Epic Italy Day 1

Day 1 was pretty sweet. We started at 5:30 am with a 6.5 mile run through Verona which is a very beautiful town. For someone from the U.S. it's pretty cool to run through a place where 90% of the architecture was constructed before the Mayflower landed. A lot of the run was along a river that was flowing pretty quickly due to much recent rain.

We then headed to the pool for a 3 km swim with a 2km time trial. I wasn't last in the swim :). That may be a first for me in any swimming event at an Epic Camp. Did my 2km in just over 32 minutes with a wetsuit just cruising. After the swim we had a nice breakfast and headed out on the bike for our ride. It was a bit overcast early on but became sunny and warm. Most of the ride was along the Eastern shore of Lake Garda. The scenery along the lake was incredible-simply gorgeous. There were cliffs on both sides, lots of sailboats and small towns with people enjoying the weather. Molina said it would be a great place to have a triathlon and he's right. We saw lots of Italina vehicles both gasoline powered (Ferraris and Ducattis) and human powered - cyclists of all varieties were out in force and full of good cheer. We didn't see it but apparently there was a Granfondo today with a couple thousand cyclist. I believe a Grandfondo is an organized ride, not technically a race but times are recorded. Gordo said he expected to see Roger Moore pop out along the lake with all the high dollar vehicles, Italian fashion and multimillion Euro residences on dispaly.

After about 60 miles we stopped for a quick snack then did an 11 mile uphill time trial. Gordo pulled 75 percent of the way to that point most of it around 25 mph and we made good time averaging 22 mph into a strong wind including all the time where we slowed to a crawl through the towns. In the time trial I wasn't last but I was alos far from first. Gordo is very fit and focused on bike speed for this camp and took first in the TT. Stephen, a camper from London nabbed second with Molina and John Newsome rounding out the top 4. Molina can still hammer along with several others in our group including our one female camper, Jo. She's from London and while she might be the lightest camper she's not lacking in power. I think she was 5 or 6th in the TT and abused a few male egos including mine. I think I was 8th of 11.

After the TT we had a quick 10km downhill to Trento where we're staying for the next two nights. On that descent we went through a very long tunnel at up to 40 mph. With the low lighting and cars whizzing by it felt like Space Mountain at Disney World. We had lunch in Trento. Pita and canned salmon with mustard and dill for me. Yummy. After that some folks called it a day and a few went to the pool for another swim. John Newsome who will be racing pro at Roth in July decided to go do another 30km to scout out tomorrow's route as he is in charge of logistics in addition to participating in the camp. More importantly he has the pink jersey as points leader and wanted the extra point for going up to 150km/93 miles. Stephen (Steven not sure on the spelling) was off on a 2 hour 40 minute run after running 10km this morning that ultimately put him a half point ahead of John and took the Pink Jersey. I joined John for the additional 30 km as it was only 2:30 pm. That was probably not the best idea as I have been fighting some recurring issues with my left quad/adductors which are ominously tight tonight. We had a little rain which was refreshing. The ride took us through the center of Trento where there were quite a few folkd out for Sunday walks. Cars are very considerate to cyclists over here. They normally give one quick honk to let you they are behind you then pass with plenty of clearance. Many pedestians will cheer for you. After our extra 30km John asked if I wanted to join him for another swim. I passed as I'm trying to avoid getting "point fever". For those of you who don't know, we have a points competition. I won't bore you with the details but basically the farther you go and the better you do in our time trials the more points you get. So day one went pretty well with 3km swim, 93 miles bike and 6.7 mile run. About six hours of training. Only 7 more days to go. I thought the scenery today alone justified the entire trip but according to John who has scouted all the routes it is going to get much better.