Watching the Italian feed of the TTT. Liquigas looks good! Majestic glory of this sport....

Chocolate and Barolo in Piemonte

Today is the Team Time Trial from rainy Savigliano to Cuneo. Cuneo has been a big cycling town and, in fact was a destination in last year's Tour de France and part of the reason Alejandro Valverde, who was banned from cycling in Italy, could not do the Tour last year. From the sky Cuneo reveals its orderly grid, which leads me to believe it has a history as a Roman outpost and trading town, sitting on a road leading through the Alps into France.

Getting sunny in Cuneo now, and Cadel Evans' team hangs on to first place. British Team Sky is still out on the course, though, and Garmin hasn't even started. Garmin has something to prove today, since their General Classification contender, the unfortunate and charming Christian Vandevelde, broke his collarbone and had to abandon the Giro for the second year in a row on the third stage. Which is so sad! Get better fast, Christian!

Tomorrow's stage is still in Piemonte, the most northwesterly region of Italy, and the most influenced by French culture and language. Folks from Piemonte often roll their 'R's in the back of the throat just like the French, and the closer you get to the border, the more towns have two names--one in Italian, and one in Piemontese, which is more colored by French. The city of Turin is a good example--'Turin' is the Piemontese name, and 'Torino' is the Italian name. Which can create confusion for us English speakers.

Tomorrow's stage finishes in Novi Ligure, which has its own chocolate factory! In almost any Italian airport, they sell gianduiotto, which is soft chocolate and finely ground hazelnut candy in a distinctive triangular cross-sectioned shape. Pick up a box to bring home to your friends. It's usually a bit darker and less sweet than the flavor of Nutella. We can thank Piemonte for this kind of chocolate, and this region still does well selling it to the rest of the world. Yes, it's my second day to suggest a chocolate pairing with a stage, but don't worry, there's more variety to come. And today's wine is Barolo, so how bad could it be? Barolo is the priciest Italian wine these days, because of its huge flavors and ability to be nicely aged for years. And it comes from Piemonte, where the uber-expensive white truffles are also found.

Someday I want to go to the truffle festival in Alba, which is in the early fall, and watch fancy restauranteurs from around the world haggle for massive funghi. Imagine the aromas! The ferragamos and fancy cashmere sweaters! The truffle shaved over my pasta! The local prices on Barolo! Ahhhhhhh.....

Team Sky is approaching the finish line for the TTT, and it looks like they might take the lead and win today. The Brits should be proud! It's close! But they have it! If they hold onto this, I think it's Bradley Wiggins in Pink at the end of today, and Sky will have to work hard to hold onto it. They have been looking so strong, so it would be awesome to watch them try.

Viva il Giro! Viva Italia! A domani!

Watch Novi Chocolate Ad

Buy Barolo at Bevmo

Stage 3: Under the Middleberg Sun

Turned on the TV this morning and there were 2.5k to go! Nice sunny finish in lovely Middelberg. The town makes me think of the THE STUDENT PRINCE starring Mario Lanza. Wasn't that set in Middelberg, a university town? No, that was Heidelberg, Germany. The pink confetti drifts down over the head of the GC leader. Sunshine makes all the difference and Middelberg is a series of postcards. I don't like this guy, but I like that he speaks so many languages.

Tomorrow will be a rest day as the race moves back to Italy--to Piemonte for the Team Time Trial, which is a beautiful kind of stage, and I can't wait. A certain number of riders from each team must finish together, so they travel in flocks wearing their matching kit, taking turns on the front and peeling off in formation. Any grand tour without a Team Time Trial is missing something.

The stage will be 30-something k and will finish in Cuneo, where they make a rum-filled chocolate called cuneesi al rhum, shown above. I would try this with a nice dessert wine from Piemonte--red and slightly fizzy, Brachetto. Drop some strawberries into a glass. Yum!

Buy Brachetto d'Aqui from Bevmo

A domani!

Giro Stage 2: Amsterdam to Utrecht

Waiting for the Italian feed to start, but I know who won today's stage. No spoilers, but I'm psyched.

L.A. seems to have caught gray from Amsterdam this morning, but hopefully it will burn off so Stoney and I can take a ride somewhere under bluebird skies. We're thinking of checking on the progress of the L.A. River extension southward. I think they are planning to make it so you can ride from Griffith Park all the way down to Long Beach without hitting surface streets. Could be great for commuters. One way from Griffith Park to Long Beach is about 35 miles, and you can do it on a bike every year in a big fun group at the L.A. River Ride. There are longer and shorter ride options, and your entry fee raises money for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, which, among other things, advocates for bike safety with local legislators. Anyone who rides our mean streets with regularity knows this is a good thing. The ride is well-supported and a cool way to tap into L.A.'s cycling community.

