CopperCyclist
Veteran
I've recently been on holiday, and managed to persuade the wife to do a couple of cycling tours with me. I now have the pleasure of adding France and Sardinia to my cycling logs! However, as per the title of the post...
A question for anyone in the know about Italy. I was on a coach for this part of our holiday, and was annoyed to see the driver tooting his horn after passing a couple of road bikes that had held him up for about thirty seconds. However, he then proceeded to hoot when passing every single cyclist, whether they held him up or not. The toot was also always two short bursts, which didn't seem overly aggressive. Is this normal procedure in Italy - I remember thinking it would have scared the shoot out of me!
A thank-you to the many people on this forum who taught me about the importance of high cadence. The tours I went on were very slow for me, but I kept a high cadence rather than grinding gears, and the whole thing was literally effortless the whole way round, hills and all. I mentioned it to my wife and she quickly became sold on the idea, and I think it was this that convinced her to go on two tours with me!
A boast - as I said it was effortless... except for one bit. On the first tour there was a couple who kept sprinting off in front of everyone else, while everyone else stuck together at the pace of our slowest member, chatting, enjoying the scenery and riding as a group. As we approached a particulary steep and long hill, a older lady in front of us began slowing more and more. The aforementioned couple raced off passing us, even cutting the poor older lady up! My wife was annoyed at them, so I asked if she wanted me to overtake them, and received permission. Cue a Lance Armstrong style sprint to go flying past them, up the hill. The hill then kept being one of those bastards where every corner you turn reveals even more hill, but I plugged on and reached the top first. The guide was second, some time after me - I had even recovered my breath so hoped I looked particulary smooth (!), and only two other people out of the sixteen later appeared having ridden up, with everyone else walking. I was very proud that the fourth and last cyclist up was my wife! (See above comment re cadence)
A question for anyone in the know about Italy. I was on a coach for this part of our holiday, and was annoyed to see the driver tooting his horn after passing a couple of road bikes that had held him up for about thirty seconds. However, he then proceeded to hoot when passing every single cyclist, whether they held him up or not. The toot was also always two short bursts, which didn't seem overly aggressive. Is this normal procedure in Italy - I remember thinking it would have scared the shoot out of me!
A thank-you to the many people on this forum who taught me about the importance of high cadence. The tours I went on were very slow for me, but I kept a high cadence rather than grinding gears, and the whole thing was literally effortless the whole way round, hills and all. I mentioned it to my wife and she quickly became sold on the idea, and I think it was this that convinced her to go on two tours with me!
A boast - as I said it was effortless... except for one bit. On the first tour there was a couple who kept sprinting off in front of everyone else, while everyone else stuck together at the pace of our slowest member, chatting, enjoying the scenery and riding as a group. As we approached a particulary steep and long hill, a older lady in front of us began slowing more and more. The aforementioned couple raced off passing us, even cutting the poor older lady up! My wife was annoyed at them, so I asked if she wanted me to overtake them, and received permission. Cue a Lance Armstrong style sprint to go flying past them, up the hill. The hill then kept being one of those bastards where every corner you turn reveals even more hill, but I plugged on and reached the top first. The guide was second, some time after me - I had even recovered my breath so hoped I looked particulary smooth (!), and only two other people out of the sixteen later appeared having ridden up, with everyone else walking. I was very proud that the fourth and last cyclist up was my wife! (See above comment re cadence)
