I've been away for a while and it's time to get back on track. What has happened the last two weeks. There was a good return to racing on a Tuesday Worlds and a mixed result at Webster. Lots of fitness to be gained but progress is being made. Although, I have been a total slug this week.

What else has been going on? It's almost Tour time so the doping excrement is hitting the fan all over the place.
Mayo gets implicated for having high testosterone and the cleared because it is natural...
DiLuca, Mazzoleni, Simoni and Ricco are looked at funny for testing with LOW testosterone levels on the same stage...
DiLuca and Mazzoleni are called before prosecutors in a 3yr old doping case...
UCI announces it is targeting so called "Men in Black" for odd training practices and claims they have scored some non-negative results...
Trying to look innocent, Vino say's "Don't look at Astana. We train in black to avoid fans"...
Astana suspends Mazzoleni...
Petacchi is suspended for asthma med even though he has a TUE...
Piepoli is being investigated for asthma med even though he has a TUE....
Kessler from Astana tests positive for testosterone...
Vino inserts foot in mouth (nah, that didnt really happen)...
Despite repeated claims of innocence in the Puerto affair, Jaksche will now supposedly talk to German magazine Spiegel, WADA, UCI and justice officials about doping...

And we still have a week to go before the Tour starts. What a mess.

What was the good news about Saturday's ride? One: Parker is back on his bike and looking fit. Two: I didn't get a flat

That about sums it up.

Roughly two hours into the ride, Giuseppe and Patrice attacked a typical small hill in So. IL. I hopped on their wheels... for a while. Two-thirds of the way up my body sprung a leak. I creeped over the top and my body said "No mas". The rest of the way every little rise was a chore. The last two hills did me in. Steppig(?) softened me up and the D Rd threw me down and kicked me in the arse.

This was a sobering ride. It's amazing how badly a cold can affect the body. My fitness is way down, my strength is down, everything that can be down, is down. I have serious doubts about racing Webster Groves next weekend. Maybe some consistent riding this week will put me back to where I was a couple weeks ago, climbing big mountains without too much trouble, instead of struggling over a hundred foot climb.

To make this weekend even better I had to monitor the computers at work. Unfortunately, programs didn't run the smoothest. As an added bonus I had the "pleasure" of talking three times between midnight and 1am with two Indian or Pakistani folk named "Chip" and "Benny" about why they couldn't send us a file. This has not been a good weekend.

Things just are not going my way. A week and a half after coming down with an awful cold I finally got back on the bike this evening for a little spin. My intention was to ride for one hour. Nothing hard at all. Just a spin.

It felt good to be back on the bike. That's not to say I felt good on the bike. The legs still knew how to pedal, however, so that's something to build on. Tomorrow morning's ride in Columbia could be ugly be I will give it a go.

I said earlier that my intention was to ride for an hour. Twenty minutes into the ride I got flat. Of course, there was no need for me to take a spare tube because the freakin' pump I bought just before the trip was broken when I bought it. Decisions, decisions. Do I hoof it the 3+ miles back home or roll on the flat? That's not much of a decsion in my book and I kept on rolling... slowly... very slowly.

After making it back home I find that the rim tape is wasted so I have to make a trip to the bike shop for some nice new Velox tape. New Velox tape is a strange pleasure of mine. There's something about installing that nice, new, fresh cloth that is very satisfying. After that, I tweaked my handlebars from the crooked and crazily pointed position they were in. Remind me not to rebuild a bike again while hopped-up on Dayquil.

Strange headline and story of the day... maybe the year
Multi-penised, six-legged, two-anused piglet given silly name
Thursday, June 14, 2007

A piglet in Croatia born with six legs and two penises has been nicknamed Octopig by his owner.

The farmer, Ivica Seic from the village of Vrpolje, said Octopig also has two anuses.

He said that the pig was growing so fast that they had decided to keep him as a pet, daily newspaper Vecernji List reported.

Giro trip - Day 3

The mountains have arrived. After breakfast we took a van ride to the town of Fiera di Primiera. During that drive, the architecture changed from the more typical Italian villa style of stucco and clay tile roofs to the alpine look with more wood and metal roofs. I'm sure the different climates necessitate different building styles.

