Best plans Part 3

 Finally, our plan WORKS!

We were 0-5 for the GIOS Raduno and kind-of only 3-5 for our Eroica adventure. Could things finally go the right way with the weather? We drove back to Monferrato on a Friday to find out. It was wet all the way north but sunny when we arrived. 

And sunny the next day, one of those post-storm days when the sky is amazingly clear and snow-capped Alps visible in the distance. There's a "Big Bench" near our hotel.

With some great views!

As you can see.

The Giro d'Italia would pass here in a few days and Fubine was ready! After a few glorious days of riding in warm (but not hot) sunshine we were ready to get back in the car and go see it ourselves,

We found a spot just after the GPM on Bric Berton on the stage to Novi Ligure. We didn't want to mess with the crowds there, instead enjoying smaller (or no) crowds on a climb. Above you can see the Giro-E riders going by in advance of the race. Most of the new e-bikes lack some aesthetic appeal in our view - the huge downtubes needed to house the now-massive batteries make the bikes look like two-wheeled bricks! But maybe new battery tech will make 'em small enough, like the 250 w/h batteries in ours to let the makers design better looking frames in the future.

We had this space all to ourselves after buying some lunch supplies from the market. The owners came out once the race came close and even treated us to a coffee post-race!

The peloton was broken-up by the climbing, maybe 30 minutes from the first rider to the last? We took our time leaving but still were stopped down the road as they waited for the race entourage to get through. Oddly enough, the publicity caravan and souvenir sellers just blasted past us at high speed...until Heather suggested I hold out some money while waving them down. THAT did the trick!

Post-race the TV helicopters were parked at Hotel Ariotto, right in front of our terrace! We joked that Valerio should start offering heli-transfers from the Milan airports.

The third and last portion of our spring "vacation" was a 5 out of 5 in every way. Great food, great weather, great cycling, great race-watching...FINALLY the best laid plans came good! We'll be back in August for more fun.

Best plans Part 2

 The best plans continue not working-out as planned..

We tried, we really did! We'd finally got down to Tuscany to ride the entire Eroica 200+ kilometer signposted route, helped by Anima Toscana. Here's the itinerary.

We'd booked this for 2025 but Zio Lorenzo's heart issues postponed it until this year. Despite the weather forecast, we were going! No luggage to haul, the Anima Toscana folks would haul that to each night's lodging for us. What luxury, right? The first stage was from Siena to Montalcino and we departed under cloudy skies.

Our luggage needed to be ready by 9 AM each morning, making Zio Lorenzo get used to having breakfast in his cycling gear even if we weren't leaving for a few hours. But off we went on day 1 of 5, though Zio had his e-bike charged only to 77%, figuring that would be more than enough for the day's ride. It never rained on us much but skies were cloudy and climbs were steep. We were happy it wasn't hot, though Zio and his bike's energy were still gone with a few meters still to go on the final climb. The 77% battery charge level + what he'd eaten for breakfast just wasn't enough.

But just like the real heroes, there was no reason he couldn't get off and push, right? Luckily the top of the climb wasn't far off and it was downhill the rest of the way into Montalcino where we quickly found a place to enjoy some real Tuscan pici to replace all the energy burned. The bikes were plugged in once we arrived at the hotel - no pici for them but they were charged to the max!

You don't realize how high Montalcino is until you look down from the hotel bathroom window OR ride up there the way we did. Zio thinks it's the same route used in the Giro back in 2010? But they had MUD! We're not fans of riding in those conditions but if you're already out there, what can you do? But we'd not go out into weather like that unless there was no other choice.

With Anima Toscana we had a choice, but the weather got better, though the forecast for later in the week still wasn't good.

Montalcino, on our way to Pienza

This might be the most famous region of Tuscany for cyclists? The ride to Pienza was fantastic, we beat the rain to our hotel despite a long lunch at La Buca delle Fate. The following day we rode to Asciano, taking a shorter route since both of us had stomach issues that morning, almost deciding to call for a ride. Perhaps we overdid things at lunch?

We both felt better once we got going and were happy we didn't bail out.

