Giro d'Italia

The Giro d'Italia came through Lucca yesterday. The stage started in Lido di Camaiore, on the coast, passed through Lucca before continuing on to Florence. This is the closest it has come to our house in the nine years we have been here so we thought we should take advantage of it and go see it.


Geri and Karen were interested in going so we packed up a picnic and went to the river park just outside Lucca. We arrived there about 1 pm and the riders were due to go right across this bridge at about 3 pm. We ate our lunch under some trees not far from here.


After lunch we strolled down Borgo Giannotti, a commercial street right outside the Lucca walls. Most of the shops were closed for their three hour lunch break but it looked like lots of the people who worked there were hanging out waiting for the cyclists to go by. Here is a banner saluting the Giro put up by the salumieria (salame shop) downstairs. More and more people gathered on the sidewalk but it was never too crowded.


At about 2:30 pm the police and emergency personnel started getting in position. Any large cycling race requires a lot of guys on motorcyles. Here are some of those that went ahead to make sure everything was set for the cyclists. We thought standing in the street where the riders had to turn was a good spot but all these guys ended up right in front of us.

I tried to take pictures of the three breakaway riders as they went past. Here's two of them. I really admire the camermen on the motorcycles. Can you see the one at the left side of the photo just behind the cyclist?

Geri and I moved down the street a ways where we had a clearer view. Here comes the main pack. It only took 30 seconds for over 175 riders to stream past us! They were about 2-3 minutes after the three breakaway riders and went by so fast it was impossible to tell who was who.

Here are more of them. Lance Armstrong is in there somewhere.

Finally the team cars streamed by.

It was lots of fun but when it was over it was over. Within seconds of the car with a big "end of race" sign on it (in Italian of course!) the spectators headed off to work, home or wherever. I think it was one of those things that was fun to see once in person but it is much more interesting watching the entire race on TV.

Today Geri and Karen have gone off to Florence on their own. Dom and I are doing chores around the house and relaxing.