Stage 21 and finish of Giro 5/28/13

I am a little behind in putting reports. Picking up from what I was saying at the beginning of last blog, Tony and I have been talking what to say to our friend Steve Gray, who was thinking about using the same tour for Tour de France. Tony just reminded me not to get into the idea of Tour de France. I mean, the tours are well organized and there are many repeat customers. Dave and Wendy basically run the show, who do this at Le Tour as well. Giro is still not strict enough to close the course until later than Le Tour and they don’t shut down the road to get out like Le Tour does. Even this Giro Tour, the tailgating of the race (plus riding) was an early morning to later night job. Most of the time, people who rode were given the route, which usually blend into the race course. Once you start finding directional signs for the race, you know you can get to finish line. However some, who did long miles, ended up longer miles than they thought. They usually went out at least by pairs, but still makes me a little worried not knowing the location and not being too fluent in the language. That being said, the company catered riders with different desire and skill levels, loading and unloading bikes day in and day out, providing several points of drop-off, find a great place to hang out to wait and find a great parking spot for their vehicles. They sure know what they are doing.

So on the last day of our tour, we packed up our luggage and left Bolzano. It felt like a ski trip to Austria, really. It was so funny Italian started to look easier because everything is first written in German then Italian. In fact, the location name I heard all along, Bolzano Bozan is actually one name with two languages. So after a couple of hours on highway, I was rather disappointed to notice German part of sign disappeared. The final destination is Bresia. Giro always finished in Milan, but for the first time they changed. I was rather relieved that our trip to Italy did not involve Milan. Tony’s friends said that it is very interesting to see. Japanese travel guidebook and Consulate General web site had extensive amount of anecdotes how Japanese people were targeted and ripped off. On the way to Bresia, riders were dropped off about 40k to the finish line in this town of Peschiera del Garda. I knew this region was famous with lakes and Tony told me this is the biggest lake in Italy. Well, I grew up with biggest lake in Japan and I have obligation to check out biggest lake in countries I visit! The weather was gorgeous and it was Sunday, so lots of people were out. Various ships and boats were out, families were hanging out, hotel restaurants by the water had full of people. One of the fellow traveler in the tour begged to stop and drop her there. Later on the way to Venice in train next day, we noticed a beautiful lake from the train as well and matched the name again. http://goitaly.about.com/od/gardalakelagodigarda/ig/Peschiera-del-Garda-Pictures/

I have been amazed how good the tour company has been good to find a good parking spot for usually four vehicles, that are all very big. This time they found a street off the course about 700 meters from the finish. He quickly located a police and made sure it is OK and the police took no parking sign that was sitting around. Soon smaller team cars started to show up. We sat in the bar that had TV for a few minutes and we parted as the staff waited for riders to put bikes back. Tony and I started to head toward the finish line and saw where media people and VIP wath the finish. As this part was a circuit, 7 times 4 k long, we decided to follow the whole 4k. After the finish line, it was not as busy and one store had red points jersey Tony wanted. With limited Italian and patient seller, Tony tried on the jersey and deided to buy one. He said he could not find the size online: he was told hi had to go on site to get it. I bought some socks and Tony bight a hat.

We went halfway the course and we found where the presentation is going to be in the center of the plaza. There were a lot of promotion tents and loud music was already going on. I lined up with my favorite race snaky an got a little bag. Then the procession started with fire department trucks. Sponsors who were giving away free bananas and balloons shaped with train (the ones we have been taking). We took a few turns and came back to the original corner where I found big local newspaper building is. Then we went into the same bar, grabbed a few slices of pizza and waited until the race got to circuit. Local newspaper had a few special editions of Giro finish in Bresia and had extensive information about what time the race arrives according to three average kilometers an hour. So we went out to find a good spot. We found a spot where the course makes a slight angle to the right where Freccia Rossa station is. We saw Omega team setting up Cavendish in each run and I cheered for buddy Viviani. People were cheering until the last rider passes by. Then in the last lap, I saw maybe three riders ahead of Cav and I thought Viviani was there. We were about 450 meters from the finish and could not see exactly how it ended, but Tony noticed that the red jersey took a swing to the left for open space and saw Omega teams giving each other high fives. So I figured, Cav took the stage. Then we criss-crossed to the big plaza for the presentation. As team cars were parked on the street, we saw various riders trying to get to them coming from the race course. It was very crowded and we could not reach close enough to see the stage. I managed to get a glimpse of big screen surrounded by Italians singing national anthem. I realized I should have learned Italian national anthem. It should not have been difficult and I knew Nebali was going to win (or hoping) at the beginning of week 2. Good for him and great job supporting him, Team Astana.