Today started out late.  Yesterday’s early start beget today’s late start.  We planned on doing the the Bicycle Fun Club’s Giyo della Montagna (Tour of the Hill) ride.  We did do the ride but we were even later then yesterday.  We launched from the house at 8:30.  After a mile we turned around to fetch the bike lock.  This led to other issues, but we were soon on the road again.  We showed up at Trailnet’s start point only to find a parking lot full of empty cars.  Fortunately, Amy from Trailnet while closing up was still there.  We got maps and set off.

It was spooky eerily starting a Trailnet ride so late and alone.  There were almost no cars and there were no bicycles along the route, as we headed through south city.  We elected to do the middle route.  Eventually we merged with the long route and many other cyclists.  We passed and were passed by members of Team Kaldis.  We were the turtles to their hares.  They stopped to fix flats and we just plugged along.

We ended up where the ride was to begin, on the Hill.  The Hill, Saint Louis’ Italian neighborhood, proudly hosts the longest standing bike race in St. Louis.  The Hill also boasts the finest Italian restaurants anywhere.  It is the boyhood home of such baseball legends as Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola.  We watched one race, I got the T-shirt and prepared to leave.

After the first race the announcer acclaimed that a pregnant women was in labor and that her car would be driving on the race course.  Which it did.  I can only guess at the negotiation between some fictional race official and the pregnant mom’s driver.  “OK, we have only three minutes to go and then five laps, can you hold it?”

We made it home with 40 miles.  Afterwords Joan took us to the Greek Festival.  We had a lot of good food there.  The picture above is of some young Greek dancers.