Riding in Italy....

...doesn't suck. But first I had to have my road pedals installed. After the tennis shoe ride I looked at what was around tool-wise. Broken multi-tool and some type of snips.

This combo provided just enough leverage to get the mountain pedals off and of course install the road pedals (because they don't have to be THAT tight) and I could now be in full-on euro roadie mode.

G $ loose in Toscana

After we did Rome up right, we headed north on the Autostrada in the beemer 3-series and found that driving around 90-100 miles per hour was about right. Still some going slower and many going way faster. Thankfully unlike here people don't think its their God-given right to drive slow in the fast lane and not move out of the way. If you get in the fast lane you had better be going fast, or you better get the hell back in the slow lane quickly. Anyway, 2 hours later we exited the freeway and drove about 45 minutes on beautiful backroads to arrive at our home for a week San Giovanni d'Asso. Not a big place as the Tuscan hill towns go, but it had a store, cafe, restaurant, the classic Italian "general store"-a place with everything from appliances to toys to clothing, to batteries- all jammed in with no place to walk and in no order whatsoever- and was centrally located to many popular hill towns. The cycle I had arranged to use was already at the villa when we got there Saturday afternoon so I was eager to ride Sunday morning first thing. Only problem was the pedals on the bike-shimano spd mountain! I brought road shoes (white ones of course) and my speedplays. Couldn't believe I was in Italy with a Colnago that had mountain bike pedals AND Ultegra-no Campy in sight!! After unsuccessfully trying to use a 6mm on the backside of the spds-breaking my multi-tool in the process, I figured that I would go cruise Sunday am with tennis shoes and look for real wrenches Sunday afternoon or even Monday if nothing was open.

After a glorious ride on the best roads that I have ever seen, we loaded up and went to Arrezo about an hour northeast since on the first Sunday of the month there was an antique street market in town. Great things to look at and purchase along with great and classic European street scenes.

After the bottle of wine with lunch, I needed a pick-me-up and this may have been the best espresso of the week (it was all damn good).

Bike riding pictures are coming next, I promise.

Team Ed d' ITALIA!!

Probably noticed the lack of posting for several weeks. My first time going to Europe happened so the week before (I always save things to the last minute), two weeks gone, and now finally ready to tell about the best vacation that I have ever been a part of.

First of all this trip was born out of wanting to do something special seeing as how my lovely wife is turning the big 4-0 this summer and I suggested something really good, more than just the traditional family beach trip. We started out with loose plans to visit the 4-corners, desert SW, rockies, Grand Canyon something like that trip, but at my suggestion I told her we should "throw down for real". Overseas was the answer with Italy, specifically Tuscany, being our final destination. Knowing the fam. was going and there would be alot to see and do, I knew that riding wasn't a number one prority, but that if I didn't ride at least once in one of the countries were road biking is King, it would be even worse than going to Durango and not mountain biking (which I have done and will be made up for in September!). Luckily, I knew that my family likes to sleep in, especially on vacation and that the sun comes up at 5:30 over there so riding and not interfering with everyone elses day was very possible.

Then the bike question. There are plenty of ways to rent bicycles in Italy and it ended up being easy to find something more than suitable. Our home for a week in Tuscany was about 35-40 miles south of Siena and fairly big town and the google search gave me a great bike shop that rented bikes, and would bring it and pick it up from the villa. Perfect. In the mean time, a long-time fabulous customer of the shop's knew of my trip because I had asked him questions, knowing he has been there several times, offered my his travel bike which was an older Tammaso, that he has SandS couplings installed on. So, Italian bike that fit me AND fit inside checkable luggage. He insisted that I take it and I will never forget this unbelievably kind gesture. I had to decide though, now I had two bikes at my disposal and I wanted traveling to be as smooth as possible and I just had a feeling that the car we were renting might not be big enough for another suitcase, plus rolling one more bag around the airport didn't sound fun either.

I must have known something. (more on that later)

Flew out of k-town to Detroit rock city, then to Rome. Spent three incredible days right in the middle of it all, did Vatican City, Colusseum, ate dinner at the steps of the Pantheon-pretty incredible to be among so much ancient human history. Took a few bicycle related shots from Rome-things that catch your eye as you walk around.

Bianchi on the streets of Rome.

Bike sharing bicycles neatly lined up ready to go. (came back through later in the day and they were ALL gone and being used)

Night time street scene near where we stayed, this is right at foot of the "Spanish steps".

MUCH much more to come, namely Tuscany, but that will have to wait until another day.

Ciao!

You know, just kicking it

Riding has been happening of course, but most note-worthy right now is that once again Team Ed took the show on the road to Michigan to contest stop #3 of the NUE 100-mile series last weekend. Once again Ed is such a stud, finishing 11th in the Masters at barely over 10 hours, dholmes rolling the SS super-fast for 7th at 8 and 1/2 hours, and daughter of ED, "little bit" rode SS in open women (on the TEAM ED ss Seven) for 10th place at 10 and 1/2 hours!!! Superbadasssweetdaddyjones!!!!!!!!!! More details as they arrive.

