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« Older Entries |2010 Veneto Cycling Events – More and More!
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
We already knew that 2010 was going to be huge with the Giro passing right through Castelcucco, finishing a stage in Asolo, and finishing with a TT in Verona, but each week sees more events piling on!
Starting on June 19 (with amateur events) and wrapping up on June 27 (with the Men’s Pro race), the Italian National Championships will be in our backyard at Conegliano.
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The main climb of the course, the Ca’ del Poggio, is basically at the far end of the Canal Ride, and we’ll surely make a detour to see exactly what it’s like for ourselves. Pat found video from the 2009 Giro that shows it may be short, but it’s not easy – especially 11 times like they’ll do in June.
And now, the Giro d’Italia Femminile (Giro Donne), will also have two stages in our backyard this July. The second stage from Sacile finishes 15kms away in Riese Pio X on July 3. The next day is a 17km TT starting in Caerano San Marco, heading up to Cornuda, and finishing back in Biadene.
2010 Giro d'Italia Femminile - Stage 3 TT
And this is all, of course, in addition to the usual events, like UDACE racing, and the Gran Fondo Damiano Cunego on June 6, the Gran Fondo dei 7 Comuni Rigoni di Asiago on June 13, the Gran Fondo Sportful (Campagnolo) on June 20, Sella Ronda Bike Day on June 27, the Gran Fondo Monte Grappa on July 4, and of course la Pinarello (Gran Fondo Pinarello) on July 18.
Ci vediamo presto!!
Whole Athletes in Castelcucco?
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
You’ve probably seen the links on our website and wondered who some of them are. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll clue you in as we tell you about some of the updates we’re making based on your feedback.
As for today, We are very excited to tell you that we have strengthened our connection with Whole Athlete. Both Pat and I have known founder Dario Fredrick (among other Whole Athlete coaches) for years. We admire their athletes’ success, agree with their approach, and most importantly, think their philosophy meshes well with the Velo Veneto approach to riding and life – riding well and living well are interconnected! Additionally, Dario has local connections; his mother is from Bassano, and he is a frequent visitor to, and rider on, the roads we tackle every year.
What does this stronger connection mean for you? At least for now, it means two things. First, approximately monthly, Whole Athlete will contribute an article to our blog on a training topic. These topics are meant to be helpful to you and your riding, so we would like your feedback and ideas for these articles. Second, Whole Athlete has, in addition to their ongoing coaching relationships, 3-month coaching packages available. If you are interested in maximizing your fitness for your time at camp, but aren’t interested in or comfortable with an ongoing training program, these packages might be just what the doctor ordered!
I could go on about Dario and Whole Athlete, but I doubt I’d do them justice. I encourage you to visit the Whole Athlete website to learn more about them, their philosophy, and their coaching options. If you have any other ideas or thoughts on how this connection can help make your riding and Velo Veneto experience better, please let us know.
Grazie! – Jason
Benvenuto, Fred!
Monday, January 4th, 2010
We have some very exciting news to announce today. Federico “Fred” Morini will be joining us in Castelcucco this year! Fred moved quickly through the junior ranks in Italy, eventually leading to everyone’s dream, a pro contract! Signing with Gerolsteiner in 2000, Fred was an immediate success, winning a stage of the Tour of Austria as a neo-pro. Unfortunately, a horrible training accident in 2001 nearly paralyzed Fred and eventually ended his pro career in 2003.
Rather than feel bad about his situation, Fred worked hard to first walk, and then to ride his bike again. He loves to share his boundless energy with everyone he rides with, and our initial good feelings about Fred were supported by fellow Velo Venetians (that is grammatically correct, right?) who have ridden with Fred before. Though he is committed to be elsewhere during il Giro and le Tour, throughout the rest of the season, he will join us every other week for riding, coaching, meals, and I’m sure storytelling! Still friends with many current Italian pros, he has insights and connections that will prove interesting and useful, whether it be on our next ride, an UDACE race, a Gran Fondo, or the Master’s World Championships. If you’re not able to make it to Castelcucco in 2010, Fred will likely make a US appearance at the Gran Fondo Colnago San Diego, the Solvang Cycling Clinic, and the Solvang Century.
If you want to know more about Fred, you can visit his website, follow his Twitter account, or stay tuned here or on our Facebook fan page, where he will occasionally pop in to say Ciao!, and tell us about goings-on in the world of pro cycling.
Staying in Castelcucco
Monday, December 21st, 2009
We’ve just got off the phone with the Hotel Monte Grappa, and it sounds like a congratulations is in order for Luca Bolzon and family. It appears that business at Hotel Monte Grappa will be booming in 2010, and they will often be full up! Velo Veneto will no longer have full run of the place, but as always, he has found ways to accommodate us. So, what does this mean for us?
- We will have access to what we’re calling Villa II – the Bolzon family home just behind the Hotel Monte Grappa. For everyone, this means a secure place to leave your bike and bike case, a laundry facility, and where we will have the rack, workstand, and a small toolset. It also means that at particularly busy times, we will have access to bedrooms in Villa II!
- Luca has asked that we give him rooming lists as early as possible this year, so he can make sure that everybody has a bed, and every bed has a body. For the Giro trip, this means we’d like to have our list to him by the end of January. You can put your name and dates in on our Registration page, and we’re finally taking PayPal deposits.
We’re happy and excited for Luca, and the more we plan for and talk about next year, the more excited we get about heading back! If you have any thoughts, or suggestions, leave a comment below or give us a shout.
Welcome to the new Velo Veneto!
Friday, November 6th, 2009
When Renato tells you that it’s time to freshen up Velo Veneto’s look, it’s time to get to work! Thanks to the creative mind of long-time cyclist and designer extraordinaire Alden Tanaka, the new website looks great! He is also giving our team kits a thorough redesign, and we’ll be able to show you the results in a few weeks.
As with any redesign, there are sure to be bugs that need working out. If you see something that looks strange, please let us know!
Also, we would love to use banner images on the pages from our own riders. If you have shots that you think would look great at the top of our pages, please e-mail them to Jason. Images must be at least 1000px wide for us to use in the banner. If you have other images not suited for banner duty, we’ll have a Flickr group up in the next day or so that we would love for you to join. We’ll pull images from the group for display on the site sidebar.
