Giro D’Italia — Stage 16

I’ve been joking to the ass rubbers (soigneurs) to get me a pizza for lunch — in the car — while I am following in the race. I’ve been grilling them almost daily. And they have creative reasons to NOT get me a pizza. Poor diet. I’ll get fat. It will be cold when we get it to you. We never know where the feed zone is in relation to ANY food. All compelling reasons not to help a brother out. But today our stage finishes in Linz Austria (again isn’t this the Giro D’ITALIA?). Last year we had a stage of the Tour of Austria finish in Linz. And I knew the hotel we stayed at when we were in Linz back then. And I knew of a great Pizza place within walking distance of that hotel. But I guess I should have looked at my hotel book a bit closer so I would not get my hopes up. Because we were staying about 20 or 25k out of town on this small mountain/hill. Beautiful area. Beautiful hotel. And best of all we were all alone at this hotel.

The sad news was we that had to drive OUT of town and I saw my chance of pizza disappearing fast. I knew we could not stop now. We had to get to the hotel to do work so we would not be out in the dark. Hindsight is 20/20 and now glad I (easily) resisted stopping for pizza. Tomorrow is the Zocolan stage and we have to change all cranks to compact. We will use 34×27 for tomorrow’s hell stage/climb. Not only race bikes but spare bikes too. We have only 6 riders left in the race. But race bikes AND spare bikes means we have to change 12 cranks, reposition 12 front derailleurs and readjust said 12 front derailleurs. Lucky Nick (hotel mechanic this day) changed all the cogs to 27 in the afternoon. Thanks Nick. We still finished fairly late (just before dinner) and worse was that up on this hill/mountain, it got really windy and cold. I’m happy to be inside and into my warm shower.