The ginger badger on a bike: Giro di Sardegna 2013

Giro di Sardegna 2013 - Velo Club Meles

21-27 April 2013

http://www.girosardegna.it/

The emblem of the giro di sardegna

Start line of the gran fondo

VC Meles - a random collective of 5 non-competitive casual cyclists took on the 7 day stage race in Sardinia, under the umbrella of the Velo Club Meles collective. None of us had any experience at all in racing, just the occasional gran fondo, sportive or triathlon. But we did have excellent kit - M-aroo sorted some amazing kit with jerseys, shorts and caps.

All that? Into one little car?

Driving to the ferry

The first ever mirto experience

Bemused with the pre-ferry portside food

Myself and Triple D (Dork Disc D - named after his rather splended shiny S-Works Roubaix SL4 sporting a dork disc) sailed from Livorno to Olba in Sardegna on an overnight ferry. The advantage to this was that we could bring lots of spares and the usual flotsam and jetsam required. A week before my car had developed a crack in the windscreen that was growing and growing second by second, but thankfully I managed to get it fixed about an hour before travelling. Originally I was planning to take a spare bike, but the impending move to Boston had meant that all my spares were en route to the USA so it was quite light. Or at least light until I saw that "4 jackets" Triple D had packed everything in the world.

Athletes

The ferry turned out to be splendid, we had booked a cabin as the trip was overnight and had a shower, and fully mirrored ceilings! For nearly two weeks before the race I had been ill. I had developed a bad ear infection and had been on antibiotics to tackle nausea and vertigo. When I got on the ferry I had no idea if I would even ride as I was still feeling pretty terrible. Before getting on the ferry we roamed Livorno looking for somewhere to eat. Typical of any ferry port it was rough, the food on view was terrible and eventually we found a pizza restaurant after breaking out of the port compound. I was not sure if we would do any drinking on this holiday/race/training camp (delete as appropriate) but we quickly tucked into a nice bottle of wine which I was happy for as it medicated the pain in my ears. Later on the ferry my eyes glanced on a special Sardinian liquor called "mirto" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirto_(liqueur)) made from myrtle berries. It tasted rather splendid at the time, although our love of it faded rapidly through the week...

Mirrored ceiling in the ferry cabin

A half finished 2 day old bottle of wine with a ferry mint - perfect!

We arrived in Sardinia and took the spin to Cagliari (definitely pronounced cag-lee-are-ee and not the Italian way), a couple of hours onto the south coast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagliari) and settled into the hotel, the Sighinetu (http://sighientu-life-spa.hotel-rez.com/) - a great spa resort, on the beach, if a little isolated and remote. The hotel had just opened for the season a week earlier after being shut for 6 months, so not all the spa activities were open, but it was still great, as great as can be imagined to have 400 bikers arriving shortly. The tour organisers had gotten permission for us to keep bikes in rooms which was great and when we tried to get all the stuff out of the car we looked like, well like we were there for life! The others arrived later that morning, we had our first buffet lunch and took our first spin on the Sardinian roads.
http://app.strava.com/activities/49557944

The roads were smooth but some challenging climbs. M-aroo, on his new bike, had some challenges with his Campag wheels and had two punctures. First mechanicals and good to get the tools out. In the afternoon we drove to the local bike shop to get some new tyres for M-aroo and for the rest of us to get some stuff - you can never have enough anonymous bike stuff.

How much kit? Triple D had 4 coats!!

The rooms were pertty good and the food was excellent for a bike tour - big buffet, with lots of salad, bread, pastas and of course the ubiquitous squiddly diddly and octopus that Stu uses to power.

In the evenings, after the free wine with dinner, we usually retired to the bar to have an anti-inflammatory Mirto and listen to the odd singer who kind of doing request karaoke. Quickly we spotted that we were one of the few in the bar, but we reminded ourselves that we were not here to race, but as a tour so plugged on regardless.

The first of many mirtos

Stages:

Domenica 21 Aprile - prima tappa "la cronometro individuale" 19 km

A very nervy start. A wind blowing and none of us experienced racers. We had assigned times, and the course was along a motorway (!!) being an out and back. When I got there on time, typical Italina style, most racers had already gone on, ahead of time so we just went a little early. It was a good ride - I was a little disappointed with my average power, but controlled the time trial well and put in a good max speed (44 mph) at an average of 21.3 mph at average power of 283 W for 32 min and 161 bpm .
http://app.strava.com/activities/49896064

Me in the TT

M-arrooo in the time trial

Lunedì 22nd Aprile - seconda tappa - la pianura del Campidano 95km with a 24 km transfer both ends.

