Bruce Hodgkins from Boulder at the hotel. He is the owner of Excel Sports, and is visiting Italy to celebrade his 50th birthday. His racing resume includes wins in Colorado on the Mount Evans Climb and Ironhorse races. Both impressive efforts.

His goal for his 50th was to come to Italy and compete in one of the famous Gran Fondos. A Gran Fondo is a very large citizen’s race that taps into the fanaticism about cycling in Italy. Yesterday was the Gran Fondo Felice Gimondi with 4,000 racers (3800 men, 200 women). Bruce and Tracy drove over for it on Saturday, both planning to compete, but Tracy was less concerned with her results. Even with his success racing in the U.S., Bruce did not know what to expect. He didn’t know the course, didn’t have anyone as a team to support him and had never participated in a European race. He returned to the hotel at Lake Garda on Sunday night with incredible news. On his first Gran Fondo, he had won! He finished 37th out of 4,000 overall and 1st in his age classification. It was the effort of his lifetime. 3 hours and 44 minutes of all-out effort with an average heart rate of 159. Happy 50th birthday!

Nicola opened a big bottle of bubbly, and the chef made a victory cake. You couldn't hope for a more modest winner.

On the personal front, I found a solution for my grey hair. I cut it all off. My shampoo budget just went down and my sunscreen budget went up. I’m not ready to post a picture yet because I am still trying to get over being startled every time I walk past a mirror.

Sunday Club Ride

2009-05-17T18:37:00.008+02:00

Miles from Home - 5370.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Fastest ride I have done in Europe.
Miles Ridden - 70.01 miles
Vertical Feet - 2,276 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Met Eros Poli

Met Roger & Helen from Basalt, CO. Roger operates a wine store in Aspen and Helen teaches Cross Country skiing.

Luciano from Melborne was the last remaining Aussie on his final ride. He bought a Pinarello Prince bike on this trip and wanted to get every last possible ride before flying home this afternoon. Katie – you will be glad to know that when I mentioned that I was from Steamboat, he said, “Ah… Champagne Powder”. We have an ally down under.

This post is from May 17, 2009.

Today, the hotel guests joined forces with a bike club from Verona to do a 70-mile club-style ride. Our guide-of-honor was Eros Poli and the club was called Le Amis d’ Eros (friends of Eros). Eros is a former professional bike racer from Verona. He has won Olympic Gold medals, finished second in the time trial world championships and, most famously, won a very unlikely stage in the Tour de France. He is not built like the typical wiry cyclist and definitely not like a climber. He stands out in a crowd at 6’4” and, I’m sure, over 200 pounds. That is a body built for speed and power, not floating over mountaintops. His typical role was to lead out Mario Chipollini for sprint finishes. The lead-out rider has to be a very powerful sprinter himself in order to build the speed the finisher needs to make the final dash for the finish line. Chipollini is considered one of the best sprinters in the history of cycling, so leading him out for his finishes was an important role.

No one would suspect that Eros’ career highlight would come in a famous climbing stage on the Tour de France. If anything, you would expect him to win a sprint, but that is not what happened. On a 200 km (124 mile) stage in 1994 over Mt. Ventoux, he went on a solo break-away with 106 miles remaining. A solo break-away that far from the finish almost never succeeds, but since he was not a threat in the general classification, the peloton allowed him to go. He rode alone all day and built up a 22-minute lead by the based of Mont Ventoux. The peloton would normally not allow such a large lead to develop, but since he was all alone and due to his size, he was not considered a climbing threat. By the top of the climb, however, he was able to preserve an almost 4-minute lead and was able to fly down the descent and get the stage victory. A stage is only 1 of 21 days in the Tour de France, but a single win is enough to turn a career into a legend. It is rare wins like this that keep riders attacking during these races with overwhelming odds against success.

So, that’s Eros’ story. We rode in a pace line all day with Eros like a locomotive on the front. Usually a pace line alternates the lead so that everyone shares some time breaking through the headwind. On this ride, Eros just sat on the front and more than 30 riders followed like baby ducks behind him. My little chain ring almost could have been left behind at the hotel this morning. We moved along at a pretty good pace all day. Even through there was a stiff headwind on the way back, Eros just sat on the front and powered through.

There was one real hill on the ride when the course broke away from the lake and into the hills. It was substantial with an 11-15% grade after a long flat ride along the lake. About half way up the climb, I saw that I was coming up on Eros. His bike was creaking under his weight and power. I was a bit surprised that I appeared to be making up ground on him. I reasoned, well 1) he has just lead a pace line for 25 miles on the flats, maybe he doesn’t want to use too much energy on the climb, or 2) he is not built for the hills, maybe he is going to go over the top slowly and catch up to us later, or 3) maybe I’m just that good. As I went past him, I looked over and saw that none of my theories were correct. He was talking on his cell phone. If my heart were not beating at about 160, it would have sunken in my chest. I kept going, accepting the consolation prize of passing him, even though it didn’t mean much when he was riding at a conversational pace with one hand on his handlebars. Just before getting to the top, he had finished his call and stood up out of the saddle. He accelerated past me and crested the top of the hill (bastard). I’m pretty sure he stole my lunch money too.

South Lake Garda

2009-05-17T18:12:00.005+02:00

Miles from Home - 5370.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Ferry crossing of Lake Garda during ride, vineyards, olive groves, Simione – a castle fortress town, band playing on lake-front piazza, lemoni gelato, local truffle tortolini.
Miles Ridden - 54.95 miles
Vertical Feet - 1,994 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Ride was with 5 Australians, 2 Italian guides and a Yank. The Aussies were on their international version of the “Men’s Club” that we started this year in Steamboat. They went to Hotel Dory 2 years ago and here this year. Fun group of +/- 50 year olds. They plan to come back next year in May to Lake Garda, then possibly fly down to Sicily.

Met Paola Pezza. She is the Italian 1996 mountain bike Olympic gold medalist. Now she and her husband own a bike shop in Bardolino along the lake.

Our guides today were Nicola and Marozzio. Nicola is one of the brothers who owns and manages the hotel. He rides with the groups a few days a week. Marozzio is 65 years old and rides 20-25,000 kilometers every year. When he decides to bridge from the back of the group to the front, he can out-motor anyone else in the group.

This post is from May 16, 2009.

