Needed to clear my head...

The Professor reminded me this week that sometimes the best way to recharge the batteries, clear the head, and exercise some demons is to get on the bike and ride.

Friday night was my friend Alessandro's 33 Birthday and the dude tore it up! Dinner at Angusto and drinks at the ClanDestino next door. He was pretty drunk, the first one to try to order another round after a bar fight broke out, leaving one muscle-bound guido dripping blood from a headwound outside while the paramedics tried to weave their way through a crowd of stunned, overdressed chicks. I woke Saturday morning feeling a little headachey and needing to clear my head. I have been pretty nervous and tense lately, partly due to over-medicating allergies, a new espresso machine that kicks way too much ass, and the transition back into this life while missing what I left behind and wondering if I'm making the right choice. My mind and heart have been missing San Diego lately and its been making it hard to be present in Italy. Thankfully I woke to a message reminding me that Easter weekend is Resurrection Weekend on 91X in SD, and that I can stream all the killer flashback alternative tunes via the intraweb. Caga Googoo, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Alphaville, Brian Setzer, Roxie Music, Crowded House, Pet Shop Boys...all the tunes I loved so much and that remind me of all the positive memories of SD from then and now helped me get into a better space about what that place means to me.

But I still needed a ride, and I needed to spend the better part of the day loving this life, not thinking about the one that might be, or the one that could have been. I needed to exercise some demons too, and I needed to drink some water and sweat it out!





Half way up through the Alpines I realized that I was spinning a HUGE gear, and was clipping along at about 25+ the whole way. Feeling strong I decided to go as far as I could without shifting. A great way to purge the over-thinking mind. Made my way up a couple passes, then kicked it down a notch into a sensible gear to climb some steep shit.







The trees, which are probably the culprit of my seasonal allergy suffering, were absolutely beautiful! Flowers smelling as sweet as any candy store the whole way! Spring colours in full bloom, and not much for traffic off the main highway. As much as I have been missing the culture and roads of home, its hard to beat a ride around here, with steep long climbs, amazing views, and hardly another car the whole way. I could have been in Northern California, and the only thing I was missing was traffic!





An almost 90K day with the peace and calming I needed, and with a crazy enough pace to be sore on Sunday Morning. Got a big Easter dinner with friends, an easy ride to get there and back, and tomorrow another day in the hills.

Have a good weekend you all, I miss you very much, and if you see the Professor riding around in a robe like Jesus, give him a high five for me and buy the man a sandwich.



S

Typical Romagna Weekend...

Friday Haircuts in the bike shop...





Saturday bike rides in the pines along the coast









a little fried fish for dinner (note the whole minnow)





A Jazz concert in an old Salt Factory...



A late rise on Sunday and a ride to town to see some friends and hear some free music in the window of the now famous (to you) Casa Del Disco...











Tambourine feet - brilliant!





And a late night ride home by full moon complete with my first flat tire of 2011. Loni was prepared with tube, levers, pump, and flask.



A perfect Romagna Weekend...except no Piadina.
Next Time

Don Escottino

an ode to San Francisco...

For those of you who are thinking I have gone soft or have lost my SF cool Kid fixie riding ass hole street cred...take a look at these fine digs...





That's right, A FERNET flask. Take that! And can someone special order me a pink chain, I have just the right bandanna and tight cut off jeans to match it. It will be great at the next alley cat race.

What?

No I never actually messenger-ed...but I have a Timbuktu bag from before they were sold at REI. And I went to a gallery opening at CHROME last weekend, and drink PBR tallboys at Madrone with my "crew"...So its pretty much cool.

Thanks for reading
Scotty

What a WEEK!

Im exhausted, and Im stuffy, and my back is a little stiff, and my shoulders are a little tense, and no one is listening, and my room smells like farts...its been a big week or so.

The newly hired tour leaders have all started to trickle out of the Farm after another successful Tour Leader Training week-long shenanigans. At one point there were 13 people staying here! A fun time, till you serve bean soup for lunch and completely wreck the 3 toilets those 13 people share the next day! Seriously we could smell turds all the way through the walls and into the bike shop! As much as I would like to re-cant what words of wisdom were imparted on our lustrous new batch of liars and magicians, I can only assume based on the looks upon their faces at the end of the week that is was as glorious as joining the Est cult simply for the free food. They looked hammered, and over theoretical-ized, and ready to booze it up to forget.





Alas they got to us towards the end and they were pretty fried. We set up a couple trainings for the new Hybrid bikes, and how to fix just about anything that can go wrong on tour, and gave them a little test. I think despite the wind and the sun and the allergies, they did really well absorbing the info and regurgitating it back at the end. Watch the video of their final test...complete with music pumped out of the shop computer to raise the stress levels...look at em go! (and If you are quick you can see Laurent's ass crack at minute .25...) Quote of the day: "I think the front one is fine, but...you never know" - Laurant





The best part was actually just meeting some of the new kids. There are Germans who planted grapes in Portugal, Italians who participate in extreme kite surfing competitions, Southern good old boys who love Spain and have made it their homes, complete with a "3/4 girlfriend," Croatians who aren't afraid of a little aperativo drink at mid day, and Frenchies who tell stories of being beat up and chased by Russian mobs while bike camping in Siberia in the winter. There are some really interesting people working with us this year and it was my pleasure to help them feel a little less intimidated by the mechanics of the bikes.

