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.

The best plans don't always go...

 The best plans...

,,,don't always go the way you want. Ours was to enjoy another GIOS Raduno so we flew up to Milan, rented a car and headed to our old HQ, Hotel Ariotto.

We pulled our our blue bikes out of storage, took 'em for a brief test ride and then enjoyed some cycling on our e-gravel bikes.

 

The GIOS bikes were packed into the car on Saturday evening after a couple of days of gorgeous sunshine only for us to wake up Sunday morning to...RAIN.

We waited to see if things would clear up before making the hour drive to the outskirts of Torino but no luck...so we went back to bed.

Monday morning it was again gorgeous while we packed the e-bikes in the car to head south to Tuscany. More on that in the next post.

Sorry Marco, Aldo and the rest of the GIOS blue family! We'll be back in 2027!

GIOS Raduno 2025

 

"il blu di famiglia"

Heather with Aldo Gios and Zio Lorenzo

We look forward to this every year. The blue family shows up from the world over to ride, talk, eat, drink and pay homage to the people who still keep the brazing flame burning in Italy.

Go HERE if you want to see the actual event, fast-forward to around 38 minutes where the riding starts. It was fun to be escorted through the streets of Torino and do a lap or two around the famous Motovelodromo.

Heather at the Motovelodromo

This was the 8th edition and Zio Lorenzo thinks he's been to 6 of 'em though he'd guess some like Patrick Blom have probably been to every one.

Heather thinks this edition may have been the best one yet while Zio missed the usual part where special guests are introduced and special thanks are said to everyone involved in putting this thing on.

Mille grazie e ci vediamo in 2026!

Giro d'Italia 2025

 Giro d'Italia 2025 Part 1

Heather with Giovani Visconti in Sicily 2022

No Giro in Sicily this year and don't get Zio started on the money-grab in Albania because it's his favorite time of the year.

What's not to love? Sure, we'd love to be able to ride out from our house to see it like we did back in 2022 but this year we'll combine our trip to the GIOS Raduno with seeing the penultimate stage over the Colle d'Finestre. We'll ride these (below) so we have a chance to get up to where the pavement ends at least.

Yep, e-gravel bikes, we're not kids anymore!

So far the race has been exciting despite the doom and gloom of those who think cycling is only interesting if/when Pogacar and Vingegaard are duking it out. Mexican Isaac Del Toro is currently in rosa with Spanish teammate Juan Ayuso just behind, not to mention a couple of previous winners still in with a chance.

If you're watching the race look for us on the climb, we hope our "W Magro" banner will be seen.

W Il Giro!

GIOS Raduno 2024

Famiglia Blu

The 7th GIOS Raduno was this past Sunday so we flew up to Milano, rented a car and headed off to our former HQ, Hotel Ariotto. We got our blue bikes out and made sure they were ready-to-ride on Sunday. Above you see a few of the tribe posing with Aldo and Marco GIOS.

This year instead of roadside stops for snacks, they arranged a full, sit-down, multi-course pranzo. Great idea!

We lucked-out with the weather as it's been rain-rain-rain up north. But Saturday and Sunday were clear though we raced back post-pranzo under some dark clouds. Above shows the group stopped to wait for someone with a broken chain. Same chain broke again on the way back, but everyone eventually made it back OK.

There was a roadside pause to see the Giro pass-by.

Pranzo was enjoyable, lots of catching-up with members of the tribe we might see only once a year while making some new friends as well.

One of the race police escorts remembered the old Brooklyn cycling team and called out as he went past.

GIOS created another limited edition bicycle, this one to commemorate the famous Grande Torino football team.

We also saw Il Giro pass nearby the GIOS showroom on Saturday under sunny skies.

Mille Grazie to Aldo, Marco, Silvi, Roby and the rest for all of their hard work to make this happen each year. This might not have been the biggest one yet, but maybe the best?

 

Happy Holidays 2023

Happy Holidays 2023!

This gift arrived this morning! We liked it so much we couldn't resist trying to share it with all of you Zio Lorenzo hopes you can play it - full screen and full volume.

Enjoy!!!!

Grazie mille, Aldo & Marco!!!

