I think this old man was pretty keen on swapping rigs. Those 808s are pretty mean. I rather liked the idea of a day spent lobstering, or as the fishermen were doing when we rolled off at the start, sitting around and enjoying a few mid-morning glasses of wine. Not a bad place to be a fisherman btw…nice weather, smooth seas, boat right up on the beach with buyers waiting. A bit different than the hard as nails, even in the summer, lobstermen of my youth on the Maine coast. Still wondering if they would have actually shot us, as was rumored to be the punishment for poaching traps.

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Two 200k stages later and we’ve arrived at the Adriatic. A beautiful day, once again some very controlled Italian racing, the very best training anybody could ask for as classics prep, and another unreal hard finish circuit. And by unreal hard I mean that other than the first 30 or so guys up the hill the rest of us had to walk the final 200 meters. This thing was solid 20+% for 2k on a cow path with road. Once one rider lost it everybody behind stalled out, cars included. A couple of motorcycles crashed because they couldn’t keep moving. Silly. Straight up wrong. But pretty damn cool at the same time. Ryder and Timmy hung with the front little group, but Timmy was caught behind a motorcycle crash the 2nd time up and had to run the last few hundred meters to the finish. Maggy was a bit behind and had his bag in the second car - he actually contemplated asking for his running shoes mid-way up. Tomorrow looks like something a bit mellower but still solid; maybe a chance for a break to roll. To this point we’ve been told to just chill in the bunch but might give it a nudge the next few as the classification has started to sort itself out. Regardless, a few days at the same hotel now, right on the water…could be worse.

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A little shot from the start of the second stage at Tirreno. A bit nicer than what the guys are dealing with up north… Sounds like it’s been brutal up there.
We’ve enjoyed the few days out on the coast here and are now headed inland, 200k straight shot, and then another similar stage tomorrow before rolling around the other side of the country for the rest of the race.
In my report on eroica I forgot to mention one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. We’re flying down this hill and see these 2 deer off in the field to the left. All of a sudden they’re flying towards us, one jumps over the field, and the other tries to go straight through, full blast. It t-bones the guy 2 ahead of me, fully takes him and his bike off into the ditch, and the rest of us fly by unscathed, fur flying through the air. Guess poor bambi didn’t make it, and the rider had a quick trip to the hospital. Unreal. Pretty much thought I was going to die. Lucky that deer was moving so fast…. Crazy.
And now for some racing.

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Unfortunately, to update my site from the blackberry I have to send a photo through flickr. Normally, not a bad deal, but I didn’t take a picture of any of the crazy white gravel/mud roads today and instead looked through the pic file and chose a shot for the foodies out there. One of the most amazing dishes ever to hit this belly, plate mopped clean, this past November at l’Ambroise in Paris. An perfectly textured, uber rich, yet light, egg souffle surrounded by toasted brioche dough crackers and topped with so many slices from a baseball sized white truffle it was just plain stupid. A little super yolky sabayon around the bottom didn’t suck either. The bill did.

As for the race: wow. Definition of a cool day at the office. 60k of dirt/gravel/mud roads across the rolling hills in the chianti region, just south of Florence, with the finish in Sienna. Beautiful country. Ryder rode like a rock star out there all day, killin it in a move that went early and almost hung on to the lead few when they came by at the end. In the sprint just behind Martijn picked up a 4th place for us on the day and the best young rider jersey to boot. Damn impressive. I was already on the limit pretty hard when I got tangled up in a little crash with about 25k to go, and with the group down to 40 and the gas full on despite a little chase I couldn’t get back on. Tough way to end the day, but all in all a great way to fully blow out the legs and get going for the racing ahead. And as much as anything else some good fun doing a race so dynamic and straight up fun, start to finish.

Now a couple of days to chll in Tuscany before starting up Tirreno on Wednesday. With no vino the past few weeks, being unable to appreciate anything with the clogged up nose, it’d be nice to find somethin tasty one of the next few nights and get the resveratrol levels back above flat line.

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Answer: Because the day before you fly out to a race you can cruise along the coast, soak up the sun, and get the mind and body ready for action.
After a solid week of sickness I’m finally feeling healthy and like an athlete again, just in time. As long as all is well on Saturday I stay on the same plan; if things aren’t so hot I come back after Eroica and train for 10 days pre-San Remo and then do Castilla Leon. Be fun to hang in Italy for a while so the fingers are crossed.

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