I also managed to get a ride to the beach on Saturday, the first of the year. Nothing like riding 100k round-trip just to have a swim in the freezing Adriatic and a nap in the shade. That's how I roll I suppose.





smelled these along the way...amazingly sweet from miles away!



This is the sign that counts how many cyclists use the path to go to the beach in the summer months, sometimes breaking 100 THOUSAND!!! That's commitment to cycling!



saw my favorite house, which I commemorated in abstract paint this past winter





And snapped this dude, doing his gardening in his summer britches...



and a fat lunch of Piadina...



All in it was a great week, seeing some returning friends from around the globe, making plans for visits in the off season, and meeting new peeps with great stories. Hopefully I will be back to the epic rides this weekend, and more stories from the pegboard as the season picks up speed.

Untill then Ill be going to bed at 9!
CIAO!
S.

trying to quantify the weekend

Or as my friend Giorgio slurred through his bubbly wine, "Can you believ-a Italia? Man you ever see spring like dis, its like uh...poems man!"

Spring has indeed SPRUNG. And you can tell cause its that time of year when the birds sing all day...



oops, how did THAT get in there...the markets stay open late on Sunday...



Flowers are in bloom





...and its time for carnivals and HUGE bike rides.

Tuesday we had the beginning of season dinner at Monica and Michele's house, where I was informed I was a Dad...



just kidding, that's Johnny Montana (seen here, shaking)



and the Lovely Eliza's baby girl Analise. We had Black Pudding from Ireland courtesy of Silvia who spent 5 years there...



We pretty much feasted and cut out. It was Tuesday after all and the week was going to be busy.



April 1st rolled around and we kinda forgot that it was April Fool's day. Here in Italy, we were informed at yet another giant carbo loading lunch, it is called L' Pesce di Abrile, The Fish of April, called so for the jokes involving fish. After lunch, to celebrate Rob had the great idea to TECH Silvia's Bike. TECH-ing as mentioned here before involves tricks played on one's bicycle so as to render it difficult, impossible or simply very irritating to use and TECHs run the gamut from ball bearings in frames (very noisy) to old cans of tuna in the handlebars (very smelly) to simply re-arranging the look of a bike, which we did for Silvia's commute home.





The rest of the week felt tense for me personally and I decided to go and do something very big and personal and awesome on the weekend. After the last two weekends of feeling pretty strong on the bike I decided that early spring was the time for riding up and over the Alpines and into Florence for a sunset beer before a train ride home.

For those of you unaware of the geography - its really fucking FAR! Google maps claims its 109KM - my bike said 135km by the time I got the the Piazza and cracked a bottle. A challenging and noteworthy experience in the lexicon of Cycling Emilia Romagna to be sure, and a big feat to start the season off feeling like I can do anything. You know a ride starts off well with a giant cock in someone's yard...















almost out of mountains...





First Pass...



where I sipped on this before the descent...which covered 20+km in less than 15 minutes and reached speeds of 68km. Fast enough to pass a truck on an open curve - yeah.





Mountains in the background at the bottom







and another pass in the distance







Pass numero 2...



Where I spied this little dirt path, Loni suggested we check it out...



glad we did, perfect lunch spot with the city far off in the distance between those two sharp peaks...













I checked the train schedule and headed across the river to Piazza Michelangelo, up one more unbearable hill...



to the spot I wanted to kick it at on the steps overlooking the city with the Arno river stretching out in the distance all the way to Pisa. Amazing! And quite the rush to have checked this one trip off my list!







Afterward, I found a small section of forested trail,



Had a nap, and woke to these views...





Didn't get to see the sunset as the train over the mountains was leaving at 7.44.





Loni convinced me to make one short stop at her favorite bar in Firenze (who knew she had one!?), and we caught the train home without any of the incidents the train stickers advised us about...





It was an emotional ride as I thought my way through the last couple years and the ways in which I have managed to meet the challenges thrown at me, with a little bit of hindsight for the challenges I have shied away from. All in all 1431 meters of climbing (4710 feet!) a 12 hour day with a solid 8 hours of saddle time.

Sunday was a day to have a light spin with Silvia and her new bike sei chiama "Tweety" but we ended up climbing a little further and a LOT FASTER than originally expected.



That Gal can spin up a hill and will prove to be a force to recon with on the group long rides this summer! But the other secret destination was a local carnival festival that as far as I could tell revolved around visiting certain small villages dressed in ridiculous costumes, having food and drink, enjoying the old tyme songs of the past, accompanied by whip-song...no shit... and absolutely SHOWERING bystanders with confetti - which I am told is called coriandoli here in Italia. (Click the blue titles above for video)



















A killer way to spin off the lactic acid on a sunny sunny day. With the glimpse of summer out the window, sunny skies, warmer temperatures, and breezy afternoons chasing carnivals and personal goals by bike, I think we are all in for a treat this summer.

S.