Tour d'Italia

[George Handy]

The Lone Star Cyclists will once again be presenting the 22nd annual Tour d'Italia ride on Saturday June 16th in Italy, Texas. Start time is 8:00 AM, with distances of approximately 12,33,42,50 and 62 miles. Free camping and showers at Italy High School, and there will be a spaghetti dinner Friday evening, a pancake breakfast Saturday morning, ($5.00 each) and hamburgers after the ride (reasonably priced, it is a fund-raiser for the sports teams). For further information on the ride and the club go to www.lonestarcyclists.org

Procedes from this ride benefit the Italy High School Scholarship Fund, Bikes for Tykes, M.A.D.D.,and others.

We're keeping our fingers crossed for good weather this year!

George Handy
Director, Tour d'Italia 2006-2007
President, Lone Star Cyclists

[wayner61]

I'm in!

I have heard good things about the routes. I am looking forward to it.

Wayne

[George Handy]

It's a good ride! I'll be the one there with the stessed-out look on my face.

[cuda2k]

We got a list going of those here planning on making the trip this year in another thread. I certainly plan to be one of them! Missed it last year for one reason or another but certainly intend on making the ride this time around.

[deaf_j]

Here's a link to the thread:

First Thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=279541&highlight=d%27Italia)

[George Handy]

I'll be much more relaxed this time next week (I hope!) My crew & I were out painting the roads for next Saturday's ride. Cripes, I hope the humidity goes down a bit by then! Temps weren't bad, winds were gentle; 'oppressive' was the TV weatherman's word of the day. BTW since last year there's a new MUCH nicer gas station/store/Sonic on the east side of I-35 on Hwy 34. After the ride, let me know how it was-anyone working there can point me out.

George Handy
Director Tour d'Italia

[kevinmcdade]

I may round up some of my riding buddies and make this a training ride. I hear the roads are great in and around Italy. If I do make it I will be doing the 62 mile route.

[cuda2k]

Tour de Italia is this weekend, looking for a few other riders to join a friend of mine and myself on the 50mi route. Plan an overall average speed of around 18mph, moving speeds of up to 20-21 or so on the flats. If we get a group of 5+ we should be able to rotate the line fairly regularly to keep us all fresh over the route. I usually skip the first stop, and catch the rest of them. Especially after last weekend when I skipped too many and my back is still complaining about that choice.

[jim10040]

I rode in #19, and heard it RAINED last year...I'll be showing up OF COURSE, with glasses for the rain. This'll be the first time to ride any real distance on my roadie. I hope to go down there Friday night, but we'll see about that. ;)

[cuda2k]

What are the road conditions like down there? ie: how much and how rough of chipseal are we looking at? Debating taking my fast roadie or my more comfortable but heavier one.

[jim10040]

It's all farm-market roads as I remember. Smooth enough on a MTB, don't know about my roadie with the 1" tires. I remember it was actually pretty nice, but considering I don't ride a lot of roads I don't know what to compare it to.

[George Handy]

Roads for nost part are nice. There is a stretch of rough chip-seal south of Avalon before the first rest stop, but overall pretty smooth. There are a corners (Avalon & Blooming Grove) that you'll need to be careful going through. Looks like it might be a little cooler on Saturday!

George Handy
Director Tour d'Italia

[cuda2k]

Thanks for the info. Since it looks like possible rain, I'll likely bring my 'rain bike' which as a rather stiff aluminum frame compared to the silky smooth ride of my steel frames. Thankfully it has a very nice quality carbon fork on it, but the bike does tend to beat me up a bit after 30mi or so. Just have to play it on the safe side and utilize the rest stops instead of blowing by them like I did at Collin County last weekend.

[jim10040]

RAIN RAIN RAIN!!!

LOVED it! There was a point where I couldn't see more than about 1/2 a mile, but it gave my bike a good wash after thinking I could ride through the mud from the parking area at the back to the start point. I LOVE my road bike! It took it all very well! Didn't take any rain gear, but all the synthetic clothes dried in a few minutes after the rain stopped (back in my car). The lunch afterwards was great. The rest stops were wonderful, even though I think they will have many cases of pickle juice for next year. I wish I had the energy to take a case with me for this summer. I DID do the 30 mi route, my legs are a little sore, and I REALLY want to get a Brooks saddle now. Didn't see anybody I recognized, but had plenty of fun. Anyway, I'm up for next year!

DID hit 30+ (barely) MPH on the second try (downhill and pedalling like crazy), and like I said, I LOVE my bike!

[wayner61]

Ride report -

The day certainly didn't start off the way I wanted. Got ready to load the bike at about 6:00 AM this morning and found that I had a flat on the front. Replaced the tube and thought I did a pretty thorough check of the tire, but as I would later learn, I missed something.

