Into the Clouds

Life has been moving pretty slow as of late. I raced the PEI Canada Games warm up last weekend, and netted a 3rd overall. The courses were super nice, especially the road race. There was a ton of climbing and wind, but super nice views. I'm glad I drove the course beforehand because while bike racing you don't really notice anything else but the race itself. Stuart Write and Justin from NB are riding really strong as Nationals and Canada Games are approaching. They will both make really strong showings.

Directly after the race and until later in the week I caught some sort of flu or bug that knocked me out solid. I pretty much just stayed in bed for a couple days. It was really odd how you can loose all strength all of a sudden. I think some of it is still lingering, although I'm feeling better.

The Tour De PEI happened all this week as well. Its pretty neat how how there is a World Cup bike race in your backyard. PEI is the perfect place for an event like this with a great mixture of solid roads, nice riding, interesting loops, but its something that is slow to catch on here on old PEI.

Its funny how something like a U15 Regional Hockey championship would net gossip for a month after the event and be all over the papers, the news and the coffee shops, but when you have WORLD CUP bike race, with riders from all over the world, everyone complains that they had to close the roads for a couple hours.

In other news......There has been an influx of bikes that people donated to be fixed up and re-distributed to anyone who would want a bike that otherwise wouldn't have been used. Well, I took the liberty of looking over the pile and found an old rusty gem that has been missed from all the other scavengers. The old girl is in rough shape but has quite a bit of history.

Its an old Bartali, which was hand made in Italy in the early 50's. Its mostly Campagnolo Record and it was the brand made by Gino Bartali, who won the Tour in 1952(I think). He was Coppi's number 1 rival, and there is now a race named after the both of them in Italy(Won by Damian Cunego this year I think).

(Bartali and Coppi, they say he was built more for manual labor or playing rugby, instead of cycling. Sounds like someone else I know)

Someone did a god-awful job of re-paining it, so it looks like crap, but after some work I think it should still have some life left in it. I've been looking for a bike like this for a couple years now, and until now haven't had any luck. I knew with bikes like this, they find you....not the other way around. After measurement, it should fit me like a glove.

The plan is to get it going before the Cape Breton ride in October. Which is a 300+km 3 day loop with camping and bonfires and the like. I'd like to rock the wool the whole time and ride solely on wine and baguettes. Its gonna be sweet.