2011 Giro de Sardegna with Assos. Stage 2, 160km

OK, so tomorrow turned into next week, but better late than never in getting stage 2 posted! Been a bit of a mad house here at Above Category, but we're working on the organization thing and even hired a new member here. So that means more time for me to ride and do events like this! Thanks for your patience and without further ado, let's get to the review of stage 2 of this years Giro de Sardegna!

The morning before the first road stage at the team hotel. In the front is Franco Marvulli who is the current Olympic Silver medalist in the Madison. Stage 2 was 160km starting on a flat to rolling course and at about km50 we started two laps of an extremely hilly circuit. When we woke it was cloudy but dry. The dry part didn't last too long...


Here is the kit we received for the event which is also the official Equipe Campionissimo clothing...


A better look at the jersey.


One of our FOUR follow cars!


The start line. We were waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy in the back. Here is one of the things that made this race so hard, the start. Basically, in front of this group is a 3-4 foot wide mat that every cyclist had to run over in order to activate the timing chip. All fine and dandy for these guys at the front. Here's the thing though, once they crossed the line it was full throttle! WTF?? No warm-up, no neutral, just full gas. But what sucked is that for us way in the back, it took maybe 3 or so minutes to even hit that same mat. So, these guys who camped out overnight or something to get these spots had a three minute head start at full gas over us in the back. But what they didn't have was Malcolm Elliot and friends to pull them up to the front. It went like this, roll your bike slowly to the line, clip in, shift to the 53X12 and stand on the pedals as hard as possible for the next 10-20km! Then, once back to what's left of the field, move to the front in time for the hills. Fun stuff...


Stage 2 would take us into the hills and the mines...


This was the first climb which the race bible called an easy 5km at less than 5%. I don't think so, it was mostly 7-8% though the 5km part seemed right and the field split pretty quickly as the pro's at the front wanted to break things up.


Two of the guys doing the damage were teammates though, so it was all good...


At this point we were still with the front group. Right in front of me (I'm on the blue and black Dogma) is Luigi who is the R&D director for Assos and as I've said before has to be the coolest job in the world! Pretty much any Assos clothing you wear now was thought up, tested and perfected by him. He's also really, really strong, so now you know there are guys who ride all the time and ride strong looking out for you when it comes to what you wear!


After the main climb we hit 20km or so of rollers like this...


...which hurt a bit.


The front group on the rollers.


How did my race go? Super well, thanks for asking. I was feeling great in what I think was the 3rd group on the road and then got a flat on the rolling part during the second lap. It was at that point that it decided to pour rain and drop in temperature; nice. And even though we had all these follow cars, at this precise time, there were none anywhere. So I waited 20 or so minutes watching group after group come by and finally yelled to a teammate to tell the car at the feed zone to come back w/ a wheel. Finally, I got a replacement front wheel and soaked and shivering got back on my bike to finish the race. Not sure where I finished, but at least I got there!


I did have some company while waiting for a wheel though!

Stage 3 tomorrow, or next week, same thing...
But really, thanks for reading!

2011 Giro de Sardegna with Assos. Stage 1, ITT

Sunday, April 24th marked the first day of the Giro de Sardegna. This was to be a 24km individual time trial (ITT) on an out and back course. Due to what was supposed to be a really nasty day weather-wise the organizers shortened it to 12km. So, the Medio Fondo group started at the coast while those of us doing the full length race started at the race hotel and raced to the water.
Since we got in late the day before there was not really a chance to pre-ride the course (not that I would have anyhow) but it was a pretty simple layout. Start, then after about 200 meters take a right on a very crowded and sandy turn and then kill yourself for 9km into a stinging headwind. This 9km was dead straight with the exception of a few roundabouts. Then turn right for a few km, left for a km and another right to the finish. Simple enough, except for the killing yourself part!

The 9km straight section. What you can't see is the massive head wind...

Personally I didn't have any plans of going too hard. This was a seven day stage race and from what I saw the other racers were going to take it very seriously. I mean we had a current Olympic medalist, Franco Marvulli, a current pro and overall stud Malcolm Elliot and a bunch of other Pro's or almost pro's on the Assos team. So I thought it'd be better to save any energy I had for the road stages to come.

A couple of the Assos TT bikes. Easy for the Euro guys to bring bikes, not so easy for those of us traveling thousands of miles...

