We had an awesome time in Bergamo. Ashley did her first ever group ride, and she rode great. We did almost 110k with almost 3000 feet of climbing, and she was there the whole time. It was pretty impressive. The ride was awesome once we got out of Bergamo. I got a chance to have my first ever real face to face chat with Richard. That was pretty cool. I like what I’m doing with PEZ. I hope I can continue to grow with the site.

Also got a chance to chat with Magnus Backstedt’s agent, Martin McCrossan. Backstedt isn’t racing anymore, but McCrossan and Backstedt are into some pretty cool ventures it seems. He was a really interesting guy to chat with. I hope we can take him up on his offer to visit him in London at some point.

We were also given some pretty cool gifts for the day – McCrossan is the PR guy for the cycling clothing manufacturer, Santini, so Santini was really supportive of our ride. In fact, Monica Santini herself came out and followed us in a car for the whole ride, and made sure we were ok. It was pretty neat. Anyhow, the gifts – we got a special edition kit from Santini to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Giro. It’s pretty cool, and the quality is absolutely amazing.

Anyhow, we’re back in Innsbruck. The next week should be good fun I hope. I think the weather should be reasonable, the temperatures look friendly, the workload is evening out a bit, so I hope to get in some good bike rides with Ashley…and do some good work too.

Check out the new pictures on Flickr!

k bye.

Well, we’re leaving for Bergamo in 4:46…it’s 23.14 right now, and we’re leaving at 4.00. Ouch. We barely made it to the stage start here in Innsbruck this morning – that was at 11.00. I don’t know how this is going to work, but I think we’ll be ok for some reason.

We’re headed down to meet up with Richard Pestes (the namesake and owner of PezCyclingNews.com), and ride the final 100k of Stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia, which finishes in Bergamo.

It should be a fun time. Ashley is a little bit nervous, but it’ll be fine. 

Hopefully it doesn’t rain, or if it does rain, I hope it doesn’t rain too much. There’s a 30-40% chance of rain, but at least it should be reasonably warm-ish.

Alright, back to packing and working.

k bye.

New pictures are up on Flickr. Check them out if you get a chance.

Busy next few days…I have an article and editing to get done this morning, then ride, then do some work on the Giro this evening. Tomorrow, we are going to check out the stage start of the Giro in the morning, then pick up the rental car, then do some more biking, and of course finish the day with some more Giro work. Saturday we’re headed down to Bergamo to ride with Richard Pestes – that’s the namesake of the site I right for: PEZ. That’s going to be a wild day – leave at 400 in the morning, get there in time to ride by 830, ride 4 hours, watch the stage finish in Bergamo, then drive home again in the evening. Ha. 

In other news, didn’t ride yesterday. I was really tired. Riding this afternoon for sure though.

Ashley says hi. 

That doesn’t mean all that much to me really. It just means that I have to be home, in front of the computer, with internet, by about 530 or 6pm everyday. Then from there, it’s just click, click, clicking for most of the rest of the evening. It’s a hard life.

I won’t, however, be seeing much of the Tour of Italy myself. The race will be all over the place right around here, but some scheduling conflicts pretty much mean that I’ll be sitting in the bedroom office instead of watching the race live 50 miles down the road. 

That really isn’t such a bad thing though…I like riding my bike and stuff…following races means no bike riding. 

Speaking of riding, Ashley and I have been riding a fair bit. I’m trying to do new climbs everyday, and it’s turning into a lot of fun. There are so many climbs around here. It just turns out that they’re all really, really steep. That’s ok though. We both have compacts.

Ok, we have some errands to run…more soon.

We’ve been complaining about the weather in Austria for months now, but finally, finally there’s absolutely nothing to complain about. We’ve had 70-80 degree temperatures for the past good bit, and it’s so fantastic. I rode a fair bit this week, and Ashley rode most all of it with me. We’ve been climbing like crazy. Lovin it.

It’s so nice now. I took a look on the map recently, and realized that where I live is one of the places that I don’t know nearly enough about. There are so many big climbs near here that I’ve never done. They’re just waiting for Ashley and I to come play. So we will. I’m not exactly sure, but something tells me that staying close to home is also cheaper. 

I’m guessing Ashley will get ants in her pants soon enough though. We gotta keep moving a little bit to satisfy her craving for new places. I mean that in the best way.

Much more to come. I’ve decided that it’s silly not to write here and share. I know, that’s probably the 245th time I’ve said that. I promise I’ll say it again.

k bye.