Powerman Italy - 10k/80k/10k - Oct 24 2010
Typical first run by me as I was stuck between groups. The second group with Andy Sutz in it seemed a bit quick considering the course ahead so I dropped off and ran a 33 on my own.
This event was all about the 80k bike course and the forecast was really bad with a possibility of snow at the top of the 1124m climb. (What?? Bloody snow??!!) The course rolled around the lake with a 13k climb ave 10% after 33k then a long very technical descent winding through Italian villages back to the lake with at least a dozen steep hairpins. Then 10k straight back to T2 through a couple of lovely big warm tunnels.
From the start of the bike I kept the Swiss Widmer in sight and rode through a few times until he came off on a wet corner that was to get the better of scores of riders today. There was an Italian chap riding very negatively who sat behind us all the way but we stayed within sight of each other and tracked each other up the climb. I did a bit of a crowd pleaser to go over the top first in the group and shot down the descent leaving the other two behind. I thought I was going well but 'descent of the day' has to go to Dan McCarthy who really showed how it's done. I was a bit naff through the very technical parts and gave away minutes through the wet hairpins. Must do better... Switchbacks need work.
Second run. Big gaps, big pain. Rolled home in 8th. Not bad, not great but there was only top guys ahead of me in one of the worlds most impressive fields of 2010 with the top 10 ranked athletes all racing. This is a crazy event purely for the bike course. Big balls are required on the descent so I'm gonna need to shape up if I'm going to come back to race at Como again next year but I'd love to.
A couple of random factoids about the race.... the race commmentator was none other than Mr. Davide Cassani. OK so you have no idea who he is? Well he's the former Italian pro biker (now commentator) who accused Fabian Cancellara of having an engine hidden in his bike earlier this year. He is also the fella who allegedly spotted Michael Rasmussen riding in the Dolomites in 2007 when he was supposed to be in Mexico. Who knew that was the same guy?? That's free trivia!!
A couple of random factoids about the race.... the race commmentator was none other than Mr. Davide Cassani. OK so you have no idea who he is? Well he's the former Italian pro biker (now commentator) who accused Fabian Cancellara of having an engine hidden in his bike earlier this year. He is also the fella who allegedly spotted Michael Rasmussen riding in the Dolomites in 2007 when he was supposed to be in Mexico. Who knew that was the same guy?? That's free trivia!!