Since I was planning on taking it easy I of course didn't warm up at all, except for the 4km ride to the start line. But those plans ended pretty quickly. Another guy on our team started right in front of me, one minute before. I didn't know who he was at this time, but I would end up riding a lot of the event with Joost from the Netherlands as we were pretty evenly matched in fitness.

Somewhere along the long 9km straight, flat section...

So, I got to the start line, the official counted me down and I was off! All I could think was keep it slow and steady and I did exactly that, for about 100 meters. Then the ego kicked in with all the spectators and I of course felt great as it was only about 10 seconds into the TT and I put it in one of the lower sprockets in the rear and put my head down. I was gaining on Joost pretty quickly so kept at it. This was the longest and hardest 12km I have ever done, but it was fun and my legs didn't seize up too badly...

Yep, taking it easy. That's a pretty aero watch I have on as well. I didn't have a computer and had to make sure not to miss my start time. Also, I got my hands on a hard to find older Assos skin suit though the newer Assos Starburst suit is said to be a bit faster...

All in all, no warmup and I still finished top 50 (out of 280 or so), about a minute and a half behind the leader. Not bad on a road bike w/ pretty tame wheels on a flat course. So of course for next year I'll have all the gear; helmet, TT bike etc. and then only finish a minute down! Well worth the extra $4oo in bike fees!

Belgian stud Tom W. showing us how to do it. Pretty sure he was 3rd in the TT

The crappy weather didn't come until later in the day but I'm so happy that they kept it at 12km as I blew well before the line anyhow! I do wish I would have warmed up proper, but still had a blast and was now in race mode. The entire Assos team did well and was looking forward to the 160km road stage the next day.
For those of you who don't know what the Giro de Sardegna is, it's a 7 day stage race in Sardegna (duh) that is run Grand Fondo style. This means that the fields are pretty big, over 250 in the full and the same for the Medio. Most of the participants here take it VERY seriously and are EXTREMELY fit. Lots of Pro's, former pros and super fast amateurs. Pretty much everyone here knows how to handle a bike well in a huge field which is good as we went from wide two lane roads to very narrow streets through small towns.
This was a great event that I hope to do again and if you want to get a taste of what a full on stage race feels like in Europe come talk to us and maybe join the team for next year?!
Tomorrow I'll cover stage two, the first road stage. Thanks for reading!

The latest Custom Parlee Z5 from Above Category

Here is our latest Custom Parlee Z5 build. This one is for Ken D. who spends most of his time racing LMPC and Porsche Cup cars at tracks all over the continent (and next year, the world) so he shouldn't be too shocked by the speed of this bike when he gets on it for the first time. Ken wanted a mostly white bike and that's what we did, but added the black logos and a little silver to even everything out.

The completed bike comes in at 13.27lbs as seen here, pedals, cages included. If light weight had been our main focus it would have come in quite a bit lighter, but light weight was not our focus, every day ride-ability was...


The inside of the fork was painted silver as was the Parlee logo under the down tube. Wheels are the Gen II Lightweight Ventoux's. If you can find a pair of these we highly suggest getting a set. Incredibly smooth, strong and plenty stiff, but rare...


More detail of the fork...


If you know us you know our favorite brand of saddle is Fizik. Our favorite Fizik is the Antares. We also love the Fizik seat post, maybe not the lightest (but light enough), but in our opinion the nicest and best looking post out there.


Stem and bar combo courtesy of Deda. Both in aluminum, the stem is 110mm and the bars are the Zero 100, 44cm.


Brakes are RevL by the Hive.


Front brake


Yes we have Cannondale cranks on a Parlee. Great cranks, light and very stiff. And Aluminum, we like aluminum...


SRAM Red that happens to be black


Here's a good shot showing the silver Parlee under the downtube.


New shiny black Fizik tape. It has much more grip than it looks like it would...


Parlee's super clean front derailleur hanger.


We rarely use lightweight quick release skewers, but the Lightweight lightweight (haha) QR is stiff enough and has worked well for us.


Bob Parlee, the brains behind the bike...

Keep checking back, we are in the process of developing the Above Category stock Parlee Z5 which should be out of paint very soon. We'll have the Standard and SL Z5 to show so stay in touch! To have us start on your own version of a Parlee give us a shout at the shop!

Thanks for reading!