I've embedded the song "It's a Wonderful Life" by Zucchero (an Italian band who I was introduced to during language lab a week ago). This song was playing on the radio as we drove home from the race today and the deep green countryside around Montefalco was shimmering from the warm sun beaming down. It sure is.
It's hard to know where to start and what to say. It's been exactly 2 months since I stepped foot on European soil with absolutely no idea what my life would be like for the upcoming 6. I'd be lying to say that, back then, I wasn't having any doubt.
Not one little itty bitty part of me wishes that I hadn't come here or taken this leap of faith. My life has changed so significantly in the past two months, it's absolutely impossible to put into words. This is a major life-changer. Let me be a little more specific: the last month has been the life-changer. Traveling around, doing the tourist thing is fantastic for the worldly knowledge gained, picking up all of the cool experiences that entails, but it doesn't necessarily change everything.
Living in a place does. Or maybe it's this place, these people that have been the change. At least I have another four months to understand everything better. Oh, to be able to actually communicate what's on my mind with my friends and understand everything they say to each other and to me...but everything is still great. It's the smiles, the hugs and kisses (kisses here are readily shared in the non-romantic sense, one per cheek), the words we do share. It's enough right now, though my comprehension is significantly better by the hour and I'm using (little-by-little) better vocabulary.
Gran Fondo - La Sagrantino 2010
First, here's a great picture of the team (squadra), though I'm sorry Roberta, Fabio and Fabio weren't in this one since they were out there today. (The team is really big so it'll be hard to ever get a full team picture.)
Now to the details of the race. Mom, this one was for you! I have to first share a sweet thing my mom said to me before the race today in her good-luck email. She told me that racing will hurt less as I race more. Unfortunately, Mom, there's a quote from a great bike racer (I forget who): "It never gets easier, you just go faster."
True. I can't wait to download the statistics from today's race. It was much more punishing than the last race in a few different ways. The race began in Montefalco--a quiet, beautiful little town that overlooks Bevagna. I've raced up to Montefalco before...last summer after getting the marriage certificate of my great grandparents, I had to try to catch the Ciclismo Classico group in Montefalco. It's quite a hill and fantastically gorgeous up there.
The race began at the top of the very big hill. I was freaked out about descending on these twisty, narrow roads with 110 of my closest bike racing buddies. Now knowing what Gran Fondo racing is all about (that this is a very real race with guys who are very in it to race), I went in nervous. I also have a team to not let down. They (D. in particular) have invested a lot in me, I didn't want the last race to be a beginner's luck sort of thing.
Turns out the start was all a neutral roll-out down the entire hill (this means that there's a car rolling slowly at the front of all of the racers so no one can try to hit mock 1 down the hill). That didn't make it much less scary for me, though, just because a lot of guys have carbon wheels and when one applies one's breaks (who has these kinds of wheels), there's that squeak that you almost always hear before a crash. I have a hard time stomaching the sound. I didn't see a crash all day, though, these guys continue to amaze me with their bike handling skills.
Finally the race began right around Bevagna. We flew past two homes of my great grandparents. I saluted my ancestors. Thanks, guys, you brought me back to this land that you held so dear so I could also place it in my heart.
My legs weren't ready to race this week like they were last week. I think it helps a lot when I get a few good intervals in (sprints, even) before a race. Today I started cold. My bike went on a diet this week, though, so that helped significantly on the climbs. Once my legs got going, they went. I got with a fast group (though I was upset about losing many places due to my fear on the neutral roll-out down the hill). We flew along and everything was all good...until we hit a fast, technical downhill portion. I stuck with them for quite a ways, but slipped off the back when I got a little nervous about the break-neck speeds. (See a theme today?) I chased hard to catch up on the flat section. There was one guy who had been stripped off and I worked with him to make it back...but his course took him another direction so there I was, suddenly alone. I got in the time-trial groove and went as hard as I could for a little while because I was really concerned that I was the last racer out there. If I waited for the next group to catch up (who may not even exist since I don't see anyone behind me), I could be out here all day long.
I had heard there were 8 women in my race today (including the world champ) and I was sure they were all in front of me. I was so disappointed in myself. I was trying to figure out how I was going to say sorry to the team afterward. This haunted me the entire race.
