5 Days At Altitude With The Superstar

This week was spent in Park City, Utah for a big meeting. I came with Ivan from Milan after a nice pizza near his place on Sunday night.

We arrived and headed right out on the bikes in a group of about 40. Someone almost ate it after flatting on the descent. Struvie stopped for him - not sure who or what happened, I turned around to give a hand while the group (and Ivan) went ahead only to struggle for 3.5 hours trying to read the "map".

The next 3 days consisted of short 40km rides with Ivan out into the countryside with very little climbing (lucky for me since the altitude made me feel like crap). Ivan would do 100km in the morning and 40km in the afternoon with me, or 40km in the morning with me and then again with a group in the afternoon. Try as we did, we couldn't get him on a mountain bike, which probably wasn't the worst idea since a fall onto a rock could spell disaster.

We had about 150 guests and another 100 of us, for a nice big group who were very enthusiastic to see Ivan and spend some time on the bike with him. He's a good sport and patient in waiting for us slower guys. Good trip, can't wait to get home.