Start of stage 2

The first stage was a ball blaster. We didn't stay with the peloton but got in some good groups. Again, lots of riding on motorways, and we got confused at the end, and actually at the end I was far too fresh and felt I could have put in a lot more. Despite this I had good figures: 22.2 mph, 218 W for 2h 31 min.
http://app.strava.com/activities/50084581

Martedì 23rd Aprile - "le coste di Villasimius" 111 km

The first bigger stage. I set off at a wicked pace and was starting to descend well. A puncture to Stu meant that he and Triple D lost a lot of time, which eventually led to Triple D winning the maglia nera for the last to finish. The award ceremony for the maglia nera was amazing, and he wore it with proud at dinner. For the first 40 miles I was on great form when suddenly my legs went, thankfully Marco gave me his wheel and dragged me home for the final 25 miles. I owe him one. 18.6 mph, 199W for 3 h 44 min at 144 bpm.
http://app.strava.com/activities/50251372

Mercoledì 24th Aprile - quarta tappa - Marina di Capitana "la cronometro a squadre"

Cancelled due to high winds :( We did do a cheeky ride at the end of the day and my lord was it windy. Super super windy - cancelling the stage was definitely the right approach. Instead we went into Cagliari and after gimbling around bike shops and pharmacists to buy some gels, we ate a meal in the port quarter and then came back.

Giovedì 25th aprile - quinta tappa - Gran Fondo 168 km "la Costa di Villasimius"

The start of the gran fondo

April 25th was a public holiday so this was an open gran fondo (sportive). Again the weather was shocking and I was surprised that they ran the event. You can see in one of the videos below exactly how blowy the weather was - it was hard to stand up, and some of the hoardings were being blown over in the wind that was advertised as being up to 60 km/h. I think many Italians did not turn up (pussies!) which was a shame, and in the first 10 miles or so we counted more than 20 riders who had given up and returned back to base because of the frankly shocking weather.
It was a long long day in the saddle with some classic faffing including me dropping a leg warmer, and some elongated pss and food stops. Highlight of the day was Triple D's attackig plan to shift two Italian suca ruote (wheel suckers) by dropping back with the strongest guys and then bridging back - of course they overtook us at the next rest stop! Long day, but generally comfortable, and was very glad to have completed it considering the bad weatehr in the morning. And Triple D wore his maglia nera with pride! 17.7 mph at 174 W for 5h 56 min.
http://app.strava.com/activities/50942584

Venerdì 26th Aprile - sesta tappa 118km "i monti del Gerrei"

Hard mountain stage. I set off very nice and comfortable for the first 20 miles or so, but after a 5 minute stop for a puncture (M-aroo of course) my legs started to sieze. Following a stop at the feed station I realised that I would not be racing that day, so set for a solo day, mixing it up with the only quiet canadian in the event and enjoyed a bit of piece and quiet. 14.5 mph at 152 W for 5h 8min at 116 bpm.
http://app.strava.com/activities/50935062

Sabato 27th Aprile - seventh tappa - mountain top finish "l'arrive in salita" 28 km

An absolute cracking race - mountaintop finish of over 600 metres, starting at sea level. Race was flat for 5 miles, slightly up hill for another 5 and then the final 7 pure climbing. It started in a light rain and we committed to stay with the peloton. The racing was absolutely superb, tucked in, working but stealing air and wheels of the quick guys. The first 11 miles passed in a blink of an eye, then the climb began and I fell out the back door, spending the rest of the time scrapping in and out of the other back markers. The weather came down up the moutain - extreme fog meant that for much of the final 2 km I could not see much road at all. 15.0 mph at 244 W for 1 h 6 min.
http://app.strava.com/activities/50928771
Freezing cold at the top, and happy to have completed the full race we stopped on the way down to warm up and enjoyed hot chocolate, tea, coffee and cream cakes. Smashing.

Triple-D found an excellent restaurant, courtesy of the maitre d' - Hibiscus in Quartu (http://www.ristorantehibiscus.it/) - that gave us excellent food wine, and more importantly Cuban cigars. It really was an excellent excellent restaurant, splendid food, good service, excellent wines, berautiful location with stunning rooms and a delightful courtyard, charming owner and a very reasonable price. Then back to the hotel and we hit the beers, gins, mirtos, games of mercy and had a cracking night. Not so clever in the morning. Thanfully myself and Triple-D had a couple of more days of recovery prior to the journey back on the ferry.

Meles Kit:
Without doubt, although we were not so good on the bike, off the bike we were the best team. Kit was designed approved and sported at all times. At all times off duty caps were sported, and each of us made sure that no two people were wearing their caps in the same manner: i.e normal, peak up, backwards, urban stylee, jaunty. Marco of course was very poor on the kit front and was hesitant to wear his cap, and often wore non-Meles kit during racing.
For further cap wearing instructions consult The Velominati Rules #22 (http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/)

Wear the cap! B1tch!

We had a seemingly endless stream of people coming to ask to take our photos in the evening.

