Day Off in Verona

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.