After a few days in Milan we moved to Varese.
Varese is a city in Northern Italy , 55km north of Milan. It was the home of this years UCI Gran Fondo World Cycling Championships. We were there for David to compete in this race.
To be able to ride in this race you had to qualify in the top 25% of your age group in one of the 21 qualifier events that were held around the world in the previous year. David qualified last year at the Amy Gillett Gran Fondo in Lorne, Australia.
After 24 hours in Varese David lined up at the start line with 2558 other competitors. His category was the biggest category with 405 other gents competing for the title of fastest cyclist in the world aged between 50 and 55 over a distance of 130km.
It was a crazy day!
We met up with some other friends who all raced – Al Cosgrove and Patrice and Peter Sherrie. I was in awe of the commitment, fitness, tenacity and bravery of David and our friends to train and compete in this daunting event.
All four of them completed the race safely. In such a big field, on a course that all said was dangerous and narrow, they did well to finish safely. I was very relieved when they crossed the finish line.
I must confess that the day was a hard one for me. Once again I was confronted with the reality that I was with a group of friends who love cycling and they were all doing what they love. Although I would never be good enough to cycle competitively like they all were I was still disappointed to not be joining in as a cyclist in another cycling adventure. Another element of the day that I did not expect was the number of crashes that happened during the day and the high number of ambulances and injured cyclists there were by the end of the day.
I did have a big cry at the end of the day. I then realized and reminded myself how blessed I was. I was staying in a beautiful hotel in a beautiful part of the world. I was alive to enjoy it. David and all the other people we knew in Varese finished the race safely. We spent some time with Lorian Graham and Peter Forbes from Bikestyle Tours who looked after us beautifully. I shared a coffee with some other Australian wives who were watching their husbands race and their husbands all finished safely too. I was traveling to Lake Como the next day to enjoy some relaxing time with David. Wow – so many many things to be grateful about!
Supporter extraordinaire
The Women’s Start
Our Hotel
I will blog about our time in Lake Como in the next few days.
Arrivederci
