GRUPPO! + recap

roberto told me to be at his shop at 12:35, wednesday.
he told me we were going on a group ride, a friendly ride b/w friends.
if italian cyclists are anything like american cyclists, we're going to try to rip eachothers legs off!
and finally he told that he wsnt going to tell his buddies that i was coming,
that i would be a surprise.
i told him to tell me when to attack and when to go slowly.
i told him that i would be ready.
and i am.

[four hours later...]

the group ride was great. and let me tell you, those guys are STRONG!
once again, they call me "Armstrong". but also they all have spanish nicknames. and i think mine is "Gringo". there were so many names, both proper and nick, flying about that i really dont remember them. there was Roberto, Guido, Pepe, Danielle, Giacomo... that's all that i remember, and i probably couldnt place the right name to the right face. i think there were about 10 of us by the end, b-c we picked people up along the way.

anyways.... as far as the ride is concerned;
every Wednesday these guys do the same route; flat, through Zona Industriale, on to the Bonafica (past the whores, yes thats right, i said whores), then up a 3km climb which is constant and gradual in gradient.

it took me a little while to get acclimated to the pack. one guy, he had Loco in his nickname, started toying with people early and would sprint off and then sit up; just for kicks.
they paceline it and rotate through, same as any group ride.
so we cruised out to the climb at about 23 - 24 mph, nothing to drastic.
we hit the climb and Giudo told me its characteristics. i went to the front and sat there for a little while, in retrospect not long enough.
i had one good attack, then pulled off, b-c chunks of blown up phill were covering the road. Pepe and Roberto stayed on my wheel for my attack and took the lead. i kept dropping back little by little and was about 100meters off Roberto's wheel by the top of the climb.
oh, and as i was pulling off after my attack, a streak shot by me. a young buck named Giacomo blasted past us as though we were standing still. Roberto told me later that he is a pro-am racer, which must be true b.c that kid disapeared!
so, we hit the top, turned around and came back down and followed the exact same roads back to the finishing line; which by the way is a squiggly, spray painted line on the road that i think one fof the boys did himself.
1km from the finish, Danielle attacked. i followed. he let up. then, as i was passing him, Giacomo led a train passed at about 32mph. i caught on, just barely, but spent too much to catch on that i couldnt hold their wheels. Giacomo pulled up the off-ramp that leads to the finishing straight and Loco (?) and someone else drag-raced to the finishing line. Loco won, Giacomo coasted through at third, and i hammered as hard as i could to get fourth, which was uncontentested b-c i got enough of a gap on the field when i tried to catch the Giacomo train.

i was a great ride. Roberto told me to come back every week and by April i will be alot stronger.
every group has its characters; when Guido rolled past me, a couple of times, he said, in fairly good english, "BIG PHIL!" (Phil being pronounced more like 'Feel').
and apparently, Giudo is also the guy that is very strong but never works up front, just sucks wheels all day in a break while you kill yourself.

anyway they were a great group of guys. and i am getting better at understanding moderately paced Italian speech. sometimes i say si or no, then realize what was said. but the guy in the rabobank-looking colors, asked me "venuto a italia per imparare la lengua" or something like that (what he said wsa probably grammatically correct whereas that was not) but i said Sì. then maybe 5 or 10 seconds later, my brain figured it out and i re-affirmed my answer by repeating his phrase with the "I" form instead of the "you" verb conjugation.

overall score 8 out of 10.
10 out of 10 will come when i win their race.