My cold is currently at bay. I don’t dare be smug and say I have it licked, but I hope it is waning.

The ride today was not the hilliest or quietest roads we have done, but it was very enjoyable. The Aussies were on their last day and feeling a bit melancholy about leaving and celebratory for the great week they have had. We rode along the lake from town to town stopping for coffee in one, gelato in another. A ferry ride in the middle made for an interesting navigational element.

After the ride, we went down to Liaze for a drink between the after-ride snack and dinner. I didn’t realize from riding past it for the past two days that the town is not just the lakeside tourist community you see from the road. When you step through the thousand-year-old fortress gate, you find that there is an entire pedestrian medieval town. Ancient European ambience full of restaurants, bars, bakeries and such. Although I have not visited very many of the famous cities yet during my travels, I think I am finding that I like these little towns that no one has ever heard of and will never show up in a guidebook.

Had a great dinner with the Aussies. They have befriended the chef and head-waiter during their stay, and rather than order from the menu, they just have the chef send whatever he wants to serve. The highlights tonight were tiny locally made tortellini served in butter with locally found truffles. They were spectacular with the Valpolicella wine grown in the vineyards surrounding the hotel.

Tomorrow is Sunday, which means lots of bikers on the road. Although the Aussies will be leaving, a couple from Aspen just arrived and the couple from Finland will be rejoining the group. In addition, a cycling club from Verona is going to join us, so we should have about 50 people on a 118 km ride.

Something Completely Different

2009-05-16T23:45:00.003+02:00

Miles from Home - 5370.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Riding the cobblestones of Verona
Miles Ridden - 52.10 miles
Vertical Feet - 4,136 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Ride was with 7 Australians, 2 Finlanders, 3 Italian guides and a few Yanks.

This post is from May 15, 2009.

Since I am usually the one pressing the shutter, I thought I should post a picture of me to prove that I am really here.

Today marks the transition from "vacation" to Something Completely Different. I have been in Italy for 2 weeks now. If this were a vacation, I would be going back to work on Monday. Now begins a new perspective.

I re-joined the Bike Hotel culture today. We headed out on a ride with about 20 riders from Melborne, Australia, Finland and Colorado.

There was some light rain in the morning. I don't mind getting stuck in a little rain once I am out there, but I rarely set out on a ride with the sky leaking. It didn't look like anyone else was bailing out, so perhaps peer pressure got me to do the right thing. I went on the ride.

The course promised 4 passes before lunch and a spin through the walled city of Verona. I only see 3 on the GPS profile, so I guess we got shorted. It was a little unusual and interesting to have a city as part of ride. We usually stay out in the countryside. Having a significant city at the far point of the ride made this one memorable. If you switch to the satellite view on the link for "Today's Ride", then zoom in on Verona, you can see the coliseum we rode past as well as the fortress bridge that we crossed to get over the river.

Unfortunately, the rain returned as we left Verona. What was a pretty series of hill climbs on the way out turned into a 20-24 mph pace line on the way back. I have not done much pace riding in a while, so it was a good challenge. Perhaps a bit more challenge than necessary since I found my rear brake dragging when I got back to the hotel. I'm not sure how long it was doing that, but I may have handicapped myself a bit.

This bike hotel (Hotel Veronello) is a little different than the one in Riccione (Hotel Dory). Dory has been established longer and has more cyclists for any given week. Where Dory had about 100 riders divided into 4 groups by pace and distance, Veronello takes a single group with multiple guides (3 today). We rode as a full group for parts of the day, and split up for other parts. The "Type-A" group (which I went with today) rode over all of the hills. The "Happy" group sometimes went around them or took shortcuts. We regrouped in Verona and all worked on the paceline to get us back to the dry refuge of the hotel as fast as possible. It was a fun group with the unusual attribute of being 100% English-speaking, except for 2 of the guides.

Shifting Gears

2009-05-16T22:57:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5370.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Arrived at Lake Garda Bike Hotel, pistachio gelato.
Miles Ridden - 15.02 miles
Vertical Feet - 570 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - Had dinner with Nicola Verdolin, owner/manager of Hotel Veronella (where I am staying). He is a friend of Stefano from Hotel Dory and a member of the Italy Bike Hotel group that was started by Stefano.

Also had dinner with Bruce and Tracy from Boulder, CO. Bruce owns Excel Sports and imports Italian bikes and clothing to the U.S.. Bruce and Tracy are going to be on tomorrow's group ride and doing a Gran Fondo (4,000 person citizen bike race) on Sunday. Bruce is here celebrating his upcoming 50th birthday. Looking at him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back from the Gran Fondo on Sunday night with a win.

Visualizza Lazise in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

This post is from May 14, 2009.

No stage viewing today. I may catch one of two more live stages, but the intensity is going to drop off considerably starting today.

Today was the first day since I have arrived in Italy that has shown any sign of a slower pace. I still transferred to a new city, moved into a new room and went for a short ride, but compared to the past 2 weeks, it was pretty casual. I planned to take a day off the bike, but after arriving, it just didn’t seem right to be sedentary. I had time for an afternoon nap, though, so all in all, it was a pretty easy day.

Experience Plus was kind enough to drop me at the hotel, so I didn’t need to break down my bike or do any train travel. I now have a full week with no logistical challenges.

My immediate impression of this hotel is that it is more than just a “bike” hotel. It is a “sports” hotel. They have a complex of perfectly manicured soccer fields where they can host team camps. Everyone in the lobby is either in cycling spandex or soccer sweats. The other difference I notice is that the food is a step above Hotel Dory. Although Dory was good, this restaurant has a very good chef and you are able to order off a menu rather than a buffet. My room rate includes lodging, breakfast, pocket lunch for the ride, after-ride snack, 5-course dinner, guide services and laundry. I can’t imagine why I will need to leave.

The other initial impression of the hotel is that they will have a good variety of riding. They have flats around the lake, hills, mountains, ancient towns, cities, vineyards and olive groves. I suspect every day is going to be very different than the last.

Why is it that with every organized ride in Colorado people think they are getting a late start if they are not on the road by 7:00 am? Italians are on my schedule. Giro stages start around noon or 1:00. Tomorrow's 100k ride with 4 passes starts at 10:00. That's the right idea.

The pictures on today’s post are from my short spin around the south eastern corner of Lake Garda.

