Pantani Ride 2013

foot travel: misery

"...stage racing has always meant weighing up the potential of the stages to come, and riding accordingly - riding, it might be said, in the future tense. Marco had no future tense."
-Matt Rendell, The Death of Marco Pantani

Eight or nine years ago, I can't recall exactly, when Shawn and I decided we'd pay homage to the late Marco Pantani and trudge up Simmons Gap in ten inches of snow, it could only have been described as amateur.  We had no real plan or purpose, outside of self-inflicting a little pain in the spirit of mutability, and I'll be honest, I ran up that thing, I didn't even try to ride it. 



Met-Pro

Last year, edging up on a decade later, my yard looked like the start of a pro road race, albeit a really d-league pro road race with some alcohol abuse and a costume or two (more like a cross race then.)  But seriously, the amount of pro level firepower that departed down Allen road at 10 AM gave the whole scene a sort of legitimacy, and it quickly became apparent that the likes of me were not going to be hanging around the front for very long. 

Now, here we are, The Pantani Ride 8 (or maybe it's 9), and rumors of legit contenders abound.  Not just the usual suspects either, I'm talking about the Far East (to me, that's past Richmond) to Rocktown and beyond.  As such, when you've got legit talent showing up in your yard for your event, even if that event is unapologetically bush league, you've got to pick a date.  So here it is:

The Pantani Ride
Sunday, February 10th 2013, 10 AM at 555 Allen Rd Earlysville VA 22936
Noteworthily, 555 Allen Rd is now also known as 4215Col Win Hill Ln, but chances are your GPS and your sense of direction have no idea about that, so just plug in 555 Allen Rd and you should at least make it to the starting line.  After that, no guarantees. 

Also possible, a rainout option could push us to Sunday Feb 17th, although I'm not sure why I'm even mentioning that. If you've ridden Pantani in years past, you know that conditions would have to be outright impassable for that to happen. 

And while I'm linking to evidence and misinformation from times gone by, and since not much has changed, and if you've made it this far you probably know what's what, and I don't have much else I can say about it until I complete my interview with Quadsworth (which is taking a fortnight because he's actually out training, that sissy) I might as well apply these, links to Pantani Ride nonsense from years past, all of them meticulous in their ambiguity and devoid of any real direction, but enough to get you by:

http://bikefactoryracing.blogspot.com/2010/01/pantani-ride-details.html
http://blueridgeracing.blogspot.com/2012/02/pantani-ride-q-and-general.html
http://bikefactoryracing.blogspot.com/2010/02/pantani-ride-saturday-update.html
http://blueridgeracing.blogspot.com/2011/02/pantani-day-eve.html
http://blueridgeracing.blogspot.com/2011/02/pantani-would-eat-muffin.html
http://blueridgeracing.blogspot.com/2012/02/defy.html


And, don't take my word for it, some third party accreditation:
http://designphysicsracing.blogspot.com/2012/02/2012-pantani-ride.html
http://ridewiththerooster.blogspot.com/2011/02/pantani-pics.html
http://tswimba.blogspot.com/2012/02/monkey-see-monkey-do.html#!/2012/02/monkey-see-monkey-do.html
http://www.blueridgeracing.blogspot.com/2012/02/pop-on-fox.html

Mappage:
https://www.google.com/maps/ms?doflg=ptm&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=203936983407151735185.00049c1eb9ca9800b9fa1&ll=38.23791,-78.558083&spn=0.130516,0.220757&z=12
More mappage:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4287842

More mappage yet again:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/68171781?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d58531a438a1fcd%2C0


But here's the key: Sunday, Feb 10th, 10 AM, 555 Allen Rd in Earallysville.  Get there. 

Monument to Marco Pantani near his birthplace, Cesanatico, Italy

Tune in next week, or maybe sometime thereafter, for an interview with last year's champion, GW Qwadsworth, read the papers, and place your bets.  And keep looking down bacon hollow rd for that awful right hander and some local color:



I really can't get enough pictures of Todd humping someone next to this sign. 

Up, up, up.