Nantucket Surpise

I’m making up some family time lost last week in Italy and we snuck out to Nantucket for a long weekend. After a day in the sun, everyone was wiped out, and gave me a hall pass for a quick ride.

20-30mph winds made the ride tough.

Twelve miles into the ride, I round a corner and see a digital timeclock next to the road. The guys standing near it shout, “Hey, join our time trial!”

Hmm, that sounds kind of fun. Never done that before. Why not? I turned around.

Turns out that I’d found myself in the middle of the Nantucket Triathlon / Velo club’s weekly time trial. The group was really friendly and welcoming of a guy in Weston Posse kit on a cyclocross bike (maybe smelling fresh pack fodder). I hopped into line behind two guys on full time-trial rigs, aero helmets, Zipp disks – the works.

The really friendly organizer said, “don’t worry about keeping up with those guys. The first is my husband and he’s doing Ironman Lake Placid next weekend – he’s really fast -- and the second guy is a pro Ironman.”

Trying to build up the excuse bank, I mentioned for the 8^th or 9^th time that I’d never done this before and I was on a cyclocross bike (my max gearing on my cross bike is 46x11).

With that I got a quick course description, my 30 second warning to start and clipped in one leg. Before I knew it, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1..GO!!”

The first two minutes reminded me of the start of the Weston Sprints on skinny skis during the winter: heart rate goes from resting to max in about 15 seconds and throat burning starts immediately.

At that point, I started to realize that I didn’t know beans about how to do a time trial. I remembered hearing an interview after Lance lost a crucial time trial to Jan Ulrich in the TdF – “look, all I can do is peg my max heart rate and hold it. I can’t go any faster than that.”

So, I decided to do just that. Pegged my max heart rate (187) and decided to see how long I could take the hurt.

Believe me, it hurt. Badly.

I was pushing as hard as I could and was shockingly flying along at 23-25mph.

As I approached the turnaround I could see my 30 second man (pro) making the turn. To my shock, I wasn’t that far behind him.

Made the turn and kept pushing. Seemed forever until that digital clock showed up again for the finish.

Ready for a shock? I came in 3^rd of twelve – yes, a podium for the Posse!

2 minutes off of the pro and 1 minute off of the Ironman and averaged 23.1mph over a windy, slightly rolling course.

Very little climbing, just stubbornness to push at near barf stage for 20-30 mins. I might just have finally found something in cycling that I’m good at ? Now I’m thinking, “how do I pitch the need for a new time trial bike to Heidi? Just think of how fast I could go with a new $12,000 sled underneath me…”

Even better, earned an invite to their Saturday group ride. Can’t wait.

Am loving Fred’s island.

Last Italy Dispatch - 24 Hours in Venice

Flying out of Venice was a great way to cap off the Maratona trip. Sights and sounds from a 24-hour experience here: http://vimeo.com/26357988

Who's in for next year???

Maratona dles Dolomites - 2011

The 25th Anniversary running of the Maratona Gran Fondo. Only 99 Americans of 9,000 at the start. 1%. Turned out to be just right.

The Maratona dles Dolomites caught my eye a few years ago when it made the “must ride” list in just about every cycling magazine. Then my friend Tom did it once, a second time and then a third; raving about how great the experience was. 86 miles and 14,000 feet of climbing sounded torcherous. At Leadville or at the Tour, the courses are 20-30 miles longer to accomplish that same amount of climbing.

Well, the Maratona measured up in every way. If majestic means to echo the majesty of the creator, then these mountains are just that. Beautiful beyond what our pictures have been able to show. The beauty was actually distracting from the racing – at times you’d look up and find yourself gazing at 50 different peaks on the horizon as you crested a climb. Amazing.

It measured up too in the Italian / German approach to racing. This region is reluctantly Italian. After World War I, the penalty to starting the whole mess for the Austrians was giving up the region. The people here have clung to their language and alpine culture. The order is German and Prussian. The joy of life, the cuisine and the laid-back vibe is all Italian.

As opposed to the Etape, where elbows are sharp in the starting grid and in the feed zones, there are smiles, laughter and boisterous conversation. Very skilled descenders. Not a wiff of sketchiness. The Etape features dozens of ambulances due to the severity of the crashes. Only a couple of ambulances were out on Sunday.

Being a 1% minority felt just right. Contento.

This race is about 95% German and Italians. They were amazed that we’d come from America to ride “their” race and were extremely welcoming. “You are from America? You come here to ride this race? You crazy?”

Somehow amongst the 9,000, AndrewT, Fred, BillR, Tai, Jack and I managed to ride almost the whole course together. We’d wait at the top of climbs for the group to reform and then again at the bottom of descents. Bill was the winner of the King of the Mountains --- climbing well all day and was the lead descender too, flying by when I tried to gun it on the descents.

I was afraid of the 7^th big climb (the Giau – 13-15% for the first 4KM, 8-10% for the next 6KM), so really took it easy. On the 8^th climb, I felt like I’d left too much in the tank, caught a second wind and cranked it up the climb. It felt great. The 8KM descent on next pavement through about 20 bermed “Tornades” (sharp turns) was even better.