 

Brooklyn

 Brooklyn 50 Years On

One of our favorite events in recent years has been the GIOS Raduno. Lovers of the blue bicycles come from all over to join together for a ride and lunch afterwards. Marco Gios and his friends do a lot of work to make this happen each year and there's usually something extra-special about each edition. This was the 6th.

As you can see above they celebrated 50 years since the Brooklyn Team was formed, even bringing in "Mr. Paris-Roubaix" himself for the day! Heather always thought Roger one of the classiest riders back-in-the-day so when I caught a glimpse of him signing autographs behind a crowd of people I told her to get-a-look. She's kind of shy about these things vs Zio who'll shove his way in, glad-handing all the way, but she finally saw who it was and understood why I kept telling her to get a look! We no longer need to advertise CycleItalia so we donned Brooklyn replica jerseys to go with our blue bicycles.

The ride starts/ends right at the GIOS showroom. 

We dropped our bikes off Saturday afternoon on our way to a nearby hotel, one that you can see has hosted riders better than us, including "Super Mario" back in the day according to the barman.

Marco and company laid out a nice route, mostly flat with one climb before the ristoro at the local velodrome. Above our GIOS bikes take a rest while we rehydrate. It WAS hot!

Before we got back on the road Marco took a lap around the velodrome along with the Brooklyn van. Folks from Perfetti, makers of Brooklyn Chewing Gum, the sponsor of the famous team, were there too along with some other famous people.

If you've ever watched "A Sunday in Hell" you've seen some of them - Brooklyn Team DS Franco Cribori is 2nd from left, you can see him driving the Brooklyn Team car looking after Roger De Vlaeminck 5th from left while next to him is Aldo Gios, the team mechanic seen inside and outside the car as the race progresses.

Roger gets interviewed at the post-ride awards ceremony as Aldo looks on.

Everyone went home with a special bottle of wine and musette + lots more, not to mention the great memories and camaraderie of the GIOS family.

Grazie mille, Marco, Aldo, Silvia e tutti! Ci vediamo prossimo anno!

GIOS Raduno 2022

 GIOS RADUNO 2022

One of our favorite events - part of why May is a special month in Italy for us. Not only La Corsa Rosa but the annual GIOS Raduno, this year the 5th time the GIOS family has gathered in Volpiano. In 2016 Zio Lorenzo was invited despite not having a GIOS bike. We missed the next few but were back in 2019. This was the first since then due to the pandemic and the first time both of us had our very own GIOS bikes.

Celebrities and old guys from the past show up to pay their respects. Here (l-r) is famous cycling author Herbie Sykes hawking some of his works alongside the son of Brooklyn team massagiatore Bruno Ragona flanked by Aldo Gios and Ragona himself.

Eventually the ride formed up and left the GIOS showroom, following Marco Gios in the car. Our destination was an intersection with the Corsa Rosa start in nearby Rivarolo Canavese. It's great to amble along seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones - all fans of GIOS biciclette.

Eventually you need a break, even if at this point your jaw is the only thing tired! Fons De Wolf always flies in for this event, posing for anyone who wants a photo. When you ride next to a pro like this, you really can see the class and grace they display.

We eventually arrived at the race intersection where the race passed by. Someone's mother phoned them and said they showed the Giro gruppo passing by the GIOS family, most dressed in Brooklyn or GIOS livery.

Post-ride everyone was treated to lunch at Papi-Break, which just happens to be next door to the GIOS showroom. As we got ready to depart post-pranzo we couldn't find Aldo Gios to say arrivederci. Marco led us to the club GIOS as you can see here, where Aldo was dining with friends.

Everyone left with great memories and this bottle of wine. Mille grazie to Marco, Aldo, Silvia and everyone who put on this great annual event. We keep our blue bikes in Monferrato so we can ride 'em in this event as well as the rest of the time we're up north. We'll be back up there in late June in fact...

...to ride 'em some more.

Milano-Torino 2021

 Milano-Torino 2021

We boarded a plane for the first time in awhile to fly to Milan. Why? To visit our friends at Piedmont Cycling Resort while picking up a few things from our storage there and to see a few of the end-of-season races, starting on Wednesday. We stopped by Volpiano to visit our friends at GIOS on the way to Torino, who kindly gave us a sack of foccaccia. 

