Walked down to the village with Colin and Mo shortly after breakfast – went to the same cafe I was at yesterday on my bike ride. Had another excellent cappuccino then headed back to the campervan to get ready for the race.
Colin went to put up the flags but couldn’t find the zip ties so he went back down to the village – no one had them so he ended up attaching them with bits of my clothesline string. It rained off and on all morning but slacked off about ½ hour before the race started.
Quite a few racers did another trial run on the course, then the real race started from Trento at 1:20, reaching us just before 2:00.
We’re right at the 10 km to go mark and have a banner and everything just a few metres down from us. I walked up a ways with Mo and had a nice chat with some English folks – a mother and son from Cornwall.
I find that almost anyone will wave and smile at me if I wave and smile first – even the police motos and cars, as well as the other race vehicles.
The race was awesome – we knew the start order, which is the current overall standing in reverse. Sven Tuft, bless him, was the third one by and I gave him an extra big cheer. I had one of my Cdn flags pinned to my black jacket which was over my chair at the side of the road and when Sven rode past I screamed very loudly ‘go Canada!’ (not that he heard).
The crowds along the road were great, but I was surprised by the number of amateur cyclists going both up and down as the race was happening – that would never be allowed in the Tour!
After the last rider – Simon Yates – passed all of the calvacade went by again, as well as a bunch of ambulances and the other official cars. Once again within seconds the barriers and banner were coming down and folks were leaving.
Guido had his tv on so he could watch as the racers reached the finish. Rohan Dennis won the stage with Tony Martin coming second and Dumoulin doing well enough for third. Simon Yates lost time to his main competitors, but is still in the overall lead.
About ½ hour later we were all alone on the side of the hill and it suddenly seemed very quiet.