More info on the LA River Ride, June 6, 2010

It's happened, that first Giro Italian feed moment--they cut from faces waiting by the finish line to a shot through an open window at some fancy ladies undies drying on a rack. I didn't watch the English version, but I'm pretty sure they cut that out.

Yesterday we saw the Leonardo exhibit and a special lecture about it up at the Getty Center. Very cool. Can't believe it's possible to go up close to the Master's drawings. To look at the lines, the ink and chalk put there by his hand. Amazing. Most folks think that drawing of a bike found in one of his notebooks is a hoax put there later, perhaps by a cycling fan, which is kind of too bad.

Can you tell I'm underwhelmed about Amsterdam? I'm writing about everything else. OK, I'll look up Utrecht and see if there's anything I found interesting. An art supplies company appears at the top of the Google search. Makes sense--northern center of trade, very rich in the 1500s and the centuries after--lots of demand for fancy decorations in houses, aka paintings, by great artists, and a place where you could find the finest raw materials to make the most vivid pigments.

I look up to see a windmill at around 70k to the finish line. Picturesque. Good setting for landscape paintings. I would love to bike there someday. Nice and flat, flat, flat! The peloton looks fresh and frisky--happy to be out there, for the most part. Guys doing what they've trained so hard to do. Best in the world. It's fun to watch them chat with each other over the long winding days of riding. Folks who aren't fans of the sport may not know how important relationships and alliances are in the peloton. This is why George Hincapie, who is so likeable and cool, and as strong as a dray horse, is a truly great rider.

This land between Amsterdam and Utrecht really is pretty and pale green, cute with cottages, canals and rivers everywhere. Basic landscape like the first day of our bike ride through the Veneto--around Mira to Villa Mallatesta. Very different architecture, but canals like this. The first night there we ate tiny crabs and shrimp fished out of the canals on a bed of polenta. Mira and Dolo are lesser known parts of the Veneto, but definitely worth a trip. If you're ever in Riviera del Brenta, try the spritz, which is Prosecco and some kind of bitter liquor--choose from Campari, which is medium bitter, Aperol, which is sweeter, and Cynar, which is the most bitter and weirdly cool, because it's made with artichokes. There I go again, wishing I and the Giro were in Italy, where we seem to belong. What am I going to do if they do the first few stages in Washington, D.C. next year? Aside from fly there and stay at my sister's so I can watch it?

One rider, Edward King (?) fell earlier, tearing his shorts, and is riding, bare-assed, to Utrecht. Those modern housing units in Houten are damn un-pretty, I must say. Yeesh! And now for some Fausto Coppi stock footage! And this year's silly theme song. "Pedala! Non fermati mai..." Tyler Farrar crashed on some road furniture. Lots of crashes. Garmin is pulling Farrar back up to the front. And another crash, Katusha rider, and no teammates in sight. That sucks. Watching Farrar hold onto the team car as the mechanic fixes his bike--driving and riding. Always amazes me. Massive crash! Look at the bikes completely intertwined. This is the crashiest day I've seen in a long time. Rough day for Bradley Wiggins from Britain, in pink, on the first British team ever. Team Sky is pulling him back up to the front.

By the way, Wikipedia has some lovely photos of canals in the historical center. Italy has industrial complexes like the one they're showing now in the helicopter shot. But it also has pasta and bruschetta. Just sayin.' We went through an area like that on the way to Bassano del Grappa in 2007 in a heat wave. Why is there always a heat wave when I go to Italy? What's up with that?

Pictures above, by the way, are Utrecht circa 1890, Amstel bottlecap, and kroketten, which is deep fried mystery meat and, I'm told, delish.

Happy Mother's Day, everybody! Makes me think of going to the Clam Broth House in Hoboken every year for the event. Sawdust on the floor. Little neck steamed clams, crab claws, and my mom eating the yuckiest parts of a 2-lb lobster with impeccable grace and style. Love you, Mamma! How could they close the Clam Broth House? It was Ole Blue Eyes' favorite. And there was a rock bar next store called Boo-Boo's where you could have steamers with your rockabilly and beer. Now that's a pairing!

20k to go, and Team Sky is driving the peloton. This part of Utrecht looks like Newark. (Paradise on the Passaic.) If you're gonna live someplace that grim, you should get to have bike paths along every road. That almost evens it out. Sorta.

I'm hungry now, and I want an egg, bacon and cheese croissant sandwich from Café Tropical. Wrong but right.

Yesterday at the Getty I saw at least 5 books I have to read. Christopher Hibbert's The Borgias--love that guy; such an entertaining popular historian. Too bad he's gone. Can't wait for Showtime's show about them starring Jeremy Irons. Love the Tudors.

