I'm not sure what I did on yesterday's ride but my outer knees were sore this morning. Joe and Mark were the only hearty or foolish souls to join me for the Gran Fondo. Straight out of the driveway my knees bothered but and I banked on them loosening up as the miles passed. That rosy scenario never passed. Instead the knees ached more and more. On top of the pain, the legs didn't have a lot of strength when the road tipped upward. I invariably slipped of the back but soldiered on bravely. As we approached Ste Gen my legs had no gas on the hills. It reached it's worst part on the last hill before turning off 61. The legs didn't turn over. When I finally reached the top Joe asked if I was hurting that badly or if I was pacing myself. I accelerated my drinking and worked on a Clif Bar to try and get some energy back in the legs. I think it helped a little it was still a slog the rest of the way.
After the ferry crossing I hopped back on the bike and started the small climb up from the river. After about 30 ft, my rear wheel seized up and I fell over. What happened? I thought Joe had crossed wheels but he insisted he had not. I look at the rear wheel and somehow it had fallen out of the dropouts. Very strange. Thankfully, everything was good except for some damaged pride. I fell in front of about 20 other bikes waiting cross over to the MO side of the river. I can live with the shame. The rest of the way back we were fought a brisk wind. My legs recovered fairly well but the knees were screaming. The wind wore us down. Mark began to hurt between Prairie and Maeystown and Joe eventually eased up some but he was still the strongest.
We dragged our sorry butts home a little before 3pm. Seven and a half hours and 120 miles later. It was a great day for riding except for the 40 miles of wind on the return trip. I'm sure it helped at times on the way down, though. Except for the knee pain, I felt not so bad despite some struggles. I'm tired this evening and nether regions are tender but I'm satisfied with how I did.
News Item of the Day: American David Zabriskie (CSC) killed the Giro's giants Sunday, tallying the performance of his career to stun the favourites and win Stage 8's 45 km time-trial to Florence. Italian Danilo Di Luca saved the overall race lead by the skin of his teeth, 9 sec better than stage runner-up Ivan Basso.
Zabriskie -- just the 19th man on a long 186-strong start list -- was initially pegged to ride reconnaissance for his CSC team's designated overall leader Ivan Basso. The 27-year-old Utah native did more than his job, clobbering a 45 km course between Lamporeccchio and Florence that included the rude Il Pinone climb. Though far from steep, the category-three ranked Pinone measured a lung-testing 8.5 km in length at an average gradient of 4.5 percent.
For the duration of Sunday's glorious Italian spring afternoon (spectacular sun and temperatures comfortably capping in the mid-20's Celsius), Zabriskie awaited what he thought was inevitable: To be spanked off the stage podium by the race's time-trial Goliaths. But one by one, names like Serhiy Honchar (Domina Vacanze), Marzio Bruseghin (Fassa Bortolo) and, particularly, Zabriskie's own CSC teammate Ivan Basso came up short, confirming the potential of Zabriskie, the defending U.S. national champion in the time-trial discipline.
After cracking on the category-one Sammomme climb on Saturday's Stage 7 and sacrificing a dangerous 30 sec in the overall standings, Italian Ivan Basso roared back into the general-classification on Sunday. Runner-up (at 17 sec) to stage winner Zabriskie, Basso more importantly dropped a heavy hammer on the rest of the overall race favourites -- particularly defending champion Damiano Cunego.
The 23-year-old Cunego finished 16th on the stage, 2 min 24 sec off the pace, which tumbled the Italian from second to fourth overall, 1 min 15 sec adrift of the pink jersey saved on Sunday by Danilo Di Luca. Di Luca, as often happens in a major tour, has been transcended by the leader's jersey. Far from a time-trial specialist, the Liquigas rider tucked and gunned a stellar effort Sunday, finishing the stage a respectable 10th and saving the pink jersey by a slim but satisfying 9 sec from Basso. Discovery Channel's Paolo Savoldelli, third on the stage (at 44 sec of winner Zabriskie), also now occupies third on the general classification, 35 sec adrift of Di Luca.
After the ferry crossing I hopped back on the bike and started the small climb up from the river. After about 30 ft, my rear wheel seized up and I fell over. What happened? I thought Joe had crossed wheels but he insisted he had not. I look at the rear wheel and somehow it had fallen out of the dropouts. Very strange. Thankfully, everything was good except for some damaged pride. I fell in front of about 20 other bikes waiting cross over to the MO side of the river. I can live with the shame. The rest of the way back we were fought a brisk wind. My legs recovered fairly well but the knees were screaming. The wind wore us down. Mark began to hurt between Prairie and Maeystown and Joe eventually eased up some but he was still the strongest.
We dragged our sorry butts home a little before 3pm. Seven and a half hours and 120 miles later. It was a great day for riding except for the 40 miles of wind on the return trip. I'm sure it helped at times on the way down, though. Except for the knee pain, I felt not so bad despite some struggles. I'm tired this evening and nether regions are tender but I'm satisfied with how I did.
News Item of the Day: American David Zabriskie (CSC) killed the Giro's giants Sunday, tallying the performance of his career to stun the favourites and win Stage 8's 45 km time-trial to Florence. Italian Danilo Di Luca saved the overall race lead by the skin of his teeth, 9 sec better than stage runner-up Ivan Basso.
Zabriskie -- just the 19th man on a long 186-strong start list -- was initially pegged to ride reconnaissance for his CSC team's designated overall leader Ivan Basso. The 27-year-old Utah native did more than his job, clobbering a 45 km course between Lamporeccchio and Florence that included the rude Il Pinone climb. Though far from steep, the category-three ranked Pinone measured a lung-testing 8.5 km in length at an average gradient of 4.5 percent.
For the duration of Sunday's glorious Italian spring afternoon (spectacular sun and temperatures comfortably capping in the mid-20's Celsius), Zabriskie awaited what he thought was inevitable: To be spanked off the stage podium by the race's time-trial Goliaths. But one by one, names like Serhiy Honchar (Domina Vacanze), Marzio Bruseghin (Fassa Bortolo) and, particularly, Zabriskie's own CSC teammate Ivan Basso came up short, confirming the potential of Zabriskie, the defending U.S. national champion in the time-trial discipline.
After cracking on the category-one Sammomme climb on Saturday's Stage 7 and sacrificing a dangerous 30 sec in the overall standings, Italian Ivan Basso roared back into the general-classification on Sunday. Runner-up (at 17 sec) to stage winner Zabriskie, Basso more importantly dropped a heavy hammer on the rest of the overall race favourites -- particularly defending champion Damiano Cunego.
The 23-year-old Cunego finished 16th on the stage, 2 min 24 sec off the pace, which tumbled the Italian from second to fourth overall, 1 min 15 sec adrift of the pink jersey saved on Sunday by Danilo Di Luca. Di Luca, as often happens in a major tour, has been transcended by the leader's jersey. Far from a time-trial specialist, the Liquigas rider tucked and gunned a stellar effort Sunday, finishing the stage a respectable 10th and saving the pink jersey by a slim but satisfying 9 sec from Basso. Discovery Channel's Paolo Savoldelli, third on the stage (at 44 sec of winner Zabriskie), also now occupies third on the general classification, 35 sec adrift of Di Luca.
2 Comments:
Gran Fondo St. G. sounds like it was fun (for Joe and Mark at least). Maybe we could try another one later this year on a Saturday? If I have a map, I could probably manage.
By the way, gran of course means grand or large or big, but what does Fondo mean?
It's hard to say what Fondo means. The online translators say it means bottom. But great bottom sounds like you are describing an attractive womans bum.
From what I've seen Gran Fondo loosely translates to big ride.
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