PEZ readers will know that the Giro d’Italia is my favorite of the Grand Tours. The Tour de France is THE Grand Tour. The Vuelta aka the Spanish Hillclimb Championships is the most fun. But the Giro is the most beautiful. So I was thrilled when I learned about and was given the opportunity to cover the Giro d’Italia Ride Like a Pro USA.
The first question I’m sure almost everyone will ask is: Is this event actually affiliated with the Giro d’Italia? The answer is YES. Giro d’Italia Ride Like a Pro is a project with involvement from RCS Sports, the organizer of the Giro d’Italia. According to the project’s website:
By including those who ride out of mere passion and those who experience cycling more competitively, the Giro d’Italia Ride Like a Pro races have been conceived to convey the emotions of living one day as a real champion. Competitive spirit, fun, passion, Italian atmosphere: these are the elements that every rider will “bring back home” after participating in a Giro d’Italia Ride Like a Pro event.
There are Giro Ride Like a Pro events in the US, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, and China
The Giro Ride Like a Pro USA event was on Sunday, January 19, 2025 with hotel check-in and a pasta dinner on the 18th.
My wife and I decided to make it a long weekend and drove down that Friday (about 190 miles from our house in the Lowcountry to the host hotel: the World Golf Village Renaissance Resort). Not only just as a nice getaway, but a good test as our first “long distance” drive in our VW ID4 electric vehicle. We had enough battery range to make it down there on a full charge but stopped once to “top off” just so we wouldn’t be needing to re-charge immediately upon our arrival.
Race headquarters
I had also talked one of my former Babylon on the Potomac riding buddies who had since retired to Florida (a few hours south of St. Augustine) into doing the Gran Fondo. We met up with him and his wife for dinner on Friday at Blackfly, one of many great restaurants in St. Augustine, where as a change of pace I imbibed in a Negroni Sbagliato — which is a “mistaken Negroni” that swaps out gin for prosecco.
Operation Dinner Out
With some time to kill on Saturday, my wife and I played tourist in St. Augustine. We visited the St. Augustine Lighthouse and the very touristy (but fun) Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, the original site of the Nation’s oldest city.
A view of and from the top of the lighthouse
One of the many peacocks who are residents at the Fountain of Youth park
OK, enough of the travelogue …
Saturday afternoon was race check-in/packet pick-up. In addition to race numbers and a timing chip, we got a t-shirt, hat, and jersey in a nice bag.
Not quite the maglia rosa
Swag!
Waves of Gray – Brain Cancer/Tumor Awareness was the event’s charity partner
And Saturday night was carbo loading at the pasta dinner — as well as few glasses of red wine.
Yes, that’s the actual Trofeo Senza Fine. Some will notice the last name engraved is Vincenzo Nibali in 2016. That’s because the Giro changed it’s logo in 2017 for the 100th edition. There’s a new trophy with the new logo, but this older one is just as beautiful.
So what about the race itself?
For those of you unfamiliar with a Gran Fondo, it’s a race but not a race. It’s not a race in that the winner(s) is not determined by who crosses the finish line first. But it’s a race in that the winning time is determined by the cumulative time of different segments on the course — one way to think of them is as Strava KOMs. That means your time in between the segments doesn’t matter. So it’s entirely possible for the winner to not be the fastest overall rider. I will admit that I’m not particularly a fan of the format, but different strokes for different strokes. And I understand that it’s a way for riders to compete and measure their performance against other riders without the “stress” associated with traditional racing. As a result, Gran Fondos have broader appeal and can usually draw a larger ridership than a typical race.
As is typical of Gran Fondo events, the Giro Ride Like a Pro USA had three different distances (I had signed up for the Medio):
- Gran Fondo – Long Course – 86.5 miles
- Medio – Medium Course – 60.8 miles
- Piccolo – Short Course – 33.5 miles
As the race organizers said, this was not a Gran Fondo for climbers (that would be me). For the Medio, the total elevation gain according to Ride With GPS was a whopping 282 feet! So definitely flat and fast. I was expecting just a longer version of my usual Sunday group ride on Hilton Head Island.
For riders who didn’t want to race, there were Ragazzi fun rides over the same distances. Plus a 4-mile kids fun ride. So something for everybody.
But the one thing hanging over everyone’s head — that we all knew ahead of time coming into the weekend — was the weather. All week long, the forecast for Sunday didn’t look great, i.e., rain. So we all went to sleep Saturday night not exactly knowing what would happen on Sunday.
Early Sunday morning (still dark outside), I was awoken by the sound of steady, heavy rain and thunder plus some flashes of lightning. Definitely not good.
All my weather apps said the same thing
Based on the forecast, the race organizers decided to delay the ride start to 9am (instead of the original 8am start) and combine the start of the Gran Fondo with the start of the Ragazzi fun rides. Additionally, the 80-mile Gran Fondo would be shortened to the Medio distance, but the times for riders registered for the Gran Fondo would be separate from riders who registered for the Medio.
But even with the delayed start, there was still rain in the forecast and a high probability of getting more than just a little wet. I’m not afraid to admit to being a wimp in my AARP years. I’m well past the point of needing to prove how HTFU I am and no longer intentionally do #9 rides — have been there, done that more than enough times. And it’s not just about getting soaking wet. I don’t really want to have to clean my bike up afterwards (I know … first world problem). So I made the decision to bail — as did my friend who was going to ride with me and many others (there were about 350 riders registered for the event and probably 100-something actually rode).
Staying dry before the start
Ready to roll in the rain
Adiamo!
Since I wasn’t riding, we actually decided to drive back home once everyone was safely off. We had some heavy rain heading north. My friend who was driving south also encountered some heavy rain. I talked with some riders I knew who braved the conditions and they definitely got wet.
All smiles at the finish!
Chapeau to all the riders who did the Giro Ride Like a Pro USA! Even though I didn’t ride, my wife and I had a great weekend visiting St. Augustine, America’s oldest city. And — if they’ll have me back — I hope I’ll be able to do the ride/race next year.
Congrats to the overall and all the different age group winners! Race results can be found here.
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