OK, so tomorrow turned into next week, but better late than never in getting stage 2 posted! Been a bit of a mad house here at Above Category, but we're working on the organization thing and even hired a new member here. So that means more time for me to ride and do events like this! Thanks for your patience and without further ado, let's get to the review of stage 2 of this years Giro de Sardegna!
The morning before the first road stage at the team hotel. In the front is Franco Marvulli who is the current Olympic Silver medalist in the Madison. Stage 2 was 160km starting on a flat to rolling course and at about km50 we started two laps of an extremely hilly circuit. When we woke it was cloudy but dry. The dry part didn't last too long...
Here is the kit we received for the event which is also the official Equipe Campionissimo clothing...
A better look at the jersey.
One of our FOUR follow cars!
The start line. We were waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy in the back. Here is one of the things that made this race so hard, the start. Basically, in front of this group is a 3-4 foot wide mat that every cyclist had to run over in order to activate the timing chip. All fine and dandy for these guys at the front. Here's the thing though, once they crossed the line it was full throttle! WTF?? No warm-up, no neutral, just full gas. But what sucked is that for us way in the back, it took maybe 3 or so minutes to even hit that same mat. So, these guys who camped out overnight or something to get these spots had a three minute head start at full gas over us in the back. But what they didn't have was Malcolm Elliot and friends to pull them up to the front. It went like this, roll your bike slowly to the line, clip in, shift to the 53X12 and stand on the pedals as hard as possible for the next 10-20km! Then, once back to what's left of the field, move to the front in time for the hills. Fun stuff...
Stage 2 would take us into the hills and the mines...
This was the first climb which the race bible called an easy 5km at less than 5%. I don't think so, it was mostly 7-8% though the 5km part seemed right and the field split pretty quickly as the pro's at the front wanted to break things up.
Two of the guys doing the damage were teammates though, so it was all good...
At this point we were still with the front group. Right in front of me (I'm on the blue and black Dogma) is Luigi who is the R&D director for Assos and as I've said before has to be the coolest job in the world! Pretty much any Assos clothing you wear now was thought up, tested and perfected by him. He's also really, really strong, so now you know there are guys who ride all the time and ride strong looking out for you when it comes to what you wear!
After the main climb we hit 20km or so of rollers like this...
...which hurt a bit.
The front group on the rollers.
How did my race go? Super well, thanks for asking. I was feeling great in what I think was the 3rd group on the road and then got a flat on the rolling part during the second lap. It was at that point that it decided to pour rain and drop in temperature; nice. And even though we had all these follow cars, at this precise time, there were none anywhere. So I waited 20 or so minutes watching group after group come by and finally yelled to a teammate to tell the car at the feed zone to come back w/ a wheel. Finally, I got a replacement front wheel and soaked and shivering got back on my bike to finish the race. Not sure where I finished, but at least I got there! 
I did have some company while waiting for a wheel though!Stage 3 tomorrow, or next week, same thing...
But really, thanks for reading!
But really, thanks for reading!
