I Got A Phone Call Today...

My past keeps coming back to me... in a good way. Today my phone rang. I didn't know the number and the Italian guy on the other end spoke in that Venetian dialect that I heard so much just a few days ago when I stayed in San Donà di Piave, as I so often do while visiting Team Liquigas. I didn't get the name at first (ok, so my Venetian isn't THAT good), but I quickly put 2 and 2 together and got quattro... that's my first cycling hero ever... calling me!

Growing up in Iowa in the 80's didn't provide many glimpses into the world of professional cycling. I remember waiting for Mom to come home from Ames (a few hours away which back then could just as well been Switzerland) for the off chance that she'd bring home an issue of Bicycling magazine, my only look into what was possible on a bike. I saved my money and bought a Raleigh. But it was my next bike that really did it for me... a Bianchi. I loved the celeste color, the exotic sounding name, the history, the racing heritage. What was it about Bianchi that struck a 13 year old kid in Iowa? I think it had a lot to do with seeing some of the exploits of that guy on the other end of the phone line... Moreno Argentin.

Philly

Not sure why it's now taking me a couple weeks to get these updated, oh well. Travel does that to you. I may not see home more than a day at a time until the end of the Tour! So, before I head back to the US tomorrow(!) how about a look back at Philly!

Stefano left me in charge of planning the trip and all registration and activities around the race. We visited a couple area shops and ate well at the local Italian bistros. We had a nice 3.5 hour ride on Saturday. One of our guests hit pavement but got up with minor damage. This happened literally a half hour after mentioning to Struve how amazed I was that in ten years of riding on the bike trail with the teams, nobody has clipped a bar or one of those barriers at the intersections. Italian pros unfortunately don't yield the right of way to coming cyclists or joggers. They are, however, incredible bike handlers; however, they don't realize that everyone else isn't! Fortunately, they're only on the tight Philly bike path one day out of the year... sorry Philly!

Tip of the hat to James, my trusted mechanic who leaves us after this race and is head guy in charge of the US national mechanics and material... nice gig! James kept the bikes clean and even changed a wheel... on the second start loop!

That's Struve in the pirate costume!


Joey took this window shot in the waning hours of sobriety Saturday night I think.

James and that wheel change!

Race-wise, we could've done better. There was a crash in the final roundabout which slowed the green guys down. I won't say who may have caused it, but got wind from some of the US directors that it's a bit too common.

Post-race, it was back to CT for some time in the office. Oh yeah, and my real reason for going... Wednesday night world championships! We had sprints for points every three laps after 18 to go. I got two seconds and a third for 5 points and 7th overall. Twas nice to get the legs moving in anger again.

Now, it's off to Park City for some better weather for training (hopefully).

Oh yeah... keep an eye out for a future series on this space. I am getting my Italian bike restoration fix in this year. I just bought a Ciöcc from the 70's from the man himself. I'll try to document the restoration as much as possible and update as it goes.

Back to that crazy ITT in Cinque Terre

As you may have seen on my Tweets, I had been given the chance to drive the follow car for Liquigas' Gorazd Štangelj. How's that for a name? First, since the guys at Liquigas butcher his name, I went to Wikipedia to analyze a little...

A caron ( ˇ ) or háček (pronounced [ˈhɑːt͡ʃɛk] in English, [ˈɦaːt͡ʃɛk] in Czech), also known as a wedge, inverted circumflex, inverted hat, is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate present or historical palatalization, iotation, or postalveolar pronunciation in the orthography of some Baltic, Slavic, Finno-Lappic, and other languages. Š/š (pronounced [ʃ] — similar to 'sh' in she.

Huh?

So after all of that Greek (actually Slovenian), Gorazd told me how to properly pronounce his name (I like to be as accurate as possible). It's "Shtongel" with a soft 'g' like 'go' and an 'o' like in 'on'. There you have it... back to the race.

Mrs. Masini and our 'children' were present as well and I can guarantee that I was the only follow car with two dogs as co-pilots.

There was some confusion from the start, as the Italians have their own ideas about directions and start areas. However, we arrived with about five minutes to spare...

And we were off...!

