So finally after about 7 years of road riding I can stop avoiding the phrase “I’ve never crashed on my road bike”. Saying that would be the kiss of death, and a sure fire way to “fix” that statement. I managed to make my road crash look more like a MTB crash (check out the mud on my left side). I’m tossing this one into the category of Too Much Testosterone. Yeah, it was my fault and entirely avoidable.

These are the words that rung in my head just before we headed out the door, helmet & gloves on, bikes ready to roll. My 19 year old daughter had a simple goal a few months ago – to lose weight and get in shape (sound familiar?). She had done a good job on her own, but hit the proverbial “wall”… little to no additional progress. I knew that if she was going to take it to the next level, she needed to have her sights set a bit higher. I suggested she train for the upcoming local (non-sanctioned) Strongland road race in September. She agreed, and with a 9-5 school schedule, agreed to do 3 days of indoor cycling and 1 day out (indoor training produced more heart rate benefits in a shorter time frame).

The new genre of “virtual cycling” DVDs for indoor cycling training is picking up steam with Global Ride’s release of Speed & Power in Italy. The release is obviously timed well in advance of the upcoming winter indoor training season in the U.S. Starting with some of the early efforts of Endurance Films on behalf of the Spinning® company, Mad Dogg athletics, and then followed by probably the biggest producer of indoor cycling training DVDs, Troy Jocobson of Spinerval fame, this new type of training film is gaining popularity.

To all my Spinning® buddies and fanatics out there, don’t get too excited. I have nothing but kudos and good things to say about Spinning®, and have huge love for what Johnny G did to bring indoor cycling “to the masses”. Frankly, if it wasn’t for his work in the 80s, we would probably still be fighting to build the “perfect trainer” while a stationary bike is simply the perfect solution for both the class environment and introducing folks to cycling for the first time. If we can just stop our “us / them” thinking for a minute, we would see that whatever your style of cycling indoors, or whatever your bike manufacturer, it is all good for both the fitness and cycling industries respectively. Let’s be bigger than ourselves and help a rising tide raise ALL ships.

Reflecting on the Giretto, after being home for more than a week now, I feel like I’m still waking up from one of the dreams that you could swear was real. It was grueling, exhilarating, exhausting, rewarding – each emotion at its peak. The overwhelming feeling I am left with is “I can’t wait till next year!” The logistics were as challenging as the training. The fund raising was as challenging as the riding. But the experience was well beyond what I had expected, even though I had previously ridden in Italy on 5 different occasions, including once following the Giro with a tour group.

On my last post I told you how yesterday’s 8 hr in the saddle, concluding with both a Category 2 and a Cat 1 climb wasn’t really over after we stopped riding. The strength of our riding group was consistently Nina leading the way, and Jennifer brining up the rear. We all shared our time in the front pulling on the flat lands, but in the mountains, this is how it shook out. These climbs were no joke – each one taking 1 to 2 hrs to complete. By the time we hit our last climb Jennifer was basically depleted of all sources of fuel and just barely made it to the top. But made it she did – I was very impressed that she didn’t give up; most people would have – but Jennifer Sage is made of different stuff, and she pressed on to the end.

After about 200 miles already under out belts, we started this stage with a level of cumulative fatigue none of us had ever experienced, and yet we were starting our first real mountain stage today. Nevertheless, the good Lord blessed us with another beautiful day of sunshine, and today we were determined to get ahead and stay ahead of the pros. The owner of the B&B washed our gear (an unexpected but delightful surprise), and we were ready to go. After not being able to find the real start due to traffic and construction around Padova, we found the first pink arrow from within the city, and started there.

If you’ve watched Gomer Pyle reruns, you’ll know how to say that title with the right southern twang, and silly grin. Nina and I were nursing “would be” injuries today. The last blog I noted how Nina began to have severe knee pain at about 75 miles. She completed the stage but we were all worried about how to rest and recover it with a century required each day in front of us, and with climbing starting at the end of today’s longest stage. You can see pics of all stages by clicking the link.

As I write this blog before breakfast on day two, my stomach is in knots and I don’t know if it’s nervousness in anticipation of the longest ride of my life (200km), or just a something I ate last night… but the travails of today will have to wait, I have yesterday to regale you with, and by the way, click here to see pics of each stage.

As many of you know from following our “tweets” on Twitter, we had a marvelous start to the first ever Giretto – timed to perfection to coincide with the 100th year celebration of the biggest cycling race in Italy, and Lance Armstrong’s first ever Giro d’Italia. Between not losing any luggage, and having a beautiful day to tour Venice, we were walking on air. Here are some pics from both the day off in Venice, as well as Stage 1.