First day of guiding Lee and Diane on a tandem - fun day!

I met Lee and Diane at the shop this morning and we were off on a nice tour in the countryside.  They had to be back by 2, and Diane did not want too long a tour, so I suggested going out through the Cascine then taking my normal tour through Signa, Grilliao, Cerbia, Chiesanuova, then Galluzzo, Cinque Vie and back to their hotel.  They were good cyclists and quite fit.   Lee was one of the first guys to do Ironman competitions in Hawaii when a group of Navy seals thought it up as a group challenge.  He was quite strong.  Diane and Lee worked very well on the tandem and it is a little different beast to guide than normal bikes.  It takes a little more to get it going, but once it is moving, it develops great momentum, and is very fast on the flats.  They were a little slower on the hills, in particular when compared with how fast they rode the flats.  Lastly, it is simply not as nimble as a racing bike, but no surprise there.

My learning curve was to go ahead and apply extra effort on the flats when the notion hit my brain, but to definitely back off when climbing.  Also, do whatever I can to minimize stops and starts, although that is pretty much up to traffic.  I was faster downhill, mostly because Diane was not that comfortable with going super fast on descents, but I needed to get started when they were in sight of catching up to where I was waiting, as they really steamed by when they came.  Fun to learn new things about guiding with a different kind of bike.

Lee is going to go solo with me tomorrow, as Diane said she could tell he really wanted to go harder, and by watching me and talking they could tell I was a good enough cyclist to give Lee a good day.  He really is quite fit, and put in a little over 10,000 miles last year which is less, but close to my 20,000 kilometers for last year, but he had a full time job.  Wow!  Fun couple and we have three days together.  Todays ride was 58.7 kilometers in 2:56 riding time with 487 meters of climbing.  Ciao a tutti!

At the top of Grilliao - I need more angle when taking a picture

of people on a tandem.  I will learn the next few days.

Climbing up to Chiesanuova.

On the way to Chiesanuova - finally got the angle right for a 

tandem bike shot.