The course was as bad as everyone else has said. Up and down the whole way. The co-pilots got just a little bit of motion sickness and Gorazd dropped me on many of the descending hairpins. The old VW Sharan minivan doesn't quite handle like a team car, especially with me at the wheel and two complaining wiener dogs to make sick. The crowds were awesome as usual, filling the road at the top of the climbs, and also scattering themselves out into some of the more remote spots.

Gorazd finished 123rd out of 186, 10:52 behind stage winner and new maglia rosa Denis Menchov.

After the finish, it became apparent why logistically it was the right choice to follow, as there was literally one road going anywhere near there! I continued past all the other team cars and parked around the curved cliff road 1km away... and I arrived early. Others had to continue even further and walk. In the end, it wasn't too bad. It was a spectacular place for a stage. If you're ever near Genoa or La Spezia or even Pisa, then Cinque Terre is worth a trip for the hiking and the sights. This is the fourth time I've been there, but the first with a bike race.

After the race, I said good bye to my guests from the US, Tim and Caterina. They had a difficult week ahead of them, staying in Corniglia (one of the Cinque Terre, or 'five lands') to enjoy the view. Of course, we didn't have it too bad either, heading off to Florence for the weekend! I studied Italian there many moons ago and was finally able to eat tortellini again at the Palle d'Oro. The owner still remembers me as the American who ate the same thing three times a week for lunch back in 1992!

Oh yeah, Daisy made more friends and Tucker enjoyed the gum and food left on the old streets of Florence.

Pre-Giro Bike Launch

Last week I stayed at CastelBrando in Cison di Valmarino for the launch of the new SuperSix. The place was fantastic, as was the riding. Journalists from all over the world were there to test the bike. Some articles are already showing up. Here are a few...

Cyclingnews.com
Bicycling.com
Road Bike Action
Velo News

Some of my extra duties involved our guest riders, Jacopo Guarnieri and Roman Kreuziger fresh off his Tour of Romandie win, and some Cannondale Giro extras like some of the special bikes and the pink jerseys from my personal stash. Here are a couple of articles about those events... Seems the American guys liked the access to those things a bit more!

Road Bike Action

We rode some of the roads that featured in the Giro's stage 3 to Valdobbiadene. My Giro has been great so far. We took the journos to the Lido di Venezia for the TTT. I didn't take too many photos, but trust that a good time was had. Oh yeah, we managed to eat great Italian food for the duration!

Here's me at the end of our ride... note the looming clouds and our castle on the hill behind. Yeah, work sucks!

Ramping Up!

Skies are full of pollen, and l'Etape du Tour is coming sooner than I realize. It's time to get more distance and climbing in the legs, so I took two days off and set out to do just that. Thursday was four and a half hours with 1500m climbing. Friday was short to rest a bit, and Saturday was another four and a half hours, 100km and 1300m - and windy. Granted, not terribly long or fast, but I'm starting to feel good. I was finally able to navigate to the Passwang, which isn't incredibly difficult, but is close to home and has a few twists in it.

Both rides here...


The view from the top of the Passwang. It was getting pretty late by this time, luckily the road home was downhill... a little!




Notice the vertical jump when I forgot to restart the Edge 705! Also the Biel Benken wall with 12% at the end of the ride.


Even with a Garmin, it is faster to navigate with the tried-and-true tape on the top tube!

Oude Kwaremont

Just a quick one to catch up a bit on postings and races, etc. I got the chance to ride with Chris Milliman in Belgium during the classics trip that spanned Ghent-Wevelgem through Paris-Roubaix. Milliman's a big guy and in far better shape than I. He also takes great cycling photographs. Were it not for the fact that he shot this with my crappy little SD400, here's a 'great' shot of me on the Oude Kwaremont (Tour of Flanders), which we did a couple of times. I now know for a fact that I'm not exactly built for cobblestones!

The Saturday morning before Roubaix was incredible. We saw more Quick Step jerseys than I care to see in one place. There was group after group of Belgian locals out on the famous roads of the Ronde. Right after our ride, we high tailed it down to Compiegne to get our credentials and a meeting with the Mavic guys.