We unloaded the bikes and headed out of town. Fiera is at the base of Passo Rolle. We rode only a few km's before starting the climb. Passo Rolle is not terribly tough in terms of grade. The 22km is difficult. This is the longest climb I have ever done, including the three trips to France. There are not many hairpins on this climb and that probably points to the less severe grade.

Halfway up the climb a light rain bgan to fall and chilled the body a little. I had worked up a good sweat already so the rain actually felt okay. As Joe and I cleared the treeline, the rain stopped and we cruised up to the summit to wait for the others. Keith and Kathy followed a few minutes later, as did the rain again, and Mike and later Harlan. We decided to have lunch at the ever present mountaintop restaurant. Brian and Diana rolled by while in their steady style and continued on to Passo Valles while we finished eating. The descent was chilly and damp but not altogether unpleasant.


Passo Valles began very shortly after reaching the bottom of Passo Rolle. This pass is only 6k but it is 9-10% for the last half. There was no hurry to reach the steeper section so I set a steady tempo and paced Kathy up the climb. This was a very green climb. Evergreens and pine lined the road with glimpses of a mountain stream much of the way.


There were not much in the way of dramatic views but it was still a pretty climb. A nice climb.


Parts of the descent seemed quite steep but supposedly it wasn't any worse than the side we climbed. Must have been an optical illusion.

The town of Falcade was at the base of the climb and was decorated for the passage of the Giro the next day. Pink ribbons, balloons and signs already adorned many of the homes and businesses.


The major obstacles on todays ride were now out of the way with only a short "bump" up to the hotel. The valley road, however, gradually gained altitude up the the towns of Alleghe and Caprile. The came the "bump" as Keith described it. In part, that was a true statement. Maybe it was the miles we had already ridden but the bump hurt the legs and seemed endless as it snaked its way up the hill, switchback after switchback. That sucker hurt.

The hotel is in a beautiful setting on a hillside with mountains from one end of the horizon to the other with the tiny village of Pieve a couple hundred meters down the road, dominated by the town's church steeple.

Giro trip - Day 2

We left the hotel at 9:30 for today's ride headed eastward into a bit of a vineyard country. The terrain was rolling and made for nice riding.

In true Fullerini fashion he took his turn at the front shortly after leaving town on a gradual uphill. Soon enough riders riders began driftin off the the back of the pack. POP... POP... POP... In all fairness he did not lift the pace but the fact that it was uphill had an effect on the others. It seemed fitting though that it would happen when he went to the front.


After reaching the town of Possagno, we turned southward into an area of vineyards. This was pretty country and provided a nice, moderate climb, similar to something in MO, up to the picturesque small town of Asolo.


What goes up must come down and the descent was a gently winding road that provided some downhill fun. The road back to Bassano was busier than I would have liked but not awful. We rolled through town and over the famous wooden bridge designed by the famous architect Palladio in the 1500's before we heading up to the hillside town of Valrovina.

The road sign showed that Valrovina was 6km away. I question the accuracy of the sign. We seemed to get there much too quick. It was a nice climb. Steeper at the bottom before moderating the rest of the way before a leveling out in town. Once I found a rhythm it turned into a nice test of early legs and I was quite comfortable doing the whole climb in the 21. We reached Valrovina and went downhill briefly. I assumed this was the start of the downhill into Marostica but the road kicked up again with a tree covered couple of kilometers. Again we were greeted with a fun, winding but not overly technical descent that was longer than the Asolo downhill.

Lunch was in Marostica. A neat little town famous for its giant chessboard in the town square. Stone walls still partly surrounded the city as well as impressively rising up a big hill to the north of town. There was some serious labor involved in building that wall.


After lunch, Giuseppe and I tacked on an extra loop down to the city of Citadella while the others headed back to Bassano. Citadella is an entirely walled city with a moat around it and only four entrances. Seeing the giant wall in person was impressive. Inside the walls, there was not much other than some small shops but it was still interesting to look around. You could climb up to the top of the wall as well but we needed to be heading back to town.


The road back to Bassano was busy and not great fun. Something like riding on Manchester. We made it back to the hotel safely, though. That loop was an extra 40km and a total of 110km for the day.