Corragio

2009-05-15T22:47:00.006+02:00

Miles from Home - 5354.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Mountaintop finish, Bolzona, bike paths, epic climb, strudel in the Alps, castles, Tyrolean food and culture.
Miles Ridden - 50.39 miles
Vertical Feet - 6,178 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.
People - I am going to start including the people I meet along the way in the heading section of each post. Although I have been with Experience Plus for a number of days, I have not mentioned everyone’s names:

Michele and Stefania - Our Italian group leaders, guides, logisticians, translators, sommeliers and good people.

Don and Jane Volta - Kirkland, WA (near Seattle). Retired couple on their 8th Experience Plus tour. Turn 70 this year. Just completed a tour through Turkey.

Marvin and Margie Amernick - Basalt, CO and Delray Beach, FL. Retired couple on their ~12th Experience Plus tour. After a week of traveling alone, they are joining the third-week Giro tour with Experience Plus for the finish.

Bill Plutnick - Owingsville, KY (near Lexington). 46 year old, easy-going defense contractor. His wife was at a conference in Sicily, so he decided to follow the Giro for a week. They are meeting in Rome Thursday.

This post is for May 13, 2009.

My cold set back in last night. I woke up with little energy, but today was the final and biggest climb of my Giro week. The pros don't get to take a day off when they don't feel well, and either do I if I want to watch the race. The Giro stops for just about nothing.

Italians shout a lot of phrases at the racers. One that is reserved for the suffering riders who are obviously having difficulty just getting over a climb is, “Corragio”. It means, “dig deep, summon your courage, keep going”. Alpe di Siusi was the climb at the finish of Stage 5 today. It is a monster that starts in the river valley and climbs nearly to the top of the Dolomites at the mid-station of a ski resort. The length of 25 kms, grade of 8-10% and elevation gain of 5,000 feet make it a challenge on any day. For those from Steamboat, it is the equivalent of a steeper Rabbit Ears, followed by a 5km recovery at an easier grade, followed by another steeper Rabbit Ears. Climbing it today required me to tap into all of the corragio I could find.

It isn’t much consolation, but Lance had a pretty difficult day on the climb today as well. He ran into a spot of bother and finished 3 minutes behind the lead group that included teammate Levi Leipheimer. Today all but eliminated Lance from contention in the race. He looked exhausted at the finish.

Our day started with a van transfer from our hotel in Trento to a little town called Ora. Stefania got the other riders started on their way and then took me to a Pharmacia in search of cold medicine. Explaining symptoms to a pharmacist without a command of the language is a real challenge, so having a translator was a huge benefit. I got my medicine and began to chase down the rest of the group.

I caught them fairly quickly and rode along some amazingly well-developed bike paths into Bolzano. These bike paths went through vineyards, tunnels and around castles. Since they were formerly train tracks, there was infrastructure that could never be funded for a project that started as a bike path. By the time we arrived in Bolzano, the world had turned decidedly Austrian. Signs were in German first, then Italian. Architecture was Tyrolean. Food became very hearty with good dark bread, pretzels and streusel. We stopped for lunch in the city, which was well-maintained and picturesque. There were lots of pedestrians and bicycles throughout the center of town.

The weather forecast indicated that we might get some rain, but it wasn’t to be. The entire week of following the Giro ended without a drop. That was fortunate, because the climb that was about to begin didn’t need any help to make it a challenge.

The stats for the climb provided a pretty good indication that this would be a tough one. What the stats didn’t show was that when I was stopped at the bottom, my head was on my handlebars and I easily could have fallen asleep. Not the energy level you want to approach a big physical challenge. I decided to use a mental game to get up the climb. Rather than a 5,000 foot climb, I decided that I would do five 1,000 climbs. That way, when I got to 500 feet, I was half way to my first climb rather than only 10% of the way to the top. That tactic worked pretty well for the first 1,500 – 2,000 feet. After that, I had figured out that no matter what I said to myself, this climb was not going to end.

By the time I was 4 km from the top, the racers were only about 30-45 minutes behind me, but I didn’t know that. The police hadn’t cleared the road yet, so I assumed I still had a couple of hours. When I reached the summit, they had blocked the final 500 meters and the racers were only about 20 minutes behind. I would like to think that knowing they were chasing me would have motivated me to increase my cadence over those final 4 kms, but I don’t think Denis Menchov touching my back wheel would have made me go any faster. My heart rate was only idling at about 145-150 bpm, which is high, but not indicative of an all-out effort. I think the cold combined with my body calibrating its hemoglobin for sea-level riding just converged to make this a difficult day. It would have been fun to see how I could have done on such an epic climb feeling well, but getting to the top with adverse conditions creates it own rewards.

I could have turned around and headed down the hill looking for a good vantage point for the finish when I was blocked with 500 meters to go, but by that point, there was a goal to be achieved. I wasn’t going to turn around after getting so close. I got off my bike and pushed it through the grass and crowds parallel to the course until I figured I had reached the elevation of the finish line. I could then be satisfied that I had made it. Right about the line where I declared victory, I found a woman in lederhosen selling streusel and water. With one of each in hand, I found a spot to watch the big screen TV of the racers approaching with the race course in the foreground. Success.

As a frame of reference for how big a 5,000 foot climb is, the descent after the race back to the river valley took 50 minutes. That is 50 minutes with barely the need to turn my pedals.

Here is an article that compares the climbs of this year's Giro to climbs in North America. http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=14733

BTW – the camera decided to come back to life. Not sure how long it will last.

Big Ass Alps

2009-05-13T00:54:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5354.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - WWI Tunnels, Category-2 climb, bike museum
Miles Ridden - 50.5 miles
Vertical Feet - 5,829 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.

View Trento in a larger map

Today had a couple of significant climbs. I was riding with Bill from Kentucky who told me when we reached the top of the first that it was the hardest thing he had ever climbed. I told him that his record wasn't likely to stand very long, because our last climb of the day was going to be even tougher. He agreed with me at the end of the day, but he made it up both with a smile.

