The road to ECMC 5: a busy programme!

Here I am, landed in Linate and in the process of unpacking and rebuilding Gelatina. While on the plane I thought of giving you a quick overview of what will be the plan for the next few days.

We are going to start tomorrow, with a group ride to the sanctuary of Madonna del Ghisallo, protector of cyclists and travellers. This is a sanctuary placed at the top of a really famous climb, often used in the Giro di Lombardia and Giro d'Italia. It is also treasured by cyclists as it features a museum of cycling, with old bicycles from champions of the past.
There we will also meet a large group of couriers that has been riding from Bern (Switzerland) for the past few days, heading towards Milan. Once back to the city, there will be the opening party at the ECMC headquarters: time to meet everybody and get in the mood!

Friday will be a relatively easy day, as the only race in the programme is scheduled for 6pm, and it will only be raced by OutOfTown couriers. Since I'm just pretending, I'll see if the organisers need my help at one of the checkpoints. The positive thing about this is that I'll be fresh for the party at the Velodromo Vigorelli, sanctuary of Milan's cycling history, which has been neglected for a long time but which is now slowly coming back to life!

Saturday will be the busiest day: main race qualification's from 10.30am, dispatchers race qualifications from 3pm, Private Alleycat at 7pm...and of course a big party afterwards! The qualifications will be held in a "closed" circuit at Parco delle Memorie Industiali; there will be a range of pickups and deliveries that we will have to do, following a manifest. Only those that complete most jobs will qualify for the finals.
I'm not entirely sure whether I'll be taking part in the dispatchers team race as well: from the looks of it there is already plenty of teams, but it would be nice to put together a group of us solitary souls and give it a go!
The Private Alleycat is now a tradition of the Italian scene, and this will be the 5th edition. Along with the competitors for the ECMC there will also be many other riders from all over in Italy, and it will be a hard race in the busy streets of Milan. I took part in the first two editions of the Private Alleycat, once racing with Sarah, and once on my own. Not being really an expert of Milan's geography I never had amazing results, so this time it might be a good idea to follow the locals...who knows, time will tell :)

Finally, Sunday we will wrap up the event with the final race, a group ride to see the end of Giro d'Italia, and the awards ceremony.

I hope this gives you a good idea of the busy schedule for the next few days. I'll try to keep you posted as much as possible here, on Twitter (@Mat_Cha_Ich) and on G+.

Now I'll try to find my way to my sister's university...it is going to be a good first test of my orienteering skills..