Just after I left the front gate and had to wait for the stoplight, I spotted a cycling team car loaded with gear and bikes. It dawned on me that the signs I spotted last night in Lissone for street closures might be for a bike race.
So, instead of heading to Auchan, I drove into Lissone to confirm my suspicions. I was right. I called Brandon to tell him about the race and asked him to get our bikes ready while I headed home.
He was ready and waiting when I arrived home. I changed and we headed to Lissone to see the bike race. My suspected that it would be a 'regional' race, which means only regional teams would be attending. I was wrong! When we rode up to the staging area we spotted my Italian pro teams, but also the 'big' teams like HTC Columbia, Lampre, BMC and Footon. No Radioshack!
Garmin-Transitions team bus. I wonder if they ever get lost heading to a race?
HTC Columbia didn't bring their big bus to this race.
BMC had an odd looking motorhome.
We spent some time riding around the finish line and the buses before making our way to the course to see the first lap of the race.
The chaos before the race
Finish Line, empty. The racers won't be back in town for about 5 hours.
The Copa Ugo Agostoni is a long one day race. It starts in Lissone and heads to Bellagio, on Lago di Como, then back to Lissone. The racers did one lap around Lissone before heading toward Bellagio.
Once they were gone we headed back home for the afternoon. We would return to Lissone around 3:30 to see the finish.
At 3pm we got headed out the door and rode back to Lissone. The roads were still open since the racers were still a ways away. We rode the loop in Lissone, making our way towards the finish line. Along the way we spotted a bike shop we didn't know about. We'll have to go check that out in the near future.
We ended up watching the racers come into town near the train station. The road makes a twisting 'S' curve through a tunnel under the tracks, followed by straight 400 meters to the finish.
Our bikes
Brandon waits for the racers arrival
The leaders. Notice how easy they seem to be riding. They had a big lead on the peleton and were conserving energy for the final sprint.
Similiar the beginning of the race, the racers did one lap around the city. On the second lap they sprinted for the finish.
We stuck around the see the final results. 1st place went to a Lampre rider. 2nd place to BMC. 3rd place to Aqua-Sapone.
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