Then a nightmare 5K to the finish. Uphill. Strong headwind. All alone (I was too fast to pull the 80-year old men and too slow to catch the 70-year old guys). Finally to the finishing straight and a 3-up sprint for 3,577^th place ;).

Brad Cobb and Kent managed to finish in the top 100. Steve felt great and took off on the first climb and finished in the top 10%. The rest of us finished in the top third. Pretty dang good for a 1% minority, huh?

The epic story of the day? – Eric. His crank arm decided to separate from his bike and dangle by a thread. That meant with every pedal stroke, he was not only moving the crank forward, but side to side. Somehow, he managed to climb the last two climbs and descend in that condition. He gets the Ironman award. Most of us, including me, would have packed it in.

What follows are pics and video from the course provided by the race – how’s this for organization? Sitting down to dinner, we get an email with our results, splits and 24 hours later, pictures. I wanna go back.

Here's the images that the race organization gave each of us on the day (sorry, I only got my pics, so way too many shots of the big boy): http://vimeo.com/26393462

And here's the video summary from the organizers:

Giro d'Italia -- Day 3!

There's a big deal made by cyclists about resting before a big event. Stairs? No, take the elevator. Walk anywhere? No, take the car. Better yet, hire a driver. Walk to town? Wadya, nuts? No walking! Ride your bike? Just for a small spin.

All those rules were broken today. In addition, I have no explanation for the picture above.

Here's sights from today (click link): http://vimeo.com/26201268

For you iPhone, iPad users, download the Vimeo app from the app store to view this (or write Steve Jobs and ask him to end the craziness with Adobe).

Big, big day tomorrow. Will post again on Monday...

Our Giro d'Italia - Day Two

With the big ride behind us yesterday, we set out on a 3 hour, 5500' climbing day today. No more rain clouds, hello sunshine.

It's hard to describe how majestic the Dolomites are. After taking a picture, the first reaction is that the image doesn't do justice to what you're seeing live. This is the prettiest place I've been. The only thing missing is my family -- I miss you guys!!

I was pretty foggy when we left for the ride yesterday -- forgot a bunch of stuff including my camera. Yesterday was all I-phone still photos, today is all video.

Enjoy (especially the descents -- some close calls)!

For you iPhone, iPad users, download the Vimeo app from the app store to view this (or write Steve Jobs and ask him to end the craziness with Adobe).

Click here: http://vimeo.com/26198806

Italia - Day One -- BIG ride today

Alright --lot's of emails asking for daily updates. You asked for it, you got it.

We're over in Italy to test ourselves on Sunday in one of the top 50 rides in the world -- the Maratona d'les Dolomites. It's only 86 miles, but 14,000 feet of climbing -- it's going to be trouble -- here's the course profile. Nothing but up and down:

So today, we headed out to the the back 2/3's of the course (tomorrow we'll do the first third). When we first started coming over for these epic rides, we'd rest, ride just a little, eat just a little and save ourselves for the big event day. Basically, we lived like monks.

I'm psyched that we now decide to save a little less for race day and spend it riding a ton -- spending several days soaking in all that we can pack in before the race.

First off, the scenery in the Dolomites is literally breathtaking. Have you been to the Grand Tetons? Imagine Grand Tetons times 25 -- we're surrounded by peaks that are so majestic. Here's just the view from the hotel parking lot (hit play):

Today, we left that beautiful parking lot for a ~55 mile, 8,000 feet of climbing ride. Not the smartest thing to do three days before the race, but darn well worth it. We started on a 30 minute climb of the Passo Campoloungo. Freddy made it to the top and was smiling. I was re-tasting my breakfast:

Next up, 20 miles of riding over to the Passo Giau -- the big daddy, the highest point in this year's Giro and the queen climb of the queen stage 15. It's 9KM at 9.6%. What we didn't know: you climbed 5KM just to get to the base. Some breaks to take in the mountains along the way (Kent and Brad):

See those storm clouds in the distance? We decided to pay them no attention. More to come on that little decision later.

The Fun begins at the base of the Giau:

45 Mins later, we're still climbing. At one point, I'm going so slow that deer flies

just float next to me, taunting me before landing on my back (out of sight) and laying into flesh through clothing with a big chomp. Ouch!

Finally to the top and a procession of Posse riders:

Remember those storm clouds? Well they started rolling in and it got cold, dark,

windy and nasty with rain. What do you do while waiting out a storm in Italy? Spaghetti and Cappuccino anyone?? You can't have a bad meal here:

Next up? A unbelievably fun/technical/lot's of hairpins 10 mile descent. Then, you guessed it, climbing another pass. This time it's the Falzarego, 10KM at 6% (not bad):

Followed by the steep (11%) Valparolla. Military ruins up top:

We capped the day with another amazing descent down into Alta Badia. Wherein, Steve and I fell victim to a weakness we share: we cannot say no to Gelato.

More tomorrow. Arreviderci.