Giro della Montagna

So, we went to the bike races on Sunday to watch the day's final crit in the Gateway Cup's Giro della Montagna on the Hill. Overall, it was a fantastic event. Disappointment? We were in the city's Italian district and most of the restaurants were closed and the event ran out of food. Sad, really. But we saw some really great racing and Gert got a souvenir in the form of the broken mouthpiece of a water bottle. Mom yelled at us for keeping it. I would have taken the full water bottles that we found, but some woman was watching us and we felt oddly weird about taking things laying in the street. Conscience is a strange thing.

My wife suddenly thinks I should race in the Citizen/Cat 5 races (we saw the Pro 1, 2, which was quite a bit faster). I keep telling her that I'd need to buy a new bike, considerably more expensive than what I ride, and that I don't think I'd be very good at it. But she's unconvinced. Granted, on a lighter bike I could probably increase my speed a bit, but . . . I lack confidence. Maybe if I had someone who races currently to ride with and yell at me periodically, but I'm too lazy to seek that out and too random in my training to accomplish anything.

The girls had a great time, from the moment they felt the blast of air as the pack zoomed by at the start to the finish. Naturally I forgot my camera, so you'll have to live with the crappy phone cam pics. Most surprising to me was Matilda, who really got into it and even started screaming in the end:



Gert's interest ebbed and flowed, but she was particularly interested in the nasty crash that took place about forty feet from us. She was excited to see the only rider who had to drop out of the race getting his leg iced. Go figure.



I do have some video from my phone cam. It's in 3gp, which may or may not play for you. It should open in QuickTime. Or maybe not. It's tiny, but give it a try.

The Start
Final Laps

If the video does open, notice Matilda on the second one. She's getting excited for number 66, whose name I never caught. He was consistently in the back of the pack, so she keyed him as a favorite. Go figure.

Anyway, the whole family is hooked. We'll probably attend even more in the future. You should too! It really was exciting, even if you don't wear lycra yourself.