Giro di Italia 2011

The 2011 Giro di Italia's 6th stage came within 20km of Viterbo, but the 5th stage about an hour away was more interesting because part of it was on "Strada Stretti", or off-road/unpaved.

I talked my director into canceling a faculty meeting and we headed up, with our friend Renato, up to southern Tuscany to watch the Giro's 5th stage. Here's the view from where we were.

Turns out we found the finish line of the "GPM" or "Grande Premio Montagna", the end of a mountain stage where the first rider across wins a prize and points towards being the mountain stage leader.

The cops coming by signal the bikers......

And the leader, who had taken a lead of over three minutes was Weening of The Netherlands.

Followed by the support cars....

...and the dust. We ate a LOT of dust.

Here comes the peleton. This 5th stage was the first ride after the 3rd stage in which a rider fell, hit his head and then passed away. Turns out after on the descent into Orvieto, there was another fall.

Happy people.....

...not at work on a Wednesday afternoon!