Italy Cycle Journal

Day 8 - To Vinci

Day 8 – Montecatini Terme to Vinci – 5/20/05

Should be a shorter entry today. Not much of significance going on and Vinci is a quiet little town. Although it is kind of cool typing this stuff out on my laptop in front of the Leonardo DaVinci museum and square where he grew up. I think he would’ve been a computer geek if they’d been around back then.

Evidently today’s cycling route took me right through the same roads ridden by the riders in the Giro d’Italia only a few days ago. Giro ‘wannabees’ were riding past me all day long, but more on that later.

When I got started, I was really thankful that I took yesterday off from riding, since it gave my clothes and equipment a lot of time to fully dry out. The cycling clothes dry quickly, but some of the other stuff (panniers, etc) were drenched and took some time.

One side effect of the rain was that my gloves were too tight to wear.

First rule of cycling gloves: “If it doesn’t fit, you must omit.” Or maybe “If it doesn’t fit, it’s a tourniquet.”

Today is a lot of climbing mountains during the course of the ride. Some incredible views. Unfortunately, not much in the way of decent pictures. I left really early so there was still a lot of haze covering the area. Even though the views look fantastic, they come out really washed out on camera.

The climbing is tough in areas, but fortunately I’m pretty used to riding through the mountains back home. I accidentally bought the ‘frizzante’ water instead of regular water, so it should make for some interesting burps along the ride.

As I mentioned, there were dozens and dozens of cyclists on the route today. Not touring cyclists like myself, but racing fans who wanted to ride part of the route for themselves. It’s cool to think that a lot of cycling’s greatest racers were on these same roads only a few days ago.

Lance Armstrong has said that he wants to train for the Giro d’Italia once he retires from the Tour de France after this year.

You’re probably not aware of this, but cycling has its own little caste system. There are essentially three groups – racing, touring and mountain biking. The racers are what were all over the road today – best metaphor I can come up with is that they were the ‘jocks’ in high school, the touring cyclists are the ‘good, reliable students’ who you were probably friends with and the mountain bikers are the ones who were behind the building smoking weed.

Most of the racers are cocky and obnoxious – racing by without even saying ‘buongiorno’ – you’re just in their way. But some are cool.

Got to admit that it really pisses me off when an old guy on a racing bike passes me by on a hill.

Fine. I’m loaded with 30 lbs. of gear. I’m taking my time to see the scenery. And I’m not in the best shape of my life. I accept all of that. It still pisses me off to get passed by an old guy.

Took some of the ‘alternate’ hard loops along the way to Vinci – partly because Vinci’s not a long ways away, partly to make up for not riding yesterday. It was a good, hard ride. Went up 1000 feet over the mountains into a valley, rode through the valley for a bit, then went back up and over the mountains again. Tough ride. Some of the grade was 15%, which is pretty steep when you have to ride it for a while.

One of the ‘add-ons’ routes today took me up to the birth house of Leonardo DaVinci. Or, as the guide book says the house where he was ‘traditionally considered to have been born.’ Hmmm… smacks of tourist-appeasing bullshit, doesn’t it? Yessir, the movie ‘Psycho’ really DID film there at the Psycho house on the Universal backlot – uh huh.

But the DaVinci house did date back to the 1300s, so that was cool.

A group of schoolkids was taking a tour there – some of them were bored so they started asking me where I was from and what my name was. Even the teacher got into the act – she was amazed that I was riding my bike through Italy.

I saw the same group of kids about 3 hours later at the DaVinci museum in town, after I had checked into the hotel and showered. They didn’t recognize me when I was all cleaned up. The museum was interesting, but again just filled with replicas of things DaVinci had designed.

Some of his designs were incredibly prescient. I still find it amazing that he designed an early bicycle that never got used. According to the text, the drawings of the bicycle weren’t uncovered until the 1900s – he designed it long before it became a reality. He drew ‘walking pontoons,’ tanks, rapid fire cannons, and underwater breathing apparatus. He drew all kinds of that stuff, but I don’t think much of it was every made. I picked up a book to read more about him.

Wandered through the town for a bit – not much to speak of. There are two main streets that run parallel, but combine into one at each end of town (like an Egyptian ‘eye’ shape). Then in town, there were 5 streets perpendicular to those two as you went through town. That was it. All there was to it.

Definitely no internet access today. Hopefully there will be some in Colle di Val D’Elsa or Monteriggioni. Otherwise, it’ll be several days before I get online to post. I’m guessing Siena will have some places, but that’s not until Sunday or Monday.

When I got to the hotel, it was lunchtime (aka 12 – 4), so the housekeeper was manning the front desk. THAT was interesting to try to work through. Not sure why the Italians take such long lunches – going home for a ‘nooner’ becomes a wild afternoon of passion, I guess.

Dinner was in a restaurant adjacent to the hotel – it was very good, but there was a group of soccer ruffians who were eating in an adjoining room. They were loud and they were partying hard. It was cool, though, because it gave me a chance to use the word ‘ruffians.’

Food was good – had basic penne pasta and tomatos for start, then had a grilled filet. Very American meal, I know, but I needed the protein to re-build the leg muscles.

There was a young French woman sitting alone at a table in the restaurant. I almost said hi and spoke to her, since I speak French well enough. NO ONE in this place spoke English, so at least it would be some conversation. I didn’t end up talking to her, though. But I figured out that I can say “You’re cute” in 6 languages.

Tried to go to sleep early, but the soccer ruffians (from a nearby town) were also staying in the hotel. They were loud as Hell, but fortunately, it seems they had a ‘lights out’ curfew at 10:30 so I was able to get to sleep.


Random thoughts:

A lot of cyclists often say that the reward for a long climb uphill is being able to go downhill afterward. A lot of cyclists are full of shit. Let’s see – an hour of painful struggle up a mountain, then I get 5 minutes going downhill – oh yeah, sign me up for that.

I appreciate the views of going up into the mountains, but fuck that ‘reward’ shit of going downhill.

Saw a Maserati roar past me on one of the mountain roads. It was black with a white stripe – young guy and woman in the passenger seat, with the top down (on the car, not the WOMAN).

I’m not much of a car person – but that thing fucking ruled.

posted by Joel @ 8:38 AM