Catching up with La Corsa Rosa

 Catching up with the Giro after a few days. First photo is Vincenzo Nibali (guy's so fast he's just a blur!) heading to the start in Caravaggio, followed by one of the jersey award at the finish in Vicenza, where he's moving a bit slower. 

Below is a shot of the finish setup in Vicenza from our hotel window. Our clients had the enviable choice of watching the whole thing from up here or wading down into the throngs at the finish, while Campagnolo later held an 80th anniversary celebration over at their factory on the edge of town. Sadly, we couldn't score invites but we enjoyed the Giro finish festivities as well as walking around the historic city center along with our friend Charlie Hancock who lives there and runs a bike company, CHARLIE SRL. Grazie Charlie!

The following day we went to the cronoscalata start - a great place to see the riders close up (once they come out of their bus that is!) and begin to warm up for their individual test. Needless to say the crowds around Astana's setup when the Shark of the Straits was warming up was the largest, but not so big I couldn't get a photo. Nibali went on to slay them all, seemingly pretty much sewing up the Maglia Rosa for 2013?

We blasted off to Cortina at the end of the crono so we could (plan A anyway) enjoy riding a big loop today (Cibiana, Staulanza and Giau) before settling in to watch the big stage over the Giau and Stelvio. BUT, as you can see in this last photo, taken this morning from our hotel in Cortina, the weather is not exactly optimal for that! This is one reason we planned to be in Cortina, where at least there are things to do as we await today's TV coverage and to see what the big stage to Tre Cime will be like tomorrow. If they're going even part way up Tre Cime, we plan to be there...we didn't come all this way just to watch it on TV!

And now comes word today's stage has been cancelled entirely. We're very happy that we're in Cortina instead of at the finish of today's stage near Val Martello. Our fingers are crossed the Giro organizers can come up with something (and the weather cooperates just a bit?) for tomorrow so we can at least see the race one final time before we head back to Hotel Ariotto.