Hard life: hangin' in Lucca

This morning woke up first at 5a.m. then completely passed out again until 10h30! By the time I got up and moving everyone else was raring to go. On the agenda today: Ali P had some tt intervals scheduled,Jim Williams went with her on her warmup and came back fully sweated out and dying as she came to swap road bike for tt steed, he melted into a puddle by the pool. too funny. Off she went for her workout as Jim silently plotted trip to the coffee shop with the wrenches who were just rolling out of bed. Rets of them riding towards the tt climb of one of the Giro stages, some doing 4 hours, and some (ok, me) doing nothing but mild short spins. Really easy to feel lazy and not comply with your coaches' directives when you get around this bunch. All the girls are coached by different people and are coming off different races, so even though we are all doing the Giro next week, we all have different methods of getting ready for it.

The coffee shop is just down the hill from the house. We pass Bjarne Riis house (one of them apparently) on the way down. Check out the beaters the wrenches are pedaling. Jim is still on Basso's bike....affectionately nicknamed a bagel bike now.

So, off we went to the coffee shop. Favorite pastime: watching the car models go by....and all the cyclists and mopeds. Jelly is fascinated by the Fiat Panda car. Jim is fascinated by Italian women. The cappucinos are truly wicked. They (the batistas according to Jim...ahem...barista maybe?) definately know how to make them....the foam is so thick.


Below, race is on back to the house.


The guys are setting up for the leadout.


Jelly is in front. According to Chris, he was his leadout in the wee hours of the morning, so he had confidence in his wheel. For the record, Jelly miscalculated the distance and blew way before the hill was over.....