After a 2 plus hour drive that showed us some of the beauty of the Island, with mist covered mountain peaks, we arrived at our host hotel “Horse Country Resort” just outside the very small city of Arborea. We were fortunate that we were able to gain an early check in, as the ferry arrived so early in the morning. Because of some rain, we ate lunch before heading out on a reconnaissance ride of the next day’s TT course.

The rain continued after lunch so we set up our bikes for the Time Trial and then headed out to see what the course was like. Smooth flat roads, 4 round-a-bouts and four turns awaited us for tomorrow’s test.

We dried out our clothes and headed for dinner and then a good night’s sleep (as the boat ride didn’t provide us with a normal night’s rest).

Today was the first day of racing after a whirlwind few days of travel and riding in Tuscany. We had a flat, one-direction, 12.5K Individual Time Trial in strong winds. The wind was cross-head for most of the course and then shifted to cross-tail for a bit of the end of the course. I placed 3rd in my age group today (out of 46) and 21st (out of 241) overall with a 16.59. I felt solid but not great, so I’m happy with my placing having a goal of top 5 overall in my age group for the Giro. This was a good start! Continue reading →

My legs felt fine this morning and I had high spirits in spite of the forecasted rain for the day. After breakfast (where a few people complimented my solid performance from the day before) we got our bikes ready and started to head to the start of today’s 158 kilometer stage (with ~5700 feet of climbing). As I was getting ready to leave the hotel, I noticed a serious cut in the sidewall of my tire. Max and I rushed to the van and quickly changed the tire, then hurried back to the hotel to use the pump and then headed to the start line where hundreds of people were already lined up in the narrow start area. Continue reading →

Today’s race was a shorter than yesterday’s marathon. Only 109 Kilometers were on the docket with about 2500 feet of climbing with the main climb of the day starting at kilometer 25. Not wanting to push my way to the front row today in staging, I lined up almost an hour before our scheduled start time and was still 50 meters behind the line. Fortunately we had 15k’s of neutral roll out before the actual racing began because by the time I crossed the chip timing pad, HUGE gaps had formed and I had to chase with a few others for about 9 kilometers just to catch the pack and then start the hard work of getting to the front of the field. Continue reading →

Today was a “living the dream” kind of day, 113 kilometers with about 3,400 ft of climbing. We started with a long section of flat riding. I didn’t start at the front today, but neither did Max. We both started about a third of the way back and as soon as we crossed the timing chip sensors, we worked hard to get to the leaders. Today we only had 5k of neutral and, despite the pre-race instructions, the pack did not stop after entering the main roadway to allow everyone to cross the timing chip pads and start the neutral section together. Continue reading →