Lunch in Asciano had us again with one eye on the sky, hoping we could get to our lodging before the skies opened up. We made it, but the weather forecast just got worse.

Sadly, we called for a bail-out, skipping the final two stages...probably the best ones, but we just didn't want to go out into driving rain and Anima Toscana really wanted to know the night before rather than in the morning if we needed help.

So they kindly picked us up along with bikes and luggage and hauled us (not too far but farther than we'd want to ride in the rain for sure!) back to Siena where we loaded up the rental car and headed back to Piedmont. We'll come back and ride the final two stages sooner rather than later. 

Mille Grazie to everyone at Anima Toscana!!

Next up - the rest of the adventure.

Catching up with Spring

 Catching up with Spring

An entire month without a post! Ooops! Heather's colleague Rafa came to visit for a few days before they headed off to Greece to hobknob with fellow philosophical wizards. Zio Lorenzo keeps his old Super Gravel Monster here in-case anyone wants to enjoy some cycling.

So Zio's on-his-own for the week, so he'll go and check out the Viva Mexico Festival. We don't get Mexican food here so this might be some tasty fun?

Zio's recovering from the latest medical intervention, a second ablation (the first one they said was for atrial flutter, the second for atrial fibrillation) but still on the bike for 1-2 hours 3-4 times a week. We're signed up for a self-guided vacation in Tuscany, in May riding the entire route of l'Eroica over 5 days. The crazies get up before sunrise and do the whole thing in one day while we'll not be heroes, especially because we'll ride our e-gravel bikes.

Europe has changed to summer time this weekend. This doesn't mean much when you're retired but it does mean warm temps are coming - March came in "like a lion" but it's not going out "like a lamb" as knickers and long sleeves are still the go-to for cycling here. Brrrrr!

Meanwhile Ol' Zio has decided to give up alcohol 100%  WTF? Yep, after reading enough about how alcohol in any amount is often a trigger for A-Fib and after two ablations why not? One reason not is that in any civilized country a glass (or two) of vino, or maybe a beer seems right with lunch or dinner. Living in a land where really good wine can be had for just a few euros per liter makes it even a better idea.

Just the ritual part of sipping an "adult beverage" is a hard habit to break. Zio was never a drinker to get schnocked so the 0 alcohol part was easy - but finding something that tastes worth drinking was not!

He tried a lot of 0 alcohol bottles, red, white, bubbly and rose. Sadly, the Italian and Spanish wines were not worth drinking. Plenty of half-empty bottles were just poured down the drain until he ordered some wine from South Africa. AGHHHH! Living in the land of wine but having to drink "wine" shipped from South Africa? Somehow these people can make something that tastes like wine. Not GOOD wine but wine. Good enough to enjoy with a meal, though it's not something you're going to savor after dinner.

When it comes to bubbly this stuff is pretty decent. Same as beer Zio's getting to where he can't tell the difference, so no complaints there! A glass of this is just fine or works well making a "spritz" type drink by adding ice and a Crodino.

So far no return of A-Fib though he's still taking a beta-blocker. Italian docs don't see alcohol as a big deal but Zio thinks it's culture more than medical reality and with these alcohol-free substitutes (he's even BYOB at a few restaurants since they don't bother with 0 alcohol in most cases) he's not feeling deprived. CIN-CIN!

La Mitica 2025

 La Mitica 2025

We missed this last year, choosing instead to see LeTour in Bologna, so we were determined to be there this year, despite Zio Lorenzo's recent health issues and the record heat.

We flew to Milan, rented a car and zoomed off to our old home-base Hotel Ariotto. The next day our old friends and former clients Don and Cindy arrived. They'd ridden La Mitica with us back-in-the-day so we left them to ride around Monferrato and enjoy lunch.

Sadly, the record heat really cooked us both..so much that we walked the famous Rampina climb near the end, pausing under bits of shade along the way. After taking a break at the ristoro at the top, neither of us savored the idea of the steep 3+ kilometers to go, so we hitched a ride with a local lady in her beat-up Fiat. We left the bikes at the aid station and came back for them once we got the car at the finish in Castellania. Since we walked over the finish line and didn't ride the entire route, we skipped the pasta party and awards ceremony.