First off, I am sorry to say that my camera has officially given up. What I thought could be managed by keeping a fresh charge on my battery is apparently something more severe. I charged it twice last night, and when I fired it up this morning, I couldn't take even my first picture. That was really unfortunate because there were plenty of interesting things to see today. I will look for a replacement battery, but I don't expect much luck unless I can get to a bigger city. I may try to get one shipped from Amazon to the bike hotel I will be checking in on Thursday. Following the Giro, my address changes every 48 hours, so there is no way to have anything shipped. If the battery doesn't solve the problem, then I guess I will need a new camera, but by the time that arrives, a lot of photos will be forever lost.

The ride started this morning with a good route selection. In order to get from our hotel to the Giro route, there was either a fairly busy modern road or one that was built by the Austrians around WWI that gets very little traffic today. Obviously, we took the road less traveled. Turning onto the road, you could see far ahead into a mountain canyon. It looked as if it was a box canyon with sheer rock walls at the top going up 500-1000 feet. I couldn't figure out how a road could get past such an obstacle. As we got closer, the walls looked bigger, but still no obvious way to get through. After what had already been a difficult climb, the crux move came into view. There were tunnels stacked up on top of each other climbing the last 500 vertical feet. Each tunnel had a 10-12% switchback inside it, so what looked like 2 tunnels stacked on top of each other was actually 1 tunnel with the entrance below and the exit above. There were 5 such tunnels to get to the summit. To make it a little more interesting, the road narrowed to 1 lane so that you had to wait for a traffic light to let you know that traffic was going your way for the next 5 minutes. I didn't want to meet a truck coming down the hill in the middle of one of the tunnels, so I rode hard to clear them before I suspected the downhill light would turn green.

At the crest of the hill, Bill and I stopped at a cafe for a bottle of water. We saw a very fit couple come running up over the hill. They had ski poles for hiking, but this was obviously a morning run, not a casual hike. After a quick stop at the cafe, they turned around and headed back to the tunnels at a running pace. Bill and I dropped down the big descent and spotted some mountain peaks poking through the haze. I had come to think of the climbs we had been doing as mountains until I saw these peaks. We had been riding hills. These were mountains. We had reached the Big Ass Alps.

The second climb was scenic but not epic. One of our tour guides, Michele (Mi-Kell-a) pointed out that the forest smelled like garlic. The wild garlic is in bloom, so even a hike or a bike ride in the forest of Italy can get you thinking about food. After stopping for a lunch consisting of prosciutto-wrapped asparagus with cheese, bread, pasta and salad, we got back on our bikes for the final climb. This is the point where we intersected with the Giro course and rode their first category-2 climb of the race. We were about 2 1/2 hours ahead of the race and only had 11k to cover, but there were quite a few vertical feet to be grabbed before the mutants arrived. The bottom of the climb was the most difficult, but you never know that when you are doing it. It started off at a grade that never dropped below 8% and was quite consistently 10%. There were a few sections of 12%, just to make the 8% hurt a bit more. It was not a consistent grade, however, and there were some sections of 7% past the halfway point to provide some recovery. It occurred to me that I felt as if I was recovering whenever I hit a grade that was the same as Rabbit Ears Pass. If this climb had been longer or did not have those recovery sections, I suspect it might have been a category-1. For the last 500 meters of the climb, the crowds were getting fairly large, so I pulled Ray's video camera out of my pack and started recording as I rode. I hope the video captures what it is like to climb up through the switchbacks with the big crowd assembled. I won't be able to post it until I get a memory stick reader. Not sure when that will be.

It was rewarding to see that the mutants were impacted by the climb we had just done. The race was fractured by the hill. There was a 10-minute gap from the first to the last riders, which was very unexpected for such a short climb. I'm not sure what it did to the GC standings, but I expect there were some changes today. Where I saw them pass, Lance was safely in the peloton, right were he would strategically choose to be. After they dropped over this climb, they had another comparable climb to the finish. That's a pretty good dose of pain for one day at the office.

Speaking of category-1 climbs, I think that is what we have in store tomorrow. I haven't seen the official race profile to confirm it, but we are climbing Alpe du Siusi, which is a single 5,000 foot climb. Again, not a consistent grade for the entire thing, but I would guess that its length might earn it a category 1.

After descending from the big climb of the day, we loaded into the van and shuttled to Trento to be within striking distance for Stage 5 tomorrow. Sadly, tomorrow will be my last day with Experience Plus chasing the Giro. I hope to see another stage in Milan and the final time trial in Rome. But tomorrow will be the last day of dedicated race spectating.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. If you want to see other people's pictures of the areas I am riding, go to the "View Today's Route" link at the top of any of my posts. When you get the map of the ride, click on the "More..." button on the upper right corner and select "Photos".

Stage 3

2009-05-13T00:26:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5396.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First third-category climb of the Giro. I made the front page.
Miles Riden - 50.8 miles
Vertical Feet - 3,966 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.

Quick update today. Rode much of the third stage course, including the only somewhat significant (category-3) climb and the finish area. After viewing the mayhem in the finish area, I rode back up the third-category descent and watched the racers come through. This was the first opportunity for the riders to win GPM (King of the Mountains) points. This part of Italy has never hosted a Giro stage in its 100 year history, so the towns and Prosecco vineyards were all dressed up in pink.

I was on the front page of the Italian newspaper (Gazzetta) during the team time trial. I told you I found a good spot. I'll post a picture of the pictue later.

These are long days chasing the Giro. Start riding at 8:30, ride and spectate until 7:00 or 7:30, eat a 4-5 course dinner, go to bed, repeat. I'm not saying they're not good days, but they're long.

Another Venice Whirlwind in the History Books

2009-05-13T00:01:00.005+02:00

Miles from Home - 5396.1 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First stage start, first open air market
Miles Ridden - 53.7 miles
Vertical Feet - 1,417 ft
Route - View Today's Route Here.

View Solighetto in a larger map

It seems counter-intuitive, but I would probably have more current Giro results from Kent at the switchboard in Steamboat than I have following it live in Italy. It is such an odd thing to watch an event that covers over 100 miles of open road in a day. There isn't a scoreboard you can watch to see what is happening.

The answer to yesterday's question is that Mark Cavendish wore the pink jersey for Team Columbia today. I never heard whether it was because the team selected him, or if he was the first team member to cross the line. I suppose it is the same thing. If he crossed the line first, it is because the team selected him.

We left Venice this morning and rode to Solighetto in the pre-Alps. This was my second trip to Venice in the past 3 years, and both times I have left feeling like I had not spent enough time. I think I will have one more chance when Brad comes to visit in early June.

