e REAL Giro UPDATE! 1/3 Plan de Corones

G'day g'day!

Perfect way to start the day!

Rain, thunder, lightning... hmmm... see how I listed the slowest to the fastest?
e Giro 2010 was simply the most breath-taking race I've ever had the chance to follow with Eurosport's amazing daily coverage, and when I finally watched the final week in person, I have to be very honest, I somehow think it'd be hard for le Tour de France to trumph it in romance and beauty. Kinda appeals to people who like to 'wing' things, but in an organized fashion... =) I like...

Yup! Left hand drive baby! We rented a car from Venice airport, picked up our Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6Turbo Diesel Ingine (thats what TDI stands for right?), and with that mouthful of a model on a tag to the car key only 4cm wide and 4cm tall, you can imagine. very small words....

So! Looking cool driving as you can see on your left, you may wonder why i'm in a SACA Polo-T in Italy, am I nuts? trying to show off? =) Combining work with pleasure as it was, I had met Mr. Pierce Barker of PRO BMX Gate at Changi Airport 2 hours before our own flight to Venice, hence the official top... see... everyone can have their cake and eat it too...

You know, its great driving in Italy. Especially Northern Italy. The highways are nice and big, well marked... Crazy BUT Good drivers (oxymoron?), I do 160km/h, they do 200+... in a tiny fiat, or Audi Q7... =)

We were heading to Marrebe, a tiny town at the foot of Plan de Corones or KRONPLATZ (you've got to shout this as you say this to pronounce it properly) as the Germans call the mountain. Uphill ITT, here we come! My excellent vehicle commander next to me, our trusty Google Maps printed out on high tech 70GSM A4 paper, and thats when the signs started getting dodgy... the highway ends and you're in a tiny town, the last sign pointed thhhhhaaaatt way, and the next sign points to somewhere 50km away from where you want to go... but hey! the view was getting good...



And finally, after 4hrs of driving, we had finally arrived... Colnago Inox car flew past, Cofidis car flew past, good signs! Giro d'Italia arrows, definately great signs! We were booked in a small, out of the way B&B in the ski-resort town, and the very nice owner spoke no English. So! With some quacking and universal sign signals, we finally got ourselves settled into our double storey apartment that just made you feel like home...



Race day! 25th May Tuesday, 2010. Juls and I woke up early, we didn't know we were gonna be up and about till 6pm... hahaha, oh well... we did have fun being stalkers of pros, met some new old friends from Italy and had an amazing time watching the pros suffer like... well, don't know really, like pro cyclists... dogs just don't quite suffer the way they do... =)

Warm-up areas in the town itself, 500m from our little B&B doorstep... World Jambion's bike, Andre Griepel looking too cool for skool in his Oakley Jupiters and the new Colnago C-59, very nice...

Add to that the Giro Festivities!

The start line was cool, Italian blaring over the loudhailers, THRONGS of people, and wait... wasn't it a TUESDAY!!!??? In the middle of nowhere in the mountains??? That's the beauty of the Giro, everyone wants a piece of it, whether or not they actually cycle themselves! The Italians take it to be national pride and like the slogan for the 2010 Giro 'FIGHT FOR PINK!' kinda reminded me of the Breast Cancer Cause, remember that mammogram ladies! and no, i'm not embarressed...


Trudged over to the Lampre Team Bus and saw Marco Marzano!
Smiles and Ciao's from our little friendship whilst he was in Singapore
for the '10 OCBC Cycle Singapore Pro Crit, it was nice catching up with a shy, but consumate professional.

Tiny Chain Ring set-up! 39-34 FRONT!
You know its gonna hurt when the Pros whack on compacts and 12-27 or 12-29 cassettes...



The Lampre mechanics were making sure the bikes were spot on 6.800 kg for the uphill tt for Gibo and il Principe too, nice! The weighing scales were accurate lucky them at the official weigh-in...


Hmmm... dodgy TIME pedals though...


Swoooooosh! We waited till Marco left the start ramp and zoooomed
past us before we started our trudge further up the mountain.

According to the walking commander, we were to take the cable car
system, and we had 2 other 'planes' to catch the action, one just past the middle mark where the gradients were 18-24% and then at the very top of the mountain itself. SO OFF WE WENT!

Gibo flying up the section where we were, his final hurrah, on that special PINK Wilier



And for my friends wondering how Italians keep their drinks
ICY COLD on a hot summer day....

On we trudged into the cable cars TO THE TOP!



And because we love to see ze Pofessionaaals suffer...
and my favourite STYLE man: Pippo



Well! I think I've exhausted myself talking too much about ze Giro, I went a little bonkers on the way back down... Really... I don't know why I'm even posting this when this should be deleted... but oh well... I've gotta make some people laugh right? especially when they're so far away from Singapore and Home...

Ciao!~ Hope you are happier now with my longer post? =) Love to the boys in East Java, the boys in Bordeaux and Dinah and the boys in Dunkerque!