Because of all that we're posting photos of interesting bikes with names we've never heard of. The plan was to get more details on them post-ride, but that didn't happen. If you have details, share them in the comments.

PELOSO

ZAPIER

 PAGANI

                                                

                                                                           CALDARO

?

                    

                                                                              LEONE

                                                                           MAGGIONI

FIORELLI

                                                                        BIANCHINI

?

GANNA

?

LEGNANO (fairly well known, but pretty)

DINO CHIESA

?

Then there's Zio's GIOS. The history of this bike is it was built by the maestro Giuseppe Pella for the DREHER cycling team. When Dreher pulled out, the team continued as BROOKLYN and some of their team bikes were simply repainted in the classic blue. This is one of those. If you've seen the classic "Sunday in Hell" documentary, you've seen Aldo Gios in action with this team.

Mille Grazie to Pietro Cordelli and his amazing crew! La Mitica continues to be our favorite vintage rally, though perhaps it needs to happen in a cooler period of the year?

The 6th Monument?

Strade Bianche 2025

Above: photo from our first visit to the race

Today the real racing season is almost ready to start, maybe it is starting with this tasty appetizer?

But not everyone is happy with the current route. Read THIS to see. And here's ANOTHER.

Why do Anglo-Saxons always seem set on "fixing" things Italian? They don't like:

"I saw dead bodies everywhere. I have no words – it was like an old-school race, truly hardcore. At 140 kilometers, everyone was already dead. Normally, the race would have been 185 kilometers, but we still had 75 more to go.” Tom Pidcock in 2024

Seems to Zio Lorenzo that pro cycling thrives on ideas like those - though these daze they don't actually DO stuff like that so much...if they can avoid it.

What do you think? We've gone to see it live, in-person 4-5 times (each time is noted on the blog but Zio didn't go back and count) and never miss it on TV.  Should it be added to the 5 monuments? Probably not, let's just leave it as an epic race that most riders would love to win during their career while the whiners and hack journo's...whine.

Highlights from the race HERE if you missed it.

On the other hand, one of these clowns does have a colleague who knows what he's talking about. 

 

La Barocca

 La Barocca 2024

Sunday was La Barocca, our first vintage event in the south. Ragusa's just an hour or so from our house so we rented a car on Saturday and zoomed out there. Last year our friends at GIOS-Torino came down here for it and wanted to stop by and visit on their way back. Zio Lorenzo was embarrassed that he didn't even know about it, but swore we'd be at the next one. We shipped Zio's vintage Bianchi and Heather's DeRosa down here last summer, just for this purpose. Nice finishing "medal" eh?

The HQ was a tiny shop next to a pharmacy. The owner's way into vintage stuff as you can see by the photos.

Crammed full of neat stuff!

Cool car, eh? We stopped-by on Saturday to pick-up our numbers, etc. and they had this car out front. It was used on Sunday to lead the group around the course.

Lot's of bikes here from local Sicilian builders. Never seen or heard of GINO before.

Or CASCONE

How 'bout BONANNO from Catania?

Or Di Lorenzo?

After admiring bicycles, it was time to ride. We opted for the short loop and were glad we did when Heather didn't feel well on the first climb.

First stop was Scicli where you see Zio Lorenzo posing on the steps of the fictional police station in the Inspector Montalbano TV series

The ride split in-two after that so we headed-off with a small group with escorts on E-MTB's, who led us through the flock of sheep and goats on our way out of town. We were happy we chose the short route as a) the skies were getting very dark b) it was mostly downhill or flat. But we got rained-on anyway the last 10 kms or so but arrived at the HQ before Zio's socks turned black, so all was good.

We were back barely after noon with 5 hours to kill before the pasta party, but when they offered us fresh arancini and birra as post-ride snacks we had our answer - skip the pasta party and head back home in-time to see the finale of the Giro d'Italia's queen stage!

We were back home and dry in front of the TV by 3 PM with plans to return to La Barocca next year - maybe riding the long route but certainly hoping it doesn't rain!

Grazie mille to everyone in Ragusa! See you in 2025!