Active Recovery

We feel like freshmen at the Max Lelli Bike Racing University, except that we are enrolled in 500 level classes! Seriously, we are doing okay (passing marks) on the tough assignments Max is dishing out. To help folks understand how strong he is, imagine a rider who could pull for more than three hours on a group ride, into wind, and keep everyone behind him in tempo and often threshold, AND hardly eat or drink, AND always have a sense of humor, AND be ready to turn the screws, AND be able to go home and run a business, AND feed horses!!!!! (There is a beat up heavy-bag hanging in the back of his house, so I'm waiting to see him on that as well).

We ride 4 to 5 hours, come back to IL Raduno for lunch and rest, then head out on TT bikes for practice. Our route yesterday was the Max L. Gran Fondo race route. The TT practice yesterday wasn't too fast as we worked mostly on form. 10 CM!!!! Today will be different. We are going to see the Concordia sunk in the water. The Scatini boat. The work will be about 60K all on TT bikes. I imagine we'll hit some high speeds today. Then, we arrive back to Max's for dinner. Max's wife, Michela, has been preparing the most fabulous meals. Absolutely delicious.

I'm not sure about Friday's work, but on Saturday, we will drive to the TTT race near Pisa and do some riding on the course. Sunday is the big day. I think our start time is 11:15 so there will be some wind for sure. We must average 31mph to compete.

Ciao!

We arrived at Max Lelli's agriturismo, Il Raduno, on Sunday evening. We were met with a warm welcome and a fabulous three course Tuscon dinner, which included wild boar. Max's guest house is quite fancy for us bike racers, with all the marble and Florentine design. A beautiful place to visit and relax indeed. Even though I was thoroughly exhausted after twelve hours of travel, I awoke Monday morning at 2:30 AM and could not fall back to sleep for a couple of hours. Mind brain switched on, and thoughts of what Coach Randy and Max might have in store for us for the upcoming week kept me awake until about 4:30. The next day, after our first official TTT workout with Max, I would wake up at 2:30 AM again. This time, despite my best relaxation efforts, I would remain awake until the sun rose. Total sleep time would be four hours, which is troublesome.

After breakfast Monday, we walked across Max's driveway to his shop. There, we were fitted on road bikes as Max's mechanics worked on our TTT bikes. Very cool!

Once we all had our bikes ready to go, the six us dressed and went for s spin. Max stayed behind to help finish up the TTT bikes. By the way, Max raced a Gran Fondo on Saturday and placed fifth, even after a crash (just a little spill, nothing serious). So off we go on carbon bikes, one fresh out of the box. It doesn't take long in Tuscany before the road begins to tilt up, which it did as we approached Manciano, Max's hometown situated on a hilltop. The hills here are much more sustained than the rollers we worked on in Tennessee a few weeks back, but not as steep as some of the grades in California -at least the hills we rode Monday anyway.

We did a little out-and-back before a cafe stop in Manciano; we rode to the town center (where there is always a castle tower) and snapped a few photos before heading down the road and back to Il Raduno. I had a quick shower and walked to Max's house for lunch, watched the bike race on the tele, and drank more espresso. (i am not sleep deprived because of coffee - i drink more at home than i do here) What a great afternoon. Plenty of warm sunshine, good food, and friends with bikes. Next up, evening TTT. Time to begin the real work.

We hopped on the bikes, the really fast ones, and as soon as we hit pavement, we began business. We started with single rotations and 30 second pulls, and it immediately became apparent to those of us who didn't know, that Max could up the tempo to whatever level he felt appropriate and without hardly any effort on his part. Then we rotated continuously. Max was not impressed. We were not close enough, not smooth enough, and I was guilty of letting gaps open in front of me. The speed was high, but it will have to be higher on Sunday for sure. There were maybe two or three rotations where Max was happy and said we did "Okay." Towards the end, Max lead going up a hill, and half of us fell off the back. Ouch. Overall though, for it being our first time together with seven of us, and with us being on new TT rigs, we did okay I think. We simply need more practice. I think Max is a good teacher, in that he begins class tough, coming down hard and being strict with his pupils at first, and then also knowing when to praise his students as well. Hopefully there is a result worthy of praise on Sunday!!!!

Today we will work hard on road bikes. Max will undoubtedly test each of us, and we will also work more on pace-lining. Homework is rotating through at 10 centimeters apart. No lie. Tonight we will go to Saturnia for hot salt baths and massage. Pantani was known for recovering at this very place. Max showed us a photo of Pantani and him riding together. He said Marco was a super nice guy, a terrific human being.

Time for breakfast. Hope I sleep tonight and don't pay too dearly from lack of sleep on the ride. Today will be tough.

****

I made it with hardly any sleep! We just got back from a great 5 hour ride that featured 6500 hundred feet of elevation gain, some fast double rotations, and lots of wheel sucking as Max's speed is beyond our comprehension. He has ridden fourteen Tours, taken a Giro stage, won TT championships, placed on Giro Podiums and today, while climbing a 7k climb, two thirds in,,,,,, I attacked him. Pretty silly, I know. Max immediately covered my attack, made a funny "what are YOU doing sound (Jacques also covered my move) and then proceeded to ride away from me until I could no longer see him. Bye bye (he says that a lot).

Great day. Everyone is super strong and smart, and coming into excellent form. We do it again tomorrow with the possibility of a 20 mile sunset TT threshold workout! What the??????

Ciao!!!!