Jaja and me.

(Geneve, Switz.) - So I fell off the wagon. Or I'm on the wagon. I guess it depends on what the usually saying is (I forget) and whether or not what you think what I did was good or bad. Probably off the wagon. Or not. Here goes...

Most of you know of my long standing problem with bike riding addiction syndrome (BRAS). So I have a confession.... I did a bike race. Kinda.

They have a good system in Switzerland for bike racing. There is none of this 55+ Master's Men one legged tandem category bullsh*t. Here there are mostly just 3 categories. Men's, Women's, and Juniors. And you are either 'good enough to rac'e or you are 'not good enough to race.' For all those not good enough to race (me nowadays), there are cyclosportifs (also called randonees), which are these kinda race/ride thingees. It is an event very akin to a running race - the group of 500 or more starts together. The people at the front race and the people at the back try to finish. I did the Classique Genevoise last weekend with over 600 souls at the startline going au bloc all at the same time. That is a wild time, let me tell you.

I haven't been riding that much recently. It's been about 2 rides and a run a week for the last 6 weeks and way less before that. Still, local riding buddies have been talking me into doing this event, as the 'Classique' is a local legend. More than one local bike dork plans their whole season around it. I was on the fence about even going, but with one week to go decided what the hey... There are a HUGE mix in abilities and so if I got blown out by the fast racer types I could always ride in with the children and cripples (women are probably too fast). In general, these kind of things are good for me, as it nice for me to have a competive goal. As elsewhere as my priorities are nowadays, I find it hard to motivate to ride if I don't have the threat of a race or similar event hanging over my head. For instance, the only reason I have been telling people for 5 years that I am training for a marathon is so I motivate to run ocassionally.

A big crowd was gathered 20km south of Geneve in Dardangny for the send off. It is amazing how many locals show up for even the most mundane of local events. The longest route was 4 x 20km loops. Celebrities in attendance were a few old time pros and - get this - Laurent Jalabert (Mom, Jalabert was the top bike racer of the 90's and one of the best of all time. He lives nearby.) who was - get this - doing my race/ride. At the start line I swapped notes with Steve and Elizabeth and we thought to meet back there after the finish. The gun went off, people scrambled for their pedals, and it felt like any old bike race - albeit one with 600 people.

The first 5k were controlled. I zigged and zagged my way through the pack, passing upwards of a few hundred from my mid pack start position, and hit the front just 1k before the 'commisaire' waved his flag and we were were off and riding/racing. The course, by racing standards, was not too hard, but it would present challenge enough in my diminished current condition. Two climbs which rose from the Rhone up to the surrounding plateau, some wind which favors the guys who know what they're doing (in this crowd that means me), and a bunch of long drawn out flat sections. I settled into a nice 'slip and slide the climbs' pace the first lap noticing that I had made the 1st primary split. We now had a 'racing' group. The 'riding groups' were now OTB. The second lap, the hammer went down on the hill as one of the guys from one of the strong local teams guttered it in the side winds. I started at the front and ended the hill in the back, going anaerobic for the 1st time on my bike since last year. It felt good and I was surprised still how solid I felt. We regrouped over the false flat at the top and I went right to the front tucked in against the crosswind.

Crunch time came at the end of the 2nd lap. I gave everything I had to make the split, just baaaaaarely... getting on at the top of the hill as the course turned and descending through a few hairpins just past the old town of Russin. Taking stock at the bottom of the hill, we were all together - a group of about 25 - I had to be impressed with myself. This was a group of real racers - not very good ones perhaps - but still these were guys who had been racing almost every weekend and training with a 'programme'.

I looked around and realized that ... after 2.5 laps - to the best of my estimation - the only guys in the front group with hair on their legs were Laurent Jalabert and me. That is some distinguished company in the retired racer department. I rode up alongside him and tried to make some idle chitchat and share a laugh over our common bond.

Jaja last year. I would like to think he looked fitter this time around.

But the next time up the climb to Russin killed me. Cowbells were rung, and 'Allez!!' s were hollered, I went as hard as I could, but still I found myself gapped off the main pace line in a small group. And that was that. Legs cried 'No Mas' and myself and about 5 other guys rode it in from there, swapping pulls as we went. The finish was up a small climb near the start. Not wanting to be too dorky and sprint my group mates with too much enthusiasm, I settled for ramping it up slowly for the final 500 m hill before turning it on in the last 100m. I thought that this struck a good balance between a detached 'je ne sais quoi' gallic coolness and yet still showing a respect for the event. One guy came by before the line and I beat the rest. I was told Jalabert was in the group ahead.