Left the house headed for Italy just as it started sprinkling again. Just south of downtown Dallas, sprinkles turned into a monsoon. VERY heavy rain for at least 20 -25 miles through the construction jungle that is I-35 through Waxahachie. Will they ever finish this road???

Got to Italy and found the HS. Rain was just sprinkling when I went in to register. Registration was practically painless. I registered for the 62 miler. I didn't eat any of the breakfast they were serving, but it looked pretty good as I walked by. Went back out and got ready for the ride. Looked like the sun was going to come out and maybe the rain would stay away (not).

About 6 or 7 miles into the ride, the bottom fell out and we got a really good soaking. Couldn't see very well as it was raining HARD. Stopped at the first rest stop and dried my glasses off so I could see a little better. Sometime between RS 1 and RS 2, the rain let up.

About 1 or 2 miles before RS 3, my front tire went flat again. It may have been getting progressively softer and I just didn't know it. Pulled off the to the edge of the shoulder and took a look. SAG driver stopped before I could really even have a chance to look. They offered to take me to the rest stop but I decided just to check it out there rather than get my wet and dirty self in their truck. Couldn't see anything wrong with the tire or tube, so I re-mounted it and hit it with a shot of C02. Seemed to hold air OK so I headed out. Pulled into the next rest-stop just in time for the tire to go down again. :(

RBM mechanical support pulled in right behind me and offered to fix the tire. He looked and felt several times around the tire before finding the culprit. I teeny, tiny sliver of glass right in the center of the tread. The thing wasn't much bigger than a grain of sand, but it had certainly caused me enough headaches for one day.

With the tire fixed and my glasses dried off again, I headed out. When the 50 and 62 mile routes split, I began to think I might be the last person on the route. I didn't see another soul for about 4 miles. Then I started catching a few riders and a few more caught me. Whipped into the 4th rest stop for a refill on water. Felt great at this point.

At about mile 49, we turned back onto SR-22. Dead into a strong head wind. It may have just been the wind, but it felt like we were also steadily climbing as we headed into Frost. I was just about toast when we made the turn at Frost and headed back into Italy. Stopped at the last rest area and got a fig newton along with some more water. After the turn, we had a pretty good tail-wind for a good portion of the last stretch of road. Got back into Italy with no trouble at all. Nice welcome when I got back to the HS by a few of the volunteers as well as some of the riders that were still hanging out. I had some stuff to take care of this afternoon, so I didn't hang out after the ride. Just showered and loaded up to leave. Looked like the folks that were hanging out were having a good time though with the snow-cones and assorted lunch stuff.

Overall impression - Very nice ride. Well organized with very friendly volunteers. SAG support was outstanding. Never went very long without seeing a SAG vehicle of some sort patrolling the route. Not a lot of public safety support at intersections, but for the most part, it isn't needed in this area. Roads chosen for the 62 mile route at least were pretty lightly traveled and the traffic seemed to be pretty tolerant of the bike rally when they passed. Rest stops were great. Nectarines and plums iced down were a great alternative to the usual bananas and oranges. Great roads for the most part. Only a couple of relatively short stretches of chip seal. Some of the roads around the high-school need a bit of work, but we weren't really on them for very long at all.

Met George and said Hi before the ride, but didn't see any other BFers, at least none that I recognized. If you were there, you may have seen me though. I was the bigger guy wearing a the new Texas BF jersey (Thanks Kevin!). Finished the ride with a 14.5 MPH average overall including all the tire trouble and the extra stops due to the rain so I was pretty happy with the effort. I have adjusted the fit on my bike a bit this week and I think it helped a bit with power on climbs.

George - If you are reading this, the only criticism I had (and it is very minor) is a couple of the rest stops, particularly RS 4 and RS 5 in Frost could have used some hay or straw spread around to make it a bit less of a mud hole. My cleats are pretty tolerant of muddy conditions, but I saw a couple of guys with speedplays that weren't quite so lucky after a trip to the water cooler. Bottom line though is you guys keep doin' what you are doin' It is a super good time!

Wayne

[George Handy]

Thanks to all who braved the weather and came down to Italy to ride. Everyone I talked to seemed to have had a good time despite the weather conditons. Wayne-thanks for the tip on the hay for the rest stops. It's NOT gonna rain next year!

Got home at about 7 PM last night after breaking everything down, loading the truck, driving back home, and unloading the truck into our strorage unit. A hot shower, dinner, and that was about it for me!

[cuda2k]

Got to admit that I didn't make it out in the rain yesterday morning. Big ups to those who did. The guy I was going to ride down with decided he wasn't up for riding in the rain all day after his roommate woke him up at 1am trying to get in. I decided to go back to bed and live to ride another day. I will make it next year... of course, that's what I said last year. :o

[russell-man]

Had a great ride in Italy riding the 40mile, first time I rode in the rain though. I felt like a little kid with a big smile on my face riding in the pouring rain, but after the first rest stop there was no more rain and the weather was perfect. This ride will definately be on my list for next year.