Ducati.Net Photo Gallery - Vicki's View
Motogiro d'Italia 2008 - Rome to Vieste and back. This year we started in Rome, one glance at the schedule could tell you the new team organizing the event this year was taking the compitition seriously - raising it to another level if you will. Nine hour days of mountain riding would have done just that but for the first time in eight years, we had days of bad weather. The result was the toughest Motogiro d'Italia yet. Thanks to Christian Clarke and Lorainne Bockmier for their fine photos.
Photos by Vicki Smith, Christian Clarke, Lorainne Bockmier. Story by Vicki Smith
Think this looks like fun? Here's the link for Motogiro America:
http://www.motogiroamerica.com/en/
and Motogiro d'Italia:
http://www.motogiroditalia.com/en/
Next year? Bologna to the Italian Riviera!!! See you there.
Photos by Vicki Smith, Christian Clarke, Lorainne Bockmier. Story by Vicki Smith
Think this looks like fun? Here's the link for Motogiro America:
http://www.motogiroamerica.com/en/
and Motogiro d'Italia:
http://www.motogiroditalia.com/en/
Next year? Bologna to the Italian Riviera!!! See you there.
After a big dinner near the hotel we all retire to our rooms, generally agreed among us as the best rooms we had ever seen. This is the soap menu, there was a pillow menu as well. This was genuinely a world class hotel.
Rain. A LOT of rain was what we awoke to.
For the first time in modern Motogiro d'Italia history we would be starting in the rain. Overcast and rainy, nobody looks forward to climbing the mountain in this weather. What we should have been worrying about instead was the cold. 4 degrees and sleeting with hail as well made for a seriously long day, with a 9 hour schedule calculated expecting good conditions, nobody saw this coming
That's Eric Clarke and Rich Lambrechts taking the start in the rain. Lorainne Bockmier took this photo - most people wouldn't consider getting a camera out, it was just too wet. Thanks Lorainne
By the end of the day we all looked like this. Hyperthermia was an issue for many, at least to some degree, and in the case of a number of guys who came off the mountain in an ambulence because of the extreme cold, a real concern.
None the less, the rain days built character regardless of how exhausting they were. At the end of the event the challenge made it even better. This event isn't for weenies
View from my room Day 2. Rain was still possible but nothing like yesterday.
Most days we rode an hour and a half or two and then had a stop, followed by a 4 or 5 hour run to the next check point. This was lunch day two - the only time they gave us tickets for food and drinks.
The sausages were yummy
The view lovely