This afternoon Joe and I walked down to the old part of town and the Palladian bridge where it is supposed to be something of a tradition to have a glass of grappa. As we were walking from the hotel the rain began to fall. We tried to stay under awnings and eaves of buildings to stay a little dry. At one point I passed by some scaffolding set up next to a building that was being worked on. Where metal poles connected the metal flared out. In a truly graceful manner, my right arm hit flush with this metal connector and darn near knocked me over. That will leave a nice bruise.

The rain apparently cut down on the people who showed up for grappa. It kept the rest of the group from driving down. We hung around the bridge for a while and the only people were 10-20 young toughs with their tattoos and piercings milling around smoking cigs and drinking some grappa. Eventually, Joe walked in unsure of what to order and came out with a couple grappas. This is not a drink I will be imbibing on a regularly basis. We gulped it down and headed back to the hotel after the rain stopped.

Tomorrow we start our excursion into the mountains.

Feeling better every day but still having cold symptoms. Mainly my sinuses are still in snot production overdrive. Tuesday Nite Worlds are still in the balance but maybe everything will be good enough to give it a shot tomorrow.

Giro trip - Day One
Made it to Italy in one piece. The flights went remarkably well with no delays of any significance. Other than some mild turbulence over the Alps it was smooth flying. USAir was not the greatest. The stewardess bumped my arm and spilled my coke into my lap. Thanks a lot. Then there is the $5 charge for a pair of headphones. I guess that is the current trend with airlines losing money but I will pass on paying that.

I could have paid $5 for a pair of cheap headphones. On the other hand the hour long train ride from Venice to Bassano was $4.80. I know which item I appreciated more.

I caught the shuttle from the airport to the train station after my flight. The plan was for me to meet Joe at the station sometime between 11 and noon. This couldn't have worked much more smoothly. As my bus was pulling up to the station I saw Joe lugging his bike case through the entrance. Almost perfection.

The train was very nice. Nicer than I expected for only a regional train. It was new looking, clean, air conditioned and a very smooth ride. Good stuff. And we had the train almost all to ourselves.


Once in Bassano,

it was a taxi ride to the hotel and then begin building up the bikes for evening ride a little later. Joe and I were the first of today's arrivals to the hotel. Three others Brian, Diana and Kathy arrived a day or so earlier. Kathy was the first tour member we met when she walked into the basement garage to say "Hi" while we were assembling the bikes. (Hubba hubba... easy on the eyes) Our tour leaders, Keith and Luisa, arrived a little later with another rider named Mike from Boston. Our final rider is apparently having some travel difficulties and will late tonight.

Sidenote: While writing this, an orchestral concert on TV just finished and the credits were rolling. Apparently, we were watching the Wiener Philharmoniker play. Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener Philharmoniker....
Now "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" just began playing... in German.

Back to the subject at hand. This evening's ride was north along a river valley with smallish "mountains" on each side.

There were a few sections along the way that were "light industrial" but it was a very nice, easy 45km ride with some nice landscapes. Brian and Diana skipped the ride because they had ridden earlier. Kathy and Mike both seem like good, solid riders.

Joe, unexpectedly, went for a sprint to one of the many town city limit signs on the way back. After that it was game on for the next few signs. It was fun but I don't intend to keep that up for the whole trip. This is a vacation after all.

Dinner was quite good tonight sitting out on the restaurant patio with views of a nice courtyard

and very comfortable temperatures.

I have returned from the Italy trip safe and sound and, unfortunately, with a nasty cold. Thankfully, there are signs that it is loosening its grip on my head and chest. My chances of racing this weekend are poor however.

Anyway, the trip was a lot of fun with great riding. Anyone who followed the Giro knows the weather was less than ideal and we were not immune from the conditions either. No day was a complete washout but after a while it seemed that every morning you expected to be cold and rained on. Our clothes never seemed to dry out.

Enough of the complaining. As I wrote above, the riding was great and the country was still beautiful. The land was as stunning as I had hoped for and seen in pictures. In my trips to France I found that country to have some very pretty areas but Italy is at another level.

Over the coming days I will be weeding through my photos and hope to post a few with recaps of each days activities.