There is no Internet access at my hotel here, so this post may be delayed for a couple of days.

This morning, our spectating was limited to watching the start of Stage 2 from Lido di Jesolo. The race didn't start until 1:30, so we had some time to gawk at the team cars, equipment and mechanics. Everyone had a very clear role to play to get the teams ready to role by race start and the trucks ready to move onto the next town. Some were prepping bikes, some were packing and securing the load and one guy was doing laundry in the washing machine and dryer they carry in the truck. It was like watching a colony of ants at work.

I saw Lance's new road bike at Astana's hotel and Ivan Basso's rig at LiquiGas. The interesting thing is that I did not see a lot of prototype parts on any of the bikes. Everything was the very best you could buy, but surprisingly, nothing jumped out as something you could not build for yourself if you felt you needed to in order to keep up with your neighbor down the street. On some of the teams, each rider's name is painted on their frame like a fighter pilot's call sign on the side of a jet. That is a pretty cool customization, but I thought there might be more.

The procession of the race departure was interesting. I watched from the 0 km marker where the race officially begins, even though it was several kms after the ceremonial spot where the riders start riding.

About 45 minutes before departure, the road had been closed for some time and a high speed parade went through with sponsor vehicles, load music and eye-candy girls in convertibles. It was moving along at about 30 miles an hour, and I assume they run the entire course in front of the race. A little while later, the caravan of 22 team busses headed out of town toward the finish line. I assume the trucks went out at a similar time, but I didn't seen them. Over the next 30 minutes, a steady flow of Giro official vehicles and police cars and motor cycles headed out on the course at high speed. The official vehicles are all brand new Skoda cars, and there must have been at least 50 of them. It appeared that VIP's who bought their way in with a "donation" were in the official vehicles ahead of the race. Who knows what kind of influence you have to yield to get in one of the team cars. The only person I know who has done that is Robin Williams.

As the start time grew closer the TV motorcycles gathered just ahead of the 0 km marker next to me. After 2 hours of waiting, things happened quickly. The first signal that things were about to happen is the TV helicopter started approaching. The grand poobah of the race in one of the Skoda cars passed under the 0k banner and waiving the starting flag. 198 riders were directly on his tail. I could hear a lot of gears shifting as everyone accelerated up to a racing pace and Lance Armstrong lead the peloton under the starting banner.

Just as the racers passed under the banner, the TV motorcycles launched out ahead of the race. Those are some skilled people on both the front and back of those motorcycles, but that will wait for another time.

The peloton accelerated and was past us in less than 30 seconds. Then came the internal combustion component of the race. About 66 team cars sped under the banner and were jockeying for position just like the racers. These are all perfectly clean, brand new vehicles covered in sponsorship logos. It looked like a car race by itself. The cars actually took longer to clear the start area than the riders, but they were gone within about 60-90 seconds. Finally, 10 ambulances followed and a few dozen more police and it was done. Before we could mount our bikes to begin our ride, crews were starting to tear down the barricades and advertising banners.
By the time the race was out of town, it was almost 2:00, and we still had 80 km (50 miles) to ride to our hotel for the night. While the mutants headed east, we headed northwest to a spot close to their finish line tomorrow.

It was a nice ride on the Venetian flats for the first 40 miles. After that, we hit the pre-Alps and very suddenly hit some abrupt climbs. After 2 1/2 days with no more than a bridge overpass to call a hill, it was a shock to the system. All day, we rode through vineyards and fields of poppies and lavender. Many miles were on roads that were not as wide as a bike path back home. On a couple of occasions, a car would pass in the other direction. Even though I was on the white line on the right side and the car was on the opposite white line, I still needed to tuck in my elbow to avoid leaving a big sweaty mark on his window. I have no idea how 2 cars would pass.

Image for the day - Having such a tight squeeze passing a car had me curious. I stopped and lay on my stomach perpendicular to the road with my belly button more-or-less in the middle. I touched my toes on one white line and reached the other white line with the palms of my hands. Based on that, I think the roads were about 8' wide.

Stage 1 - Team Time Trial

2009-05-10T00:19:00.008+02:00

Miles from Home - 5509.5 miles

Firsts / Highlights - First pro bike race

Miles Riden - 41.7 miles

Vertical Feet - 329 ft

Route - View Today's Route Here.

My observation about professional bike racers - they ride really really fast.

Bike racing isn't as much about cheering for your home country as some other sports. All of the teams are such a mixture of nationalities that it almost doesn't matter where the team is based. Almost. That said, today was a very good day for the American teams. The 2 American teams finished 1st and 2nd. Third place went to a team from Kazakhstan that has 3 American riders - Chris Horner, Levi Liepheimer and a newcomer named Lance (see picture #1).

Today's stage was the team time trail. No one I have spoken to remembers a team time trial ever being the first stages in a professional race. The obvious question is, "who wears the pink jersey?". Everyone on the winning team has the same GC time, so who is the leader? Since I was not at the awards ceremony after the race today, I still don't know the answer to that question. If you want a refresher what a team time trail or GC is or why anyone would care about wearing a pink shirt, refer to the post I wrote before leaving called Giro d'Italia Primer.

Today's stage was held on the Lido of Venice. An island with no bridges. I'm sure the team and event organizers spent a good deal of time figuring out the logistics for this one. A great image (which I was not able to capture) was a ferry loaded up with at least 25 team cars with 8 bikes on top of each car. It is already a big effort to move all of the stuff from stage to stage, but when you introduce water crossing, it just gets a little more interesting. Our tour group had a private boat take us over. It was big enough for 100 people, but we had 8 (including the guides). My bike had plenty of legroom.