Friend Jacek Berrutti (son of Luciano) had been there earlier with so much that Marco and Aldo couldn't eat it all. Like donuts it's a thing best eaten fresh, so we gladly took it off their hands before we got back in the car to drive along the route. The idea was to start close to the famous climb to the Superga basilica, where the race finishes.

We parked the car, unpacked the bikes and followed the race route towards the climb. After a missed turn we started up...and up. Zio Lorenzo stopped just to take this photo at the 3 KM-to-go marker. It had nothing-to-do with his tongue being tangled up in the front wheel spokes. Really!

Next time you think of Milano-Torino as a flat race since there are no mountains between the two cities, check to see if the finish is here, as this IS a climb! We were in our lowest gears, standing at times on the double-digit percentage parts, but as you can see above, we eventually made it.

Here's a shot of the basilica, certainly an iconic finish for this historic race.

The RASPINI salumi people were up there, handing out free samples. Perfect to go with our foccaccia! A local bar provided some liquid refreshment so we hung up our banner and sat down to wait for the race.

But first, a little roadwork?!?! We've seen paving work being done just a day or so before the Giro d'Italia arrives but this was a new one...patching potholes an hour in advance? Mamma mia!!!

Soon enough, the race arrived. The poor guys had to do this climb TWICE!

Great for us of course since we could see 'em climb past us twice. Roglic and Yates led up the final time, both looking much stronger than anyone else. Post-race a quick ride down the way the race went had us back on the flats in no time and back to the car to pack up and return to our hotel for a hot shower by 7 PM. 

From there it was off for some dinner at Vineria del Pozzo. 

We'll enjoy riding our bikes around in Monferrato for a couple of days before heading east to Bergamo to await the finish of Il Lombardia on Saturday.

La vita e bella!

Only in Italy Part 2

 Only in Italy - Part 2

Regular readers will remember Part 1, the story of Zio Lorenzo's broken bike. Here's the rest of the story:

Marco and Aldo Gios saved the day almost one year ago but Zio's gorgeous, made-to-measure Mondonico frame seemed too good to give up on. C'mon, a Made-in-Italy, lugged Columbus steel frame by an Italian master-builder, a guy you know personally who is now retired, meaning there will never be any more of them? Some dream of owning one, Zio Lorenzo is fortunate to have three of 'em! He wasn't going to just toss this one!!!

Michele Favaloro to the rescue!!! He started out as a teenager TIG-welding custom steel MTBs. You can see the repaired dropout above with a rattle-can touch up paint job by Zio himself.

Here's what it looked like before. This crack looked to have been there awhile and Zio guesses it was the result of damage in shipping since this bike's been all over the place - the old "trains, planes and automobiles" story not to mention in-storage at various places where it may have suffered unseen whacks. That might also explain a cracked stem this bike suffered a few years back?

Zio thought for sure the broken dropout would need replacement and the re-brazing would burn the paint off the chain and seat stay, so he bought a reproduction set of decals and asked for a simple red-all-over repaint, to match Heather's Mondonico bike, still in-storage with our friends at Albabici.

But as you can see, that didn't turn out to be the case. Michele instead repaired the broken drop out, burning off just a bit of the green paint so Zio could touch it up, though the rattle-can shade of green's not an exact match. But the beautiful original tricolore paintjob being saved makes that a small price-to-pay, especially when it saves paying for that complete repaint, right?

Meanwhile, the GIOS bike (above) that replaced it went up to Piedmont Cycling Resort in the summer and is now waiting there for next season along with Heather's (behind it in the photo)

 

It's replacement down here in Sicily now is another tricolore, Zio's Torelli 20th Anniversary bike (made by Mondonico) this one with lots of gorgeous chrome as well. This is the bike he thought he'd just fly up and bring back from Piedmont before "Plan G" was hatched back in December. Instead it came down with us in the car back in August.

Things worked out well all around! Mille Grazie Michele, Marco and Aldo!!!