Just two days until the start of the Giro de Sardinia. The Giro de Sardinia is a 7 day stage race run as a grand fondo. There is a shorter and a longer distance race (the entire Assos crew is doing the longer one of course!) which includes an individual time trial, a team time trial a few rolling "sprinters" stages and at least one day for the climbers.
Assos is pulling out the stops for this event and I am super grateful to have been invited and want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone at Assos CH and Assos USA. So, THANK YOU!
I'll try my best to keep you all up to date as the race unfolds and will hopefully be able to score some pictures as well, though I'll be too busy trying to hang on for dear life, so will have to find the official photographer...
Right now I'm in Lugano Switzerland getting everything ready, riding a little and buying some last second gear at the unbelievable Assos Nucleo store right on Lake Lugano.
Lastly, if this looks like it might be fun for you, get in touch w/ me at the shop when I return and I'll tell you how you can be a part of this next year...
The day started here, at the Assos Nucleo store. I have been here a few times and have seen it as a shell when they were just starting construction on the building. The store itself has three floors, the main showroom down the stairs, the entry on this floor and a large room upstairs where distributors and some shops get to see the future clothing lines from Assos. Right now it's filled with the new winter 2011/2012 range...
Here's another view of the main floor. Very clean, very organized & very Swiss. As you would expect this store contains every single piece of Assos clothing and a few items from other brands that they have partnered with...
Downstairs in the main showroom. Here are the brand new Heritage jerseys that we covered a couple weeks ago. These are pretty limited and we still have a few left so give Woody and the guys at our shop a call to get one...
When in Rome... just had to get these shoes so I'd fit in at the race...
Which meant I had to get the brightest yellow DB shirt to go with them! 
The Assos bike. Assos has been working on the "Goomah" (more on that later) for about three years now. I was here when they were riding the first editions and they have come a long way. Assos is not taking this lightly. Are they looking to enter the bike manufacturing world, not at all, but they wanted to make something themselves and base that on the way that they ride. It's been a work in progress and as it stands now, it's a very trick, fast, performance oriented bike which will be available in VERY limited numbers. If you are interested in one of these, let me know when I return and I'll get into a little more detail. Don't forget that back in the mid to late seventies, Assos developed a range of carbon bikes and components, one of the first to do so in history, so they are not new to this!
After shopping at the Assos store, we went further downtown to find some lunch. On the way we passed a bank with this car in the lobby! This is a (1985?) GPS Lotus Renault Turbo. It was driven by Ayrton Senna and honestly made the hair on my arms stand up just thinking about what this car must have sounded like on the track!
We had to be buzzed in to the bank and I'm not so sure they were stoked when all I wanted to do was shoot some pictures of this car, but they humored me and allowed it...
Then, I finally got out on a ride. After fighting the rush-hour traffic, which was not bad since in Lugano that consists mostly of Ferrari's and Porsche's...
...and did a little loop in the hills to get rid of all the air miles. Pretty stunning area...OK, that's it for now. Need to pack for the flight to Sardinia in the morning and get another spin in this evening. Woody, Kalara, Ralf and Kris are still at the shop so head on in or give them a call to keep them company! I should hopefully have another report up tomorrow from Sardinia, so check back often!