Urban stylee

Resplendent in our blazers, Meles caps, Meles ties we rocked the after ride parties. Unfortuntely we were not brave enough to ask for our photo with Camel Toe (see "characters" section).
On our backs was written "zitto e pedala" - Italian for "shut up and pedal" - Triple D had to be alerted to this phrase multiple times each day.
On our legs we had HTFU - Harden The Flip Up (Velominati Rule #5 http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/).

Characters:
Camel toe - one of the top woman cyclists was quite a character. She had the most pumped up breasts and lips you have ever seen on a tiny body, gallons of make up and always wore brightly coloured trousers that higlighted the most outrageous camel toe that any of us had ever seen. Amazingly, the announcer seemed to be beset with her, and whenever she went for an award he always commented on how beautiful she was. This fella needs his eyes tested before next year.
The East Midlands possè. Good bunch of guys n gals - pleasure to ride with and well experienced. Also nice to have fellow peeps to say "alreet me duck" to.
Dolly

Dolly!

Dancing Queen
Canadians - thousands of them - everywhere!
Debby

Mechanicals:

Fingering M-aroos' rim

We weren't too bad on mechanicals, considering. M-arrooo won the prize with two punctures on the first day, and an amazing wheel lock up and blow out on another day.
After the first day we spent a long time fingering his rim to find out if it was at fault but we found nothing untoward in there.
Marco had an over-greased and thus squeaky BB on his brand new Scott Foil which the mechanics whipped out and replaced.
Stu had one puncture for which cost him 40 minutes of failing to get it pumped up again. Triple D kindly stayed with him whilst he tarted around with the worlds smallest pump, before finally using gas canisters. Queue a trip to the mechanic and new gas canisters for all! Triple D was awarded with the maglia nera for being the last to finish that day.

The Rapha apron

I sported my Rapha apron with pride whenever I touched ANYTHING mechanical on my bike. I am useless at mechanical stuff, but I do have a splendid apron which gives balance. I also invested in a Topeak Ratchet Rocket which has fast become my favourite tool (http://www.topeak.com/products/Mini-Tools/RatchetRocket).

Food:
As mentionmed the food was plentiful and we all managed to stack weight on, despite the kms in our legs. The most scary part, save from me having to constantly avoid accidentally getting some octopus or squiddly diddly on my plate, was the evening when I was tucking into some lovely roast pork. After a while I looked down as my knife hit something firm and I saw a complete jaw bone, complete with teeth staring up at me. Completely turned me vegetarian for almost 12 hours!
We were popular with the staff. With our hats and ties and blazers we stood out. In fact we did gift several caps (we all had two - minimum order issues!) to staff and other riders. However, we did establish one practice that made us very unpopular. With dinner there was free wine. Free wine from Sardinia. Free very very cold wine in caraffes from Sardinia. It was cold for a reason - as soon as it got warm it went from tasting reasonably bad to really bad! Thankfully Triple D had turned up with a small case of wine, and I had a bottle of Brunello with me. Every evening we turned up to dinner with a stealth bottle of wine with us, that at first we would drink a caraffe of their crap and then decant into. Of course we were spotted immediately by the staff who's reactions varied between the days from amusement ("very italian" one said) to annoyance - one time they wouldn't bring us the house wine/crap as they knew we wouldn't drink it. Finally we hit on the option of decanting the wine into a borraccia (drinks bottle) prior to dinner and this seemed to be the best way to sneak it into dinner. We did once try a bottle of the restaurants wine from the wine list - the waiter recommended it, opened it, told a story about how it would change as it warmed up - and he was right, it changed from not too terrible, to quite terrible. So we didn't try again.
For breakfast we ate and ate and ate, and fought for the bananas which were in limited supply, and at every meal we continued apace. On the bikes we carried bars and gels and still managed to get involved in a big lunch after riding, prior to eating a huge dinner in the evening. There was occasionally a period of about 30 minutes when I went without eating. I nearly died!
Some of the food was a little strange - my favourite was the "pea pizza" - maybe it's a traditional Sardinian dish?

Comments/moments of the tour:

Blah blah blah awesome!
Smash in the back doors
Che cavolo stai dicendo Willis?!
Bottle twisting and hand waving by Triple D
The planning of the Welsh Bollywood version of Lord of the Rings (and my axe!)
M-arroo running over a stray water bottle on a descent and ending up on the wrong side of the road, somehow missing the cars on that side. Good bike handling skills.
Triple D collecting his Maglia Nera on the podium, putting it on and replacing his Meles cap. And then wearing it constantly for the next 48 hours!

Proud to "win" the maglia nera

Beating Jarno Trulli (ex-F1 driver who was also involved)
Little Dolly - our next door neighbours dog
Ordering a pink casual shirt from Rapha to be delivered to the hotel
Haircuts - "you're in the army now"!
Stuart being asked to have a photo taken - and then being told it was because he looks like Lance Armstrong!