A pretty fun event overall. It is not a race, but still kinda a race, and first across the line hooted and hollered like it was the world championships and not the 'Championnat Genevoise Populaire'. This is about the perfect speed for me nowadays. I just need a little racing fix to keep the shakes down. An event like this is like methadone for me. And I was pretty self-impressed with how well I did despite my lack of preparation or planning. With what little riding I have done, and seriously not having gone faster than a slow endurance pace in almost a year I beat a lot of guys taking it seriously. I hope to be back next time.... maybe trained.... and maybe with a shot at the champ.

'Free Baby' Stage Race

Just a quick post here to get some pictures up I took at the final stage of the Daupine Libere stage race 1.5 weeks back. I rode out to Sallanches with Steve (friend from here) and Elizabeth (friend of a friend from Berkeley). The course is part of the epic 1980 worlds course that Bernard Hinault won on, where there were only something like 18 finishers.

Check out the cyclingnews report for what happenened in detail (... and honestly some much better pictures ...), but this day was equally epic. Hincapie and Popovych got away on the approach to the final loops, but then just laid it down in a gallery of on road explosions. The group behind chased and chased, but these two hard pipe hitters, just put time into the best guys in the world. We rode half up the climb and then got a good spot overlooking the first major switch back.


The first time through with Popovych on the front.

The chase 1st time onto the circuits. Leipenheimer, Beltran, Menkov, etc.

A straggler, Mt. Blanc, and our neighbor on the hill ... in that order.

Elizabeth and Steve happy to be off in France for the day watching the race.

Popvych leading Hincapie on the climb.

From left to right...Landis, Beltran, Botero, Vinokourov, Leipenheimer.

Looking down the Chamonix valley at Popovych leading Hincapie with 1 lap to go.

Pretty good day. Any day in the Alps in France is a good one though. Perhaps I will catch a little of the Tour, but it doesn't come so close to me.

Other than the above, I've been busy recently. My brother Nick arrived over the weekend. Just got back from 2 days in Stuttgart. And a did a little local (kinda) bike race. More on these soon.

Milano, not Milan

First off, I have decided that for now on I am going to start refering to place names by their name in the native tongue. This is not because I want to seem faux sophisticated, it just seems unneccesarily complicated and dumb to have an extra set of names for every place. It would be like if I insisted that everyone over here call me 'Pierre'. See? Duh? I can't fathom why the French call London, Londres and why Germans call, Geneve, Genf and why we Anglos call Roma, Rome.... so I didn't visit Milan a few weeks back. I visited Milano.

I have been really busy recently and have had no time to update things properly, so I will just unload some Milan(o) pictures and leave it at that.

Nicola and I took the train to Milan, up into the mtns of the Rhone valley, under the mtns and into the North Italian lake country. Didn't get to see much on the way there as it was dark, but the ride back was magnificent. Our hotel was nice, but crazy enough didn't have an iron for all my crammed clothes. Irons are illegal in hotels in Italy. Go figure. Write this down for the future.

The next day was a whistle stop of tour of Milan. It was a bit of a funny place I thought and not nearly as cosmopolitan fealing as I expected. It is, after all, one of the fashion capitals of the world. We toured all the main tourist sites. Below is a shot of the 'Duomo' which is a magnificent spiraled cathedral. The stonework is amazingly intricate and detailed. One could climb to the top, which is a must do (In general in europe I have found that the 2 euro that most cathedrals charge for a walk to the top is a highlight and the best value of any touristic thing to do)

Below is a shot of the cathedral where Da Vinci's last summer is. We didn't get in to see the painting, but the cathedral grounds are nice.

Here is a shot of the walk up from the Piazza Duomo towards the old Castle Sforza. This was my first real defensible castle and I was pretty excited. I had been to many palace's before, but this was the first structure that was meant to be defensible as such. It was pretty interesting to see all the battlements etc.

More of the castle. Check out the arrow holes. There were countless of these

Nicola wanted to check out the La Scala opera house. The inside is this below classic scene, but we both agreed the museum was a bit of a dissapointment

Anyway, then we had a lovely dinner at a local trattoria recomended by my 'Lonely Planet' guide book. Feeling like we had 'done' most of the major sites in Milan in one day, we decided to set off for Bergamo the next day. It was the closest next big nice town. It is situated right at the foot of the Bergamo Alps and the old town is an ancient old walled city. Of course I made Nicola walk to the top.

A view from the top looking out onto the Lombard plain.

We had lunch and some local polenta based desserts and then it was back to Milano for dinner at a restaurant recomended to me by Andrea Damascelli. Good food and cheap.

The next morning was back on the train for a trip home... but not before we had a good look at the countryside in around Lago Maggiore, which is one of the beautiful lakes north of Milan (Como is the more famous one).

This is pretty close to the view from the train. Amazing eh?

A great weekend all in all. I really would like to explore more of Italy.