Not bad for a training partner!

today- mario came and rode with us again. it is so cool to have him ride with us. he is just super nice and seems to just love riding. he is perpetually smiling and joking and has a good sense of humor.

today- we had a pretty chill ride after yesterday’s long hard, hilly day. today, it was the flats and sprinting. he took us down to the ocean and cruised around, stopping for a goodie along the water. then we met up with a group ride for our last hour in our three hour ride.

i had to do some sprints and although mario declined to sprint with me (he was OBVIOUSLY scared)... he was telling me where to go. my sprint was not great, but i was playing around with a few different things that he had been telling me to try yesterday.

so, most of the ride was pretty low key and uneventful. after we met up with the group though... then i had my fun! the group rode along, but as we headed back into lucca- there was, of course, a city limit sprint.

the thing is though... i did not know where the heck it was. i can tell you now though- that it was a 5 k full on leadout until the sprint! a good 4 k before the final sprint, we had a lead out going and i was on mario’s wheel. he had told me that there was a sprint coming- so when he gassed it and flicked his elbow at me, i jumped hard and sprinted, looking for some unknown sign. there was no sign.

next thing i know- the leadout comes flying along by me and i hope back on. we were pretty much full speed with about a dozen guys just hammering, pulling through, hammering and occasionally, one or two flying into full sprints off the front. i took some good hard pulls though and was charging to stay on.

heading into town, mario got up front and gassed it. we were going 60k an hour behind him! he ended up riding me off his wheel, but i am proud to say that we had dropped everyone else before i slipped off! (i like to neglect to realize that i am a MUCH smaller draft than he is!)...

he slowed and we regrouped and started charging again. when we hit the town, mario jumped and so did i. it was impressive to see. he makes it look so easy. it is interesting to watch him sprint- it is very different from most people who i have seen sprint. he is a big gear masher and sprinted in a slow, methodical gear, but he was smooth and just so powerful. he FLEW- and was barely even trying, or so he made it seem... me? on the other hand... i was going as hard as i could and felt like i was all over the place! (he was, of course, WAY in front of me!) i did take second in the sprint, though i am not sure where the final line was. mario said that i did a good job. so i have got that going for me!

after we got back to the house, i met up with lise, a danish woman who lives in lucca and has been showing us around. she is super cool and i really like her a lot. anyway, she took me into lucca for the first time.

lucca is a spectacular city! it is an old city, still surrounded by the old city wall. inside, cars are not really allowed and most people walk or ride bikes. there are bikes everywhere! the streets are cobbled and very narrow- with buildings shooting up along the each side. every nook and cranny of the city is beautiful and interesting... in short, i LOVED it! i took a bunch of pictures, but, of course, they do not do it justice. the bricks, stones and cobbles... all telling some rich history that to me is still unknown... just wonderful. i had no idea that the city was like that. i figured that it would be a modern city interspersed with ruins or something along those lines- like pisa- a compound surrounded by chaotic city. this? this i did not expect and was charmed. i loved it.

i have not taken great pictures of the area- but i have posted a few to give a bit of an idea of how great it is here. it is wonderful and i love it. i hope to take more on our next jaunt down here in a week...

until then- off to bed... then up early to pack and catch a fight to belgium (or holland)... not even sure which! but we race in holland then flesche! should be fun!