The 8th stage of the Giro d'Italia (perhaps the 2nd greatest bicycle race in the world after the Tour de France) came within an hour of Viterbo yesterday. It was a Sunday and the 189km leg ended in the mountain town of Terminillo, about two hours from Viterbo. My colleagues and I went there because the last 15km of the stage was the first significant climb of the tour. The difficulty rating was 4 stars out of 5. The Danish rider Chris Sorenson won the Chianciano Terme-Terminillo stage, but the Kazakh rider, Alexander Vinokourov maintains the "magila rosa."
From left, Pat S. (director), Renato (our Italian buddy), Frank T. (Latin) and myself at the 1 km to go marker. And yes it was cold and foggy.
The finish line at the top of the town of Terminillo.
Only in Italy will you find a porchetta sandwich truck along the course. I think I need to buy one and import it to the US and franchise porchetta paninis.
So, here's the spot we staked out 300 meters to the finish on an relatively steep grade.
The riders were predicted to come in at 515PM. At 505PM, the official car indicates the riders are starting to come.
The leader, Sorenson I believe. He moved pretty fast.
Our spot was strategically chosen because the riders, minimizing the amount of distance, rode directly at us as they rounded the curve just downhill from us.
Apparently my recent haircut is somewhat different. The kids say it's "Italian" because it's short on the sides and longer on top.
In the first three to five minutes, the lead group of 17 riders came in, which broke away km 113, but the climb had separated them out.
A second breakaway group dribbled in and then 12 minutes after the leader, the first chunk of the peleton.
Then the next group of the peleton.
And the close car stating the end of the riders. Amazingly, the barriers and the course is broken down within an hour.
Now help me with the pathology here. This is ALL the free loot I acquired during the day. I don't need it, nor will I ever really use it. But when I saw it, I became a crazed child. I wanted it JUST to have it. I hopped a fence at one point to get into the crowd to get one of the those yellow bags. I ended up getting two. Now that its home, I'm never going to take them out of the packaging.
Here I am in front of "La Gazetta dello Sport" truck. The paper is the sponsor of the race, is printed in pink, and this is why the leader where's the "pink" jersey. This is the paper I read every morning and from which I'm learning to read. Drew, the student who took the picture, says I look as happy as a 10 year old kid here.