Not a lot of new stuff to report... We woke up very sore from our night sleeping in the car - ouch!

 

 

Seeing as we didn’t have a lot of time and the plan was to see the riders go by on the Colle San Carlo, I got my kit on and packed the bike in the car. Originally we were going to drive up about 2/3 of the climb, then I was going to ride down and do the climb. However, the weather sure did not cooperate! It was MISERABLE!!

 

So instead we just stayed in the car for 4 hours and waited for the riders to come by (I didn’t bring ANY rain gear for cycling with me on the trip!!!).

 

As soon as we heard the helicopters overhead, we ran out to the road side to see Ivan and Piepioli fly by! You have no idea how steep this road is! It’s not even really more than 10 percent, but there is no question it is harder than what we have in BC, and for a solid 10km... NO letting up or flattening out at all. Jacquie risked bringing her camera out in the pissing rain, and boy am I glad she did... You can see how damn wet it was!!

 

Ivan dragging Piepioli up Colle San Carlo

 

The back of Simoni - at this point in 3rd about 45” down on Basso

 

Der Kaiser enjoying the ride in a group about 5’ back.

 

After seeing the stage we headed back into town and spent the rest of the day relaxing and trying to fit in!

 

We spent a lovely night in a hotel which was privately owned and very quaint! No Best Westerns here!!

 

Oh yeah, it turned out that a bunch of the caravan people were staying there too, so we got to hear, “Liquigas, Liquigas, La la la la...” for another several hours!!! Thanks to Jacquie for these pictures as I didn’t seem to think to get my camera out at all in Aosta (before my batteries died the next day!!).

 

Our Hotel

 

A Liquigas Mascot outside our hotel