Inside 10k, massive massive crash, including Pippo Pozzato, Italian national road champion. Doctor checking him out. Who planned this effin' route? It's frickin' dangerous. This kind of crap is why the riders protested and went "slow" in Milan last year. Guess the Giro planners didn't learn from that. Seriously, guys, this ain't Ancient Rome and we don't need to see our gladiators die on the open road. It's only day 2 and look at all the carnage.

OK, so final sprint and Tyler Farrar won. Petacchi was nowhere to be seen in the first group. Cadel Evans in pink, and I bet he's wishing Hincapie was not doing the Tour of California this year. He could use him now because he's wearing pink too early. Gonna be tough to hang onto it, and it's going to tire out his team, which is already one man down. Maybe they'll strategically let it go tomorrow. No one's gonna help his team out on the front.

Makes us mad when there are so many crashes, but today did not disappoint!

Tomorrow, it's Amsterdam through Rotterdam to Middleberg, and what may be the flattest stage ever in the Giro. Look for the sprinters to rule the day. Maybe our friend Tyler Farrar can pull a double-header. Nice strategic work by Jonathan Vaughters, director sportif of Garmin!

A domani!

Amsterdam, and it's raining

So 55 Degree Wine had zero zilch nada nulla niente no Dutch beer. And I went out to an Irish pub tonight and had Guinness. Because it's good. 55 Degree wine has beer from Belgium, go figure, because it's good. And I'm watching the Presentation of the Teams live from Amsterdam, and it's raining and windy there. Last year, in Venice, where the same ceremony happened, it was exquisite and fresh and sunny. Because it was Venice, and that's good, too.

But before I judge, Amsterdam is the City of the Bike. Look at all the bike paths in the overhead shots! Makes me want to pull out my raincoat and rain pants to try them!

So tomorrow, to pair with the time trial through Amsterdam as you toast your Grolsch or Amstel beer, try some Amsterdam pub food, as described to me by my college friend Judd Labarthe, who lived in Holland for a while. The bitterballen look good to me, with a bit of mustard. Some kind of meat in there. (Picture above.)

As we watch the Giro Anteprima, they flash a street scene with a large billboard showing a very unretouched image of the Queen of Holland—there's a queen of Holland, really? And my husband says, "Cleveland." Cadel Evans' eyes are massively blue, and his Italian accent is atrocious!

Viva il Giro! (As I sip my Prosecco.)

A domani.

5 REASONS TO LOVE THE GIRO D'ITALIA

It starts tomorrow, and I'm so thrilled, even though the first 3 stages take place in gloomy Amsterdam and I've been watching almost all of the Spring Classics--bike races over mud and cobblestones through the stormy grim northern flats and hills that promise beer and pallid mystery meats rather than lovely robust vino e pasta. No matter. Here we go--I offer you just a few of the many reasons to adore the chaotic perfection of the Tour of Italy, aka, the Giro d'Italia.

1. Athletic guys in peak form in skintight spandex.
2. Italy, the most sexy gorgeous countryside in the world, from craggy Dolomite alps to the dangerous curves of the Amalfi Coast, the rolling hills of Tuscany, all encrusted with some of the greatest architectural and artistic gems made by human hand.
3. The Giro is 3 weeks, count'em, so it goes everywhere in Italy--it's like a free tour!
4. The Giro is 3 weeks--a grand tour, like the Tour de France--so you've got the full flower of the sport of cycling--sprint finishes where the likes of Mark Cavendish, Tyler Farrar, and Alessandro Petacchi (the most charismatic of thick-thighed beauties) duke it out, grueling climbs with the light-weight mountain men like Carlos Sastre accelerating into the stratosphere, the Team Time Trial where each team stays together taking curves in formation like lovely geese in all the colorful kit and pageantry of the sport, the Time Trial with every man racing first against himself, and finally, the entire sweep of the General Classification battle that will leave only one man in pink--the leader's jersey--on the ultimate race day.
5. Last year every stage had its magical breathless moments. It won't be any different this year. And I'll be there on the edge of my seat, while I plan my next Italian vacation.
   

VIVA IL GIRO!

Today I look for Dutch beer that is not lager-y swill. I'm told by friends who have lived in Amsterdam that this might be a tall order. But, with the help of 55 Degree Wine in Atwater Village, which has a fabulous beer selection from Europe, I'll win through!

See you later tonight for my first Giro Stage Food and Drink pairing!

FORZA ITALIA! FORZA IL CICLISMO!

5 Day 'til the Giro

The first 3 days of the race this year are in Amsterdam, so I'm
thinking beer rather than wine to start with. But what to pair it
with? Any ideas from those who know Amsterdam? Time to do some
research! And perhaps some taste tests!

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