Although I am on a pre-organized trip to address a lot of the complex planning required to follow the race, a certain amount of improvisation is still needed. When we arrived on the island about 4 1/2 hours before the start of the race, the time trial course was already barricaded and there were a number of police at every intersection for the entire length of the course. Since there is only really one road on the Lido, it was important for us to be able to ride the course in order to get to any location other than the starting line. We had found a small town about half way through the course where mid-stage time splits would be measured and the racers passed by on the same road in both directions. On paper, a pretty good viewing spot. Without access to the road, however, the plan was in jeopardy. Our Italian guides spoke to a number of different policemen and kept getting different stories. Eventually, they found one that would let us on the course. All was well. We were riding along the course all dressed out for the event, passing under banners indicating the number of kilometers left to go. It all seemed to be falling into place, for about 3 kilometers. That is when another policeman stepped into the road and held out his arms saying, "it is forbidden". We left the course and rode on a sidewalk for a couple of blocks -- until we found another policeman who allowed us back on the course. This happened at least 4 times. One would say we could not be on the course, one would say we must be on the right, another on the left, and finally that we had to be on the right until 1:00, then switch to the left until another said that we could not be on the course at all again. The "official" looking blue-coated police were very authoritarian and certain of their (contradictory) information. The green-coated officials didn't seem to care much one way of the other. We eventually made it to the location we initially set out to find. We had to cancel our plans to ferry to a second island for free-riding, but at least our viewing location was secure. Apparently you can play mom off against dad until you get the answer you want with the Venice police as long as you're persistent. Police roulette - successful this time.

The entire race was only 20km today. That is very short for a pro ride. I assumed that meant an easy day for the riders, but they actually put in a lot more distance than the race numbers would indicate. Every team rode past our viewing location about 4 times in each direction before the race. They were riding faster than any fast club rides, but probably about 75-85% of race speed. I don't know if they were riding and re-riding the entire course, but they were definitely doing more that a light warm-up. Now that I think about it, perhaps because the team time trial is such a rare event, maybe they were working through their communication and team riding tactics just in time for the race.

Although there are no hills in this area, there was a small rise over a bridge that made for a short viewing distance from our crosswalk. Near the beginning of the warm-up period, I had not seen many teams go by, so I was not calibrated to their speeds. I looked both ways and almost stepping in the road. At the last moment, I thought I saw some motion coming over the rise, so I stepped back. Within about 5 seconds, Team Columbia flew by with Mark Cavendish in the lead position. For those who don't know, Cavendish is the 23 or 24 year old phenom who is considered the fastest human on a bike right now. When it comes to a sprint, he seems to be unbeatable. I think he won 4 stages in the Tour de France last year, which is particularly impressive when you consider his age. If I had stepped into the road and taken out Cavendish, I would have been like the guy Dick Cheney shot in the face and apologized to him for causing so much trouble. Fortunately for both of us, it was a non-event.

I scouted for a while to find a good location to take pictures. I wanted a spot on a curve so you could see the teams fan out and catch more than one face. Then I needed a place that was not terribly backlit. I wanted to be on the out-and-back section of the course so that I could see each team twice. Finally, I wanted to be in one of the barricaded sections to give some perspective for the curve. I found what looked like a good location, which I later confirmed was a good choice. First, I noticed that there was a photographer from the national newspaper next to me. Then, a video crew from New York showed up and dropped a video camera next to me. They were shooting a documentary on Lance that they hope will have theatrical distribution after the Tour de France. The former editor of Winning Magazine was the director of the documentary, who pointed out a guy 5 feet further down who he introduced as the "best cycling photographer in the world". I don't know cycling photographers, but I'll take his word. At any rate, I think I found a pretty decent location. If only I could have had my "real" camera and lenses here...

Although the race was only 20km, viewing it took 11 hours. Left the hotel, road 10 miles to the boat, ferried to the island, rode the time trial course before it was closed, staked out a viewing spot, watched the race, rode back to the boat, ferried back across and rode back to the hotel. Now it is 8:15pm and time for dinner.

I have found that national TV goes to live coverage of the Giro every day from 3:30 - 5:00. They schedule the start time of each stage so that the high drama of each day will fall during that time. I look forward to pulling off to the side of the road at a cafe wherever I happen to be for the next 3 weeks to watch the live coverage. Even when I am not viewing each stage, this will keep things interesting.

The Circus has Arrived

2009-05-08T22:00:00.009+02:00

Miles from Home - 5432.3 miles

Firsts / Highlights - First signs of the Giro

Miles Riden - 21.8 miles

Vertical Feet - 97 ft

Route - View Today's Route Here.

The Giro and all of its spectacle has arrived in Venice. I am staying in Lido di Jesolo which is on the mainland near the island of Venice. All of the teams are staying in hotels in this area too. Lance and Team Astana are about 4 blocks away. It is difficult to maintain a low profile when you pull into town with 2 busses, 6 or 8 team cars and a couple of semi rigs full of equipment all with your team's logo several dozen times displayed on each.

I am meeting up with the Experience Plus group in a few minutes to begin my 6-day tour of the first 5 stages of the Giro. I ran into one of the couples from the trip in the lobby this morning. They went out Lance-stalking this morning and found him. The team was out for a 5-hour training ride on the day before the start of the race. Just to keep the rust out, I guess. That makes it official - Lance is going to ride the Giro in spite of his broken colar bone. The paper says that he has more or less conceded the race and only plans to ride to promote his cancer cause.

When I got down to San Marco Plaza last night, I found the first sign of the pomp surrounding the Giro. Workers were setting up a big stage in the Plaza for the welcoming ceremonies. There isn't even any racing on the island of Venice, but apparently they wanted the recognizable setting for the opening ceremony and the 10 seconds of TV coverage that it will receive. I expect that the Giro is going to be like a series of one-night-stands for the Rolling Stones. The staging, rigging, sound & light systems and TV equipment is going to need to be torn down and reassembled every day for three weeks. All that in addition to the 30 teams of racers, TV crews from all over the world and millions of spectators. That isn't hyperbole, there will be millions of spectators over the course of the race. The odd thing is, in the area where all the teams and I are today, it is dead as a doornail. Until the other people from Experience Plus showed up, I felt as if I was the only person in the hotel.

Went out for a short ride today to try to shake off the effects of travel and my cold. My altimeter said that we are at an elevation of -7 feet. I don't think that is quite accurate, but the biggest climb got me up to about 0. This is as flat as flat gets. Flat will be a distant memory in about 48 hours.

I think Venice may be the place where the "point and shoot" camera got its name. You could aim the camera just about anywhere and capture something interesting. Although today was mostly about the first signs of the Giro, I have to also include a picture of the full moon rising from San Marco, and no one would believe I was in Venice without a picture of a gondola or two.

