Giro di Sicilia
They're calling this The Race Across Beauty Today's start was in Avola so we had breakfast and climbed on our bikes to go see it.
We often ride out to Fontana Bianca, the out-and-back along the coast makes for a 50 kilometer (about 2 hours at our slow speed these days) ride from our front door.
Avola's only about 5 kms further along the coast with the start right on the seafront. We left the house at 8:30 AM and rolled up at the start just before 10 AM as the teams were being introduced. We really like the colors and the logo for this race, it's a shame that (so far) there is nothing in the way of t-shirts or other souvenirs.
This being sort of a low-key race it was easy to get fairly close to the sign-in though you had to be wearing a mask and there were barriers to make sure nobody got too close to the riders. This year the spread of Covid-19 at the bike races seems to be far less, we hope it stays that way!
As you can see, a pretty low-key event.
The Shark of the Straits was there leading the Trek-Segafredo team. Someone said this was his last race for the team but we wondered about Il Lombardia? Why wouldn't he race there?
Vincenzo Nibali next to brother Antonio
After the presentation we rode out onto the course to put up our W MAGRO banner, a salute to our favorite cycling commentator Riccardo Magrini on Eurosport. We'll bring it with us to the northern races next week as well.
A nice ride back home the same way we came. We sort of got stuck behind a group of old guys on the narrow highway section out of Avola which had Zio Lorenzo wondering why people bother with 9, 10, 11 or 12 cogs in back when they ride along in the biggest gear on the bike, cranking a cadence of 40 on the hills? We had to slow down for 'em each time as the road was simply too narrow to pass in the late-morning traffic.
They continued down the 115 highway while we turned off onto quieter roads....that go the same way. We'll never understand why so many folks ride on that busy road when a much quieter one runs closer along the coast? Zio Lorenzo did it only a couple of times, eventually thinking there's got to be a better route. Pulling up the maps showed a much nicer road, one that we enjoy regularly but wonder why so many prefer to battle with high-speed traffic? Could it be so they don't have to shift gears?
Once home we enjoyed some lunch and tuned-in the race on live TV. Both RAI and Eurosport had coverage. Things like this are why we title these posts "living the dream" as how often can you ride your own bike from your front door and see races like these?
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