{"id":1322,"date":"2017-05-11T20:39:22","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T20:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=1322"},"modified":"2017-05-13T19:53:30","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T19:53:30","slug":"day-6-racing-through-sicilian-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=1322","title":{"rendered":"Day 6: Racing through Sicilian Towns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In an inauspicious start to the day, we had the worst breakfast in memory\u00a0at our hotel before departing–stale croissants and lukewarm coffee. We had come to expect bountiful and tasty breakfasts befitting cyclists at our hotels. Here Todd substitutes yogurt and Ben holds the remnants of fresh croissants he purchased.<\/p><\/div>\n

We packed our bags and left our hotel by 9 AM on Wednesday so we could ride the first 75 km of the Giro\u2019s Stage 4 before the real Giro began.\u00a0 Giro Stage 4 would leave from Pedara, 3 km away, at 1:15 PM, giving us ample time to get to the historic town of Taormina, our next stop, where we could cheer the boys as they came through.<\/p>\n

Things didn\u2019t go according to plan.\u00a0 Stage 4 was to pass through many Sicilian towns, often through the Centro on cobblestones and one way streets\u2014the wrong way.\u00a0 Gendiarmi and local polizia were already controlling intersections and re-directing traffic, although we could usually get through on our bikes.\u00a0 Once we had to walk our bikes a km to stay on the route; another time we had to argue using gestures since we didn\u2019t speak Italian until the gendiarmi finally gave up and waved us through.\u00a0 We were suffering an Etna hangover, our legs were tired and we dawdled.<\/p>\n

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There was a crowd of people and lots of Giro sponsor tents in Pedara, starting town for Stage 5. This was 9:30 AM, almost 4 hours before race time.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The main streets of most towns were already closed to traffic. We had to walk our bikes through this town because they were also having a religious festival.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Fans paint the roads throughout the route with inspiration for their favorites.<\/p><\/div>\n

By 12:45 we were only half way and Ben intercepted us and told us to stay put in a town called Piedmonte Etneo because roads ahead were already closed.\u00a0 Local folks filled the Centro, and we occupied ourselves with beer, panini and gelato as the Giro caravan came through, then stopped, with music, dancers, and a long Italian speech over a loudspeaker.\u00a0 Finally, at 2:45, police sirens whooped and soon a dozen police motorcycles roared into town, then a Giro car with two cyclists close behind, more motorcycles and two team cars.<\/p>\n

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The caravan arrives and stays for 15 minutes. Here’s a\u00a0special Giro truck.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Five minutes later, the whole peloton arrived, sped over the town cobbles and disappeared, followed by 20 team cars.\u00a0 We barely had time to yell, \u201cJoey!\u00a0 BMC!\u201d\u00a0 The local buzz dissipated and the town quickly began its return to normal.\u00a0 We got on our bikes and pedaled for two more hours to Taormina, satisfied that we had experienced first-hand the twists, turns and cobbles of Sicilian towns, just like the racers. Pink directional signs and barricades were already down in the towns ahead and we had to struggle to\u00a0follow the route.<\/p>\n

Mt. Etna was our constant companion to our left, the Mediterranean to our right. \u00a0And just to make sure the day was memorable, Ben cajoled us into riding\u00a0our bikes up the steep, 2 km ramp into Taormina. \u00a0It started with a 20% pitch and proceeded with 8 – 16%\u00a0from there. We found out the next day there was a longer but much gentler slope into Taormina. \u00a0Dammit, Ben!! \u00a0But he knows us well and wants to make sure he creates memories. \u00a0(65 mi., 5,200 ft.)<\/p>\n

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Caravan dancers came onto our patio and took a special interest in foreign cyclists.\u00a0First, Pat needs another beer.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Joey (BMC
kit, foreground) racing up the cobblestones into Piedmonte Etna<\/p><\/div>\n

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Mt. Etna was on our left, showing streaks of snow.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Mediterranean lay below to our right.<\/p><\/div>\n

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We packed our bags and left our hotel by 9 AM on Wednesday so we could ride the first 75 km of the Giro\u2019s Stage 4 before the real Giro began.\u00a0 Giro Stage 4 would leave from Pedara, 3 km … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-1322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","tag-sicily-100th-giro"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QqGi-lk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}