Favorite place, favorite ride

Sunday saw myself and A.J. heading to the mountains of western N.C.-him for a week summer camp near Black Mtn. and me for some type of single-speed, leg-shearing extravaganza. Drop off went smooth, got to hang out, eat lunch and sit by the lake for a couple of hours then it was on to some riding. I had some ideas and with flying solo and not having to be anywhere, I decided to do something I haven't done in awhile. Drove to North Mills River and parked, rode up FR1206 to Yellow Gap, where a funny thing happened. I noticed someone parked there but since I was in head down mode to get up the first little grunt off the road to begin the Laurel Mtn. trail, I didn't look closely at the person getting ready to start their ride. As soon as I got into the woods I heard "hey Gary!" and I was like WTF, I'm in Pisgah and someone knows me? Stopped and hear comes Carlton, a grad-assistant with the UT outdoor program, complete with full-rigid single-speed! He was there to spend a few days camping and riding and said he hadn't ridden in Pisgah before and was planning Laurel Mtn. loop (from the guidebook). I told him that was what I was doing and that he should join me. So, off we went up,up,up and chatted some-I only know him from some dealings at the shop and enjoyed the hard effort to get up to the top.

Once at the top I told him to be careful in that Pilot Rock is the rockiest, steepest, rideable trail in the area. We did stop partway down to enjoy the view and the blooms!

Made it down without any problems, went down 1206, then into Pilot Cove/Slate Rock loop. Hiked some, rode some and made the push up the next ridge to another great viewing area.

Down the next trail, back to 1206 then up to Yellow Gap. I gave Carlton my map of Pisgah, told him all the riding he could ever want was right here and to have fun. Bombed down 1206, but because I'm a moron and didn't think that was quite enough riding, I took a left just before where I had parked and rode up FR5000 towards Trace Ridge. Went up and did a short loop off of the road then back down to end up with 4 1/2 hours of riding for the day! Then it was on to Papa's and Beer-"Dos Equis senor?" "Si, muy grande, por favor!"

Laying the smack down

Its coming up on a week since the 12 hour race at Panther Creek (Disc Burner) but words must be said. In the open class "jasons chili" featuring faithful Team Ed members rode their happy single-speeding butts to FIRST place overall. Not only that but KeithD. laid down the fastest lap of the day of anyone with 39 minutes flat!! Superbadasssweetdaddyjones! Jason, "The Hammer", and Bhann rounded out the team-loaded for sure-not loaded like the fast TVB guy, but quite possibly the best 12 hour team that could be assembled. ED rode his single speed in the 6-hour ss class and probably was racing against people half his age came in third-only a few minutes out of second. All this only a week after doing 100 at the Mohican AND being sick all week! Stud-boy for sure! Sounded like a quality event made possible by dholmes and "little bit" (daughter of ED). Great course, plenty of beer, and quality racing in every class-keep up the good work dave!

On another note, the Tuesday speedway smackdown at the Queen has fired up again due in large part to a motion by "The Hammer" and me being able to attend now that baseball for the boy is over. Guest appearances abound but none better than Clark-O (BTW he raced with a team at Panther Creek too-HE's BA-ACK!!)

Even the roadies have decided that some time in the dirt might actually do them some good!

These freakin guys are killing some road racing lately. I just wish the club wasn't paying entry fees back or they would be sporting the beautiful BLACK jersey at crits and what-not.

Finish this up already

The last quarter of the race was highs and lows. Tired legs but an "extra" rest stop as everyone passed by number three again somewhere between four and five. Quick through this one as I figured number five rest stop was supposedly at the 90 mile mark (no need to stop 10 miles from the finsih!). Just after passing rest stop five we went into the woods for the final bit of singletrack. I believe we were in the Mohican state park at this point as the trails were definitely groomed and well-used. Fun up and down, twisty trails rejuvenated the legs partly because of fun, partly because the end was oh so close. Wound around the ridge and began catching some of the 60 milers. They were courteous enough to jump out of the way so I could keep my roll on and I knew that soon the trail would come oh so close to where we had set up camp. I clicked the computer to "mileage" just to see and realized that it read 96 miles just past our tents and thought "oh shit" we are going to go all the way around this F-ing campground just to get 100 in. Sure enough, through the upper reaches of the campground and up this crazy hike-a-bike on what looked like a trail that had been cut the day before, back out the ridge aways, then finally around the outer reaches of the campground to come into the finish area. Crossing the finsih line in these all day events is always good, but even better when they call your name over the speakers then hand you a pint glass. Luckily the beer was close by and I had two in me before I fully realized that I was done. 9 hours, 23 minutes for myself, 9 hours 13 minutes for dholmes, and 10 hours, 27 minutes for the legend ED!

The post-race food was awesome-unlike Cohutta-although the beer ran out pretty quick. Luckily I always have my own. Once we were all settled, cleaned up and such we went down to the pizza place again as they had an adjoining sports bar so we could watch the NBA playoffs. Two pitchers of yellow beer, bacon and cheese fries and a big ride in we were feeling large and in charge. (Cleveland sucked it up and lost of course, much to the locals dismay) Next morning we loaded up, hit the Mickey D's by the interstate for a quick b-fast and the worst excuse for coffee ever. Drove for awhile until almost TN border where fuel was needed both for the race squirrel and ourselves. Killed the hell out of some Subway and came on home. Damn this stuff is fun!