Fortunately, the road tipped up and I could see back further (there were a total of 9 climbs today--3 times the number of last week). There were some guys coming along so I soft pedaled until they reached me. This turned out to be a good group. They were a bit faster than the group I ended up with last week, I was glad about that. I got to the front and started to work with one of the guys up there. I looked back and the pack was gone. Woohoo, a break! It didn't end up lasting, but it was effective in picking up the pace of the group. Remember, I was sure I had people up the road that I needed to chase down...or at least not come in an hour after!
The first 100km were hard racing miles. I also got a lot more comfortable on the fast descents and hung fine with the guys. At 100km, the pack really, really slowed down. It didn't make sense to me to go to the front and pick up the pace since I figured they knew something I didn't. Yup. The new, cool town I got to know today was Trevi. It's at the top of a very long, intense climb. That's why the guys were taking it easy...they wanted legs for this climb.
After the ascent and descent to/from Trevi, the pack was going slooooowly. I was bummed. We had at least been making good time up to this point. If I'm going to lose, I want it to be by as few minutes as possible. Almost no one had any motivation and the last 8 km were supposed to be a pretty long climb into Montefalco...that I didn't know if I'd have steam for. This pace continued until 2km to go.
The long, steep climb I was expecting really didn't end up happening until the 2k mark (sorry, my memory is foggy on exact distances). I was keeping a close eye on my GPS watch and they had signs starting at 10km to go (the whole race was only 130 km opposed to the 148 km I was expecting). Last week the pack ended up finishing in a sprint. I didn't want it to come down to a sprint because I'll always be beaten by men in a sprint. At a little over 1 km to go, after riding 2nd wheel and having no idea what was going on behind me (2nd wheel is a bad place to be, by the way, for this very reason), I took off and didn't look back. My legs felt very good at that point considering all of the rest they'd gotten for the past ~25 km. The pack let me go. (Or were they unable to follow? I'll never know.) So at least I got to finish the race racing. And I put 2 minutes on the others who did end up in a sprint finish.
A few of the guys who I had raced with were super sweet after the race and shook my hand, very complimentary. Very similar to my experience last week. These are good guys. For the record, I really like Italian men. I think it's great that they prove that chivalry isn't dead. In the romantic sense, all of the rules might totally change, but as people, I like them a lot. They go out of their way to be sweet, when there is absolutely nothing for them to gain. I'm not saying this doesn't exist elsewhere, I'm just saying it's everywhere here, a daily occurrence. It's also helpful that I'm not a drop-dead gorgeous blonde or foreign-looking. I feel they're sweet to me as one of them, not as a hey-babe sort of thing.
Back to the race and I'll quit babbling and go study. Turns out that out of 110 participants (I thought there were going to be many times that in the race, but the hoards signed up for the Medio Fondo, a slightly shorter race than the Gran Fondo), I came in 70th. I was hoping for top half. However, for women, it was 2nd place to the World Champ (Michela Gorini). Niiiiice. In a race with so few women (not sure how many, but possibly only 3), it's not like this makes me anything special (although it's pretty sweet considering no one else knows how few women are out there and my name will be next to hers in the newspaper tomorrow, like last week when I got 3rd), but I know that I'm racing well and my legs are feeling strong...and I'm racing with my heart. I love this racing. It's phenomenal.
Maybe it's not the racing, maybe it's the community and fun that surrounds the race... Again, the pasta party afterward was so much fun!
Today goes down in the list of memories because of the awesome time with my teammates and fellow racers. Everyone had a great race today and D was beaming from his, too (it surprised him, I think, his best races are the ones with super steep, sustained climbs). He treated to gelato after the race, too. He's getting good at reading my mind--gelato is the best way to finish the day after a race. Another chapter for my future book, ha.
Next weekend we're off from racing. I'll be visiting the Ciclismo Classico group (Marcello is one of the guides) in Gubbio for their insanity fest (it has a name, will definitely be blogged) and who knows what else.
A couple other shots to complete the day:
And with that, time just slipped away. After racing, the only thing I am capable of doing is thinking about racing. Yes, I got to church, but I couldn't understand much. Active listening wasn't possible after everything today, but I did have a good chat with God. Thank you for all of our mothers, thank you for this wonderful life.
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