pre rode stages 2-5 today. I got to the venue pretty early today, because italians don't give two f's about signs. seriously. I think a total of 2 signs today directing riders on where to go. It's also hard to judge how long a transfer will take when you have no clue how long the gondola rides are - needless to say i had PLENTY of time and did a bit of waiting to drop into the first stage, but I also caught up with some of the women I rode with in Tweed Valley, so it was all good.
(top of stage 2)
Stage 2 was a shorter stage. the top starts out with s turns through some real marbley gravel - they try to route us onto the grass a bit to help mitigate that but its sketchy as F - and super unassuming looking - I of course immediately washed out my front wheel - granted, i think that was more due to the fact that i moved my cleat position back, and my front wheel wasn't weighted. Lesson learned. There a little punchy up over a rough looking boulder that reminded me of home - there's not a lot of rocks which is kinda surprising - but there are plenty of roots. OMG are there roots. The rest of the stage wound back and forth down a steep grade in the woods with very slippery roots - considering conditions were dry - they were strangely damp.
I met the other American masters woman from MA at the bottom of the stage. then i hit up what i thought was a bike shop for a co2 - which i like to carry during a race and haven't procured yet - but the nearby bike shop didn't carry any. weird.
I headed up to stage 3 with some of the other women. the gondolas are quite fast if there's no line. you can pile like 20+ bikes in. The officials were being super strict about our start time and made us wait and hour and a half up there. by that time the amount of racers ready to drop was huge, so the other women I was hanging with & I decided to head over to stage 4 (which had the same time-slot for training as 3 for us) and then we could take a gondola back up to 3. So we roll not quite halfway down the mountain (that will be the transfer climb i have to do tomorrow between stages 3&4) with like 3 mins before the stage opened, so we were stoked. But the officials decided to allow the ews100 riders extra time to enter the stage, AND WOULDNT" LET US DROP! OMG i thought there was going to be a riot. so we had to WAIT THERE for another 15-20 mins before they would allow us to go.
The official started giving the late ews100 riders the bad news that they no longer were allowed to do their practice run (apparently the line for the gondola nearest this stage was crazy long because the gondola was a much smaller cabin than the one we took (we had to ride 'across the meadow' on a fun flow trail to get from where we were dropped off to the stage start).
Honestly, who cares if there is a small amount of overlap? I mean the point is to minimize congestion - but making everyone wait and letting the line to build up while NO ONE WAS RIDING THE STAGE was silly.
So stage 4 was also a shorter stage - and quite fun. lots of loam, in the woods w lots of rooty switchbacks. pretty fun.
Then we decided to pedal back to where the larger gondola was to avoid the excessively long line at the one we were "supposed" to take - it's a mostly flat bike path to the next town. The top of stage three is super fun - kind of open. (I'll try to insert phone pics after i post this). almost bike-park-ish. then into the woods for some steep rooty switchbacks - they love those here - couple REALLY tricky sections and some areas seemed 'wet' - the dirt was packing up into the wheels. There are a couple punchy climbs and some traversing pedally sections that give the arms and hands a break (well, at least in practice -- prob wont' feel like a break when I'm trying to sprint these sections). There's also an insanely tight steep switchback right at the end That i could not do without putting my foot down and pivoting the bike, so i'm just going to plan on that.
(top of stage 3 - there's a couple jumps and ramps mixed in there)
and that little bit of trail is what we had to ridedown to get from teh gondolat to stage 3 - pretty fun little trail.
Then we had another 2 & 1/2 hours before stage 5 opened for us, so we grabbed a sandwich and coffee at a cafe before heading back up. we were outside, but i still feel bad for the other patrons - i'm sure we stank up the place.
We were the first group up to stage 5 and you could see a storm rolling in, so they let us drop a little early. The first section is an exposed ridge line that turns into gravelly switchbacks. people were going down left and right, getting tangled in the tape. Then it's a bumpy but a straight shot for a bit before diving into the woods. Same as the other woods trails - lots and lots of roots. lots of steep switchbacks. staying as wide as possible is pretty much the winning line every time. There is one super tight hairpin that has a chicken wire covered steep wooden bridge drop that mentally caught me up. riders were pivoting on their front tire to setup for it and for some reason that direction is my less successful side to do that on - my foot always pops out - i tried it a few times without success - so I don't know, hoping it flows a little better on Sunday.
top of stage 5 - it's kinda hard to see the riders on the ridge there, but that green hill is blade-shaped and the course runs along it for a bit.
Afterward I rode back to the car and then dropped off some stuff i borrowed at Nelson's. On my way back down the stairs i totally slipped and fell against the wall (which was stucco) and scraped up my arm (because of course i had taken off my elbow pads). lololol, i had almost no issues today on these insane mountains, but the stairs - the stairs got me - what a clutz!
Now i'm back at the hotel, going to try do get some work done and HOPEFULLY my family will arrive this evening. their connecting flight had been cancelled initially but they got a new one - with a much longer stop over - and now they are waiting to board and it has a 1 hour delay so far. hopefully they'll get on and be in Italy soon. they still have to make the drive from venice to here - which is about 2.5 hours - i just hope my husband can stay alert. (and i hope his rental car is still available - he's been trying to contact the office about the flight delays without any luck - phone, email - no one is answering.