As for Roubaix, Quinziato put in a great effort, but had a little crisis late in the race. Still, 9th place means he's improving in this race and SHOULD be on lists for the future (if only he came from an english-speaking country! More about that later!).

We were able to get to four different points during the race. I passed a grand total of four waterbottles, one dropped by Quinzia. No wheel changes though - my chance at mechanical fame will have to wait another year!

Am I Hip Enough to Wear This?

Look what arrived in the mail this morning... The Rapha Bernard Hinault Legend t-shirt. I usually don't consider myself to be retro or cool enough to buy cycling clothes/gear that's not either lime green or plastered with the logos of our sponsored team, but I HAD to get this. La Vie Claire was the coolest team of all time (at least when I first got into the sport). Just put this one down to nostalgia as I approach 40 and try to recapture long-lost youth.

The answer? No, I'm not hip enough. Hipsters rejoice! I also won't be building my old Tommasini into a fixie any time soon!

Ghent-Wevelgem

I had the eleventh-best seat in the house for Wednesday's race (Team Liquigas was car number 11). It started out windy and wet, and it stayed that way for the whole race. The wind blew the group to pieces just 10km into the race. Strong teams like Quick Step totally missed out (ok, Boonen was in the lead group but once he flatted, it was game over for the Belgian powerhouse). Then, it was crash after crash from the front group. Cervelo at one point had almost their whole team in the break. Rabo had 4. Race radio said we had only two! Once we got permission to pass group 2, we found a nice surprise... Fischer had made the break as well! From there, Liquigas poured on the pressure as Alexandre Kuchynski attacked on the second pass of the Kemmelberg. He got away and was soon joined by eventual winner Edvald Boasson Hagen. Once he joined, we knew we were racing for second. Really, Kuchy did great, but the young High Road rider just has a stronger kick. It was nervous in the car for a bit, but what a way to watch a race!

My view...

My photographer's view...

It's Almost Here!

I was fourteen years old, and had just gotten into this thing called bike racing. I had not yet adopted my 'Dave Stoller' alter ego. Not yet a word of Italian... but we had Paris-Roubaix on CBS. This is how I became a fan of Greg Lemond. Over-produced, edited, schmaltzy, but it was these rare glimpses of pro cycling that gave me the bug. It's also how I built up an appreciation for this incredible race...

Somehow, I now have the luck to 'work' this race for the fourth time! I'll remember to pinch myself from the bleachers in Roubaix to confirm that it's real!

New Life for an Old Friend

Some bikes tend to stay with you forever. This Silk Path 500 was built with help from an old friend, frame builder extraordinaire Terry Osell from Minneapolis. I laced the wheels up myself in 1997 if I remember correctly. It was my first urban/commuter/city bike and I got it for a song and replaced some parts with some orphaned mtb items. Strangely enough, it was rarely used and sat patiently to be called into service heavily after our move to Basel in 2005.

Since then, it has been my daily commuter, reliably getting me to and from work as quickly as possible. She began to lose spokes in the back lately and after a few attempts at replacing them, a rebuild was necessary. So there she sat yesterday in the stand, sans rear wheel, and I decided to upgrade parts yet again. When you have a spare parts box full of interesting things, team only parts, one-time anodized CODA 900 cranks, etc... you start to get ideas to put new life into an old bike.

After hours of messing about, I finally found all the appropriate parts, correct-length axle, bearings and the rest. I fitted it about ten times before getting the right combination that allowed the arm to clear the seat stays, the chain guide to pass the chain and the correct chainline that the Nexus 7 will expect. I also changed tires, seatpost, lockout knob and fork boot. In all, I saved 855 grams - get this - for free! I can't wait to get the fresh rear wheel back and rock this thing around town this summer!

I'll get a new alloy tubular rack and some new fenders next week as well.

Carbon riser bars, Ergon grips, and the HeadShok "holee" stem from way back when.

Ever seen a CODA 900 crank anodized in crap? Here it is! Some custom hammering and the chain guard continues to function as it likes.

It's funny how a bike built from odd parts can be more fun to ride than your (or my) latest 14.5 pound road bike built from the latest and greatest. Plus, you can't leave that road bike leaning outside of the local bar without losing your desire for a beer!