Possible, but not Pleasant

2009-05-08T10:49:00.007+02:00

Miles from Home - 5432.3 miles

Firsts / Highlights - Traveling by train with coupler bike

Miles Riden - 0.0 miles

Vertical Feet - 0 ft

Route - No ride.

Visualizza Lido di Jesolo in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori

There is no denying it. Travel BY bicycle is wonderful. Travel WITH a bicycle is not. The routine for getting from Riccione to Lido di Jesolo (outside Venice) started last night.

Here is the simple 27-step process to move between cities.

1) Disassemble bike
2) Pack bike (went pretty well)
3) Pack luggage
4) Load bike and lugguge into van
5) Take van from hotel to train station in Rimini
6) Unload bike and luggage
7) Carry and pull 80 pounds of bike, tools and luggage into train station
8) Lift all gear to go down stairs, under the tracks and back up stairs to the designated platform
9) Board train
10) Look for open seat while navigating a 2' wide hallway. Push the day pack, pull the bike and wear the day pack. It is not possible to turn sideways with the backpack on. It is necessary to take heal-to-toe size steps while pulling the bike because you cannot not walk beside to it - and allow other passengers to pass going the other direction.
11) In the seating compartment, hoist the backpack and day pack into the storage bin and store the bike in the hallway. Make friends as people trip over it.
12) Ride like a normal passenger for a few hours
13) Get off the train (see getting on the train)
14) Go down stairs, pass under tracks and up stairs with full floatilla in tow
15) Navigate 200 meters of sidewalk under construction to the bus station.
16) Wait 30 minutes for bus
17) Load bike and luggage into bus hold
18) Ride 85 degree bus for 1 hour
19) Exit bus
20) Unload bike and luggage
21) Wait 20 minutes to transfer to another bus
22) Load bike and luggage
23) Ride bus 15 minutes
24) Exit bus
25) Walk last 1/4 mile with all gear to hotel
26) Take bike and lugguge (via elevator, finally a break) to room.
27) Write about it

This move from city to city would not have been possible without the coupler Moots bike. I don't have any second thoughts about it being the right thing to do, but it would be a stretch to call it convenient.

Lessons learned today:
a) Get seat reservations even if they are not necessary. That limits the amount of moving around needed inside the train looking for a seat.
b) Schedule longer stays in fewer locations
c) Schedule some non-riding destinations where I can leave the bike behind, travel and return for the bike before moving on.
d) Don't get a nasty cold the day before traveling with a bike.

Now for the pay off. I'm off to catch a bus and a boat to have dinner in Venice, and hopefully catch some sunset pictures.

Last Day in Riccione

2009-05-06T17:25:00.004+02:00

Miles from Home - 5509.5 miles

Firsts / Highlights - Urbino in le Marche region

Miles Riden - 73.4 miles

Vertical Feet - 6,316 ft

Route - View Today's Route Here.

Today's ride would make another trip to Italy worth the effort. Beautiful scenery, lots of ancient towns and I felt great on the bike all day. It wasn't without effort, however, with over 1 mile of cumulative climbing. The only downside is that only I get to see it. I was not able to take a single picture because my camera failed to startup again. I am going to order a replacement battery to see if I can solve that problem.

I don't know what made today different, but I climbed better than usual. Whenever the grade kicked up to 9% or more today, I was able to accelerate and ride off the front of the group. I got some shouts from behind. I know I got one "Allez" and a couple of "Attack"s. The rest may have been unflattering references to my parents, but in Italian, it sounds good. One of the German riders came up to me in Urbino and said, "You doping?", "I think unnatural". Later on the descent, I had dropped to near the back of the group. He rode up and asked, "Doping defect?".

Scene for the day - As we were arriving in Urbino (you'll have to live with a Wikipedia reference and a stolen image from Google since I don't have any pictures), a helicoper was flying overhead. We were riding on some of the roads that will be used on the Giro d'Italia in a couple of weeks. I theorized that the helicopter was there scouting scenic shots to be used on the internationsal feed during the race. I further theorized that they must have the cameras locked onto us as we climbed a 20% grade on cobblestones into the town. Although the road was only 10 feet from building-to-building, I suspect that their camera telephoto lens was able to track us. That's my theory. You can believe it or not.

It was only one week ago today that I was saying goodbye to everyone at the office. What a week.

Time to pack up my bike and head to the next town.

Rained Out, sort of

2009-05-06T17:15:00.005+02:00

Miles from Home - 5509.5 miles

Firsts / Highlights - First cookie in 5 months. First pizza in Italy (prisiutto crudo).

Miles Riden - 5 miles

Vertical Feet - 0 ft

Route - Rode around town for pictures, but no GPS data to show for it.

Tuesday was scheduled to be the long 120km ride. The weather forecast was not looking good, so the guides made a 7:30 call to swap the Tuesday ride with the Wednesday rest day. It turned out that by 9:00, the weather was fine, but the decision had already been made. Fortunately, the rest of the week should be sunny. Tomorrow will be my last day of riding from Hotel Dory before I move on to Venice for the start of the Giro.

The guides for the hotel put in a lot of miles. If you figure 60 miles per day, 6 days per week, and 6 months per year, that is 8,640 miles per year. That's assuming that they don't ride a single mile on their own time. That is twice as many miles as I am likely to ride this summer, even taking 5 months off from work and doing a major tour down the Pacific Coast. When you consider that they are riding in the front of the pack all day, every day, that's a lot of effort.

The guide for my group this week has been Lucia. It is unusual to see Italian women riding bikes at all, much less as a group leader. Our group clearly has not pushed her to her limit.

The head of the guides is Richard (Riccardo) Steiner. He was the coach of the Swiss national team in the Bejing Olympics and brought back 1 gold and 3 bronze metals.

30 Miles Up, 20 Miles Down

2009-05-04T16:53:00.008+02:00

Miles from Home - 5509.5 miles

Firsts / Highlights - San Marino

Miles Riden - 46.3 miles

Vertical Feet - 3,455 ft

Route - View Today's Route Here. If you don't think you are seeing everything on this site, post a comment here and I will post instructions.

Our rolling band grew to about 25 today with the addition of some people from England and Switzerland.

We re-traced some of the roads I rode on my first solo day, but the repetition was incidental. We stopped for a bite at Monte Grimano that I really liked on the first day.

