Tirenno / Adriatico today! I love this kind of thing. It is a very low key race to watch, but has basically all the best pros in the world racing. Simply very cool. It lacks the hoopla of the Giro, which actually is quite nice. When the peleton came by, they were literally less than a foot from me with no barricades. I was totally amazed how densely packed the peleton was. So colorful, so fast, so fun to watch. I went with a group from the team, 5 of us to start, all of whom made it to San Polo for excellent cafe / pastries. A couple went back to Strada in Chianti to watch the race come by at the top of the little climb from Ferone, leaving three of us at the top of Poggio alle Croce. A perfect day, cool, but sunny. The lead group was around 5 to 10 minutes ahead of the peleton, and broke apart around 300 meters from the top when 2 of 5 took off to sprint for the Mountain points. It is hard to express how fast they were sprinting at the top of a semi difficult climb. Wow! Even with this being pretty low key, I think there are more vehicles, including vans, motorcycles, team cars, etc. than there are cyclists. The whole thing is pretty amazing.
A picture of the line and GPM sign for the rated climb at Poggio
alle Croce while we waited an hour or so for the pros.
The two leaders at Poggio alle Croce sprinting for the mountain
points as this is the rated climb for the day. They were going really
fast on this final sprint for the line.
The second group of three riders just 20 seconds behind the leaders.
Finally, here comes the pro peleton - cool!
My favorite picture of the day, as the pro peleton comes by. I stopped with the pictures after this one so I could simply enjoy it going by. I did say hi to Alberto and Vicenzo. I don't think they heard. Aside from it just being fun to watch, they went by at the top of a cat 3 climb really fast in a very, very dense pack. Surprised how close they all were to each other.
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