Di seguito tutti gli interventi pubblicati sul sito, in ordine cronologico.
 
 

Interbike is opening its doors next week, and I'm getting ready for it.
Come to booth #401 to see how things are doing and I'll show you the new products!!

Around mid August I realised my laptop was becoming too slow and there wasn't much space left on the hard-disk. I had had a dual-boot option with XP and Linux Ubuntu for more than one year and I grew to appreciate Ubuntu... an upgrade to Windows Vista had never been an option, so I decided for a clean start, backupped all the data and installed Ubuntu as native system.

Then, when I was 80% functional, problems started:
- installing additional fonts proved quite hard too;
- I couldn't make the wi-fi work despite several attempts;
- volume controls and audio set-up (for Skype etc.) were a mess.

Yesterday there was a very short (and very fast) triathlon race in Osiglia, 70km from here, in the mountains between Piemonte (where I live) and Liguria, the sea-side region that ideally continues to the west with French 'Cote d'Azur'.
During the last couple of weeks we'd been planning to make a real training out of this: cycle there taking the 'race stuff' (running shoes, dry clothes, towel etc.) in a backpack, race, then go back. We changed our mind several times regarding the time we had to leave to get there before 11 a.m, the race start, and we finally settled to meet here in Bra at 6:30.


Gilles, our local French die-hard triathlete, confirmed his presence, then cancelled, then I saw him at the meeting point on time, with a dark face. He was pissed off like mad with his wife who, according to him, is trying to sabotage his sport life and, more in general, is making his life very difficult. Notwithstanding the real nature of his family problems that are his very personal business, I started to worry for the rest of the day (a business very close to me).
My fears turned real as we started to ride: instead of the relaxed pace we were supposed to take to 'save the leg' for the race, we were immediately full throttle. Icio joined us 10 km down the road and he immediately realised the problem we had. Gilles is quite a strong tempered guy, a well-trained cyclist in general and a hell of a good climber: on the first of the several long climbs of the day I stayed at his wheel, but I saw Icio struggling and distanced. I told Gilles to wait for us at the top and take a coffee, I reduced my pace and did the rest of the climb with Icio. We rejoined at the top and our pace became more reasonable, although quite fast considering the day we had ahead of us.
In Millesimo, 15 km from the race, we met other two team mates, Paolo and Fabio, who were coming from Alba, more or less our same distance, and pedaled together to Osiglia (I will just mention shortly that we met a blond girl on a carbon Bianchi: some guys of our group tried to impress her with the 'we are triathletes' story and convinced her to accompany us to the top of the climb to Osiglia - to show how fast they were - . Icio and I stayed back to watch the scene as she easily kept the climbing pace of Gilles, getting to the top dropping all the others. Never under estimate a thin, tanned girl on a high end bike!).
Getting to the race start we met Gian and Rambo, his dog. Gian is a shop owner (and good friend/strong triathlete) and he'd gotten there the night before, sleeping in his van.
Osiglia has a nice lake, quite unexpectedly full with water this year (the last couple of years the swim leg was a half swim/half roll in mud experience). The race started: Icio did an incredible swim, coming out of the water with the fastest guys, while I was the slowest of our group. I then did a so-so cycling leg, made an ok transition and started the short 4 km running. I started to cramp after 1 km, whished the magnesium gel was in my pocket instead of in my backpack in Gian's van, and bit my lips trying to close the gap with Icio, who was then some 30" ahead of me. I saw my friend in the distance, did all I could, but the best I managed to do was finishing 20" behind him, sprinting to keep my place against a guy who was coming fast from behind (I hate this).
The best reward after crossing the line was the refreshing embrace of the lake, taking our cool-down swim. We couldn't stay there long, though: it was 2 pm and we had to go back.
We decided to go straight to Montezemolo and stop there at a bar to eat something. Unfortunately we under-estimated the heat, the climb and the fatigue that was building-up in our legs. While Gilles and Paolo pedaled away from us on the long climb to Montezemolo (both are well trained, both were without backpacks... and I know I'm looking for excuses here I distanced Icio who distanced Fabio. Sitting in the bar eating my ice-cream was a trascendent experience. One more coffee and we were again on the road.
This year I didn't do real long rides, so after 100 km I was in an unexplored territory. Power in my legs was going on-off unexpectedly and pedals were turning square. The guys dropped me while good'ol Icio adapted his pace. I eventually recovered a little: we joined again for a while then we splitted, as two went down to Alba. We steered to a steep descent that led us to Dogliani... then there were 20 more km to go, mostly flat, before the steep climb to Bra. Gilles had been on the front most of the day, and he was starting to fade (luckily): we climbed to Bra side by side and nobody was talking (he tried to drop me anyway, that's really part of his nature... but I kept my steel Pegoretti on the side of his carbon Fuji). We said 'ciao' to each other and off he went to his angry wife (she had calmed down by then, hopefully).
Including the race, that was a full 7h of exercise: very painful... and great!!!

Sunday it was triathlon time: Gaia did her first tri-kids!