The first pictures on today's post came at a price. For the most part, our group is so well matched that no one ever drops more than 100 meters off the back. That is remarkable considering all of the hills. When I rode past these two scenes, however, I had to make a decision. Can I call myself a photographer if I don't at least try to capture those images? I have seen a lot on these rides that I would love to stop and photograph, but there just isn't an opportunity. This time, however, I was climbing a 9% grade and decided that I had to try. I wasn't likely to be back there again. It only took about 2-3 minutes, but that was enough time for the entire group to climb out of site (you can see the last of them on the first image). To make matters worse, I saw another scene 200 meters up the road and was faced with the same decision. Once again, I stopped and shot. Great... I MIGHT have captured a usable picture, but now I had to catch up to the group on a pretty substantial climb. Fortunately, we were within 2-3k from the top, and everyone had stopped for lunch, so I didn't have to use the GPS to get me back to the hotel over the the final 30 miles.

On both of the first two days of riding, I had seen a hilltop town (actually, an independent microstate) called San Marino. It is the highest point in the area and has an old fortress on top of a craggy cliff. From the sea side, it didn't appear to be approachable, unless possibly by cable car or ropes and harness. The inland side was not vertical, but appeared formitably steep. It turns out that a sneak attack on the fortress is possible by bicycle. I wouldn't want to carry much in the way or munitions for an attack, but getting there is possible. This wikipedia article on San Marino is worth a quick view.

I stopped at the top upon arrival and was greeted by an older man. He gave some words of encouragement for making it to the top, then pointed in the other direction and whistled a downward glisando and pointed down (like the roadrunner cayote falling off a cliff). I took that to be a good sign that we had a fun descent coming up. We did.

With about 10 miles to go, I was thinking about getting back to the hotel. I forgot that today was the day to meet out at the family farm. It was a very special place. Stefano's family has had it for a number of generations and it sits high up in the hills. We are not in Tuscany, but it has the feeling of a Tuscan villa. He has all of the riders (and any non-riders) from the hotel out there every Monday. The staff puts out a food spread that is the best I have had yet in Italy. After lunch, they brought around cups of cappocino, grappa and (presumably) homemade lemoncello. Mike Lomas - the bar has been raised. You are going to have to start inviting all of the hotel guests out to your house next ski season.

Image for the day - 25 riders going 21 mile per hour on a remote country road barely wider than a bike path. A Fiat starts to pass the group, but can't get all the way around, so he joins the peleton. We were going about as fast as he could, so he wasn't upset. Another Fiat came from the other direction and both cars had to move their right wheels off the road to make room to pass (without slowing down and causing a mess). When the way was clear, our Fiat beeped once and passed to the front of the group. It wasn't a, "get off the road" kind of beep. Just a, "I'm going around now" kind of beep. It was a potentially dicey situation, but a little cooperation goes a long way.

By the way, if there is any transformational news out there, please let me know. I am completely out of touch right now. I figured out a headline in today's paper that said Lance Armstrong is predicting that Basso will win the Giro, but that is the only story I have seen since arriving. BTW - Lance might really believe that Basso is going to win, he could be pandering to the host country, or he could be playing opossum. He has done it before.

A Sunday Ride in Italy

2009-05-03T22:14:00.011+02:00

Miles from Home - 5509.5 miles

Firsts / Highlights - First time riding in an international peloton. First Sunday ride in Italy. Passing an elderly Italian man wearing a suit on a bike nearly as old as he was. A scene for my Italian memory book.

Miles Riden - 62.3 miles

Vertical Feet - 3,368 ft

Route - View Today's Route Here. This site will let you view a map of the ride, an elevation profile, my heart rate and pedal cadence throughout the day. You can also use the "Player" option to playback the ride while viewing a graph of any of the recorded data. Or... you can just ignore it.

I had read that Sundays in Italy were a bicycle spectacle. Today I got to experience it. Hundreds and hundreds of bikes out on the road. Not in massive groups like event rides in the U.S., but smaller clusters all headed in different directions. Every roadside cafe had tables full of cyclists, and you see them on the road everywhere. Some groups wear the outfits of their clubs and hammer down the road in a color-coordinated blur.

I was in a group of about 17 riders and will be with the same people all week. Not surprisingly, it was a fun group of people all sharing an appreciation for the experience. This was far-and-away the most international group of riders I have ever shared time with. I have the honor of the greatest distance covered to get to the starting line. We had representatives from the Italy, France, Wales, Germany, Switzerland, England and the U.S.. That's a lot of languages going around just to exchange pleasantries and communicate road hazards. "Stop" and "okay" seem to be universal, but the rest is a matter of interpreting inflection. Lucky for me, many of them speak English as a second, third or fourth language. With representation from so many countries, I can imagine what communication must be like inside a professional racing peloton where the exchanges may not be quite so pleasant.

I rode today with Stefano Guiliodori, the owner of Hotel Dory and founder of the Italy Bike Hotel organization. What a great idea. If more Americans knew about this opportunity, I think it would be a valid option for people who take much more expensive active vacations from companies like Backroads and Butterfield & Robinson. Not quite as cushy, but a great option for riding enthusiasts. He is going to call a friend of his who operates an agriturismo farm in Tuscany. If all goes well, I may be able to stay at his farm as my home base in Tuscany after chasing the Giro next week.

Every morning this week, 4 groups will leave the hotel off on different routes with their guides. Tomorrow is unique because all groups converge at a farm owned by the hotelier's family. We have lunch there before finishing the last 10 miles of the ride back to the hotel. Should be another good one. Weather has been great so far, and it looks like it should remain so for the rest of my time in Riccione.

Tuesday is an early start (8:30) because we will be riding 120km into the north section of le Marche region.

My electronic woes continue a little bit. I have not shorted out the power supply in the new hotel, but I temporarily misplaced my Blackberry (don't panic Mark, it has since been found). I had some camera battery problems today. Riding with the group, it will not be possible to take a lot of pictures, but I missed some good opportunities. After some time on the charger, I think I will be okay tomorrow. With only one power adapter, rationing recharge time for all of my gadgets has required some diligence. At any rate, no new pictures today. I have included some from yesterday because I suspect there are some people who will never see these words that just check in for the pictures.

It's hard to believe that so much has already happened, and I am just at the equivalent of a long weekend away from work.