With the winter seemingly still no closer to packing its bags and buggering off, Marta and I did the only sensible thing and packed ours & headed south for the Easter.
In all fairness we'd had the trip to take pictures at the Bluegrass Enduro in Castelbuono planned for a while now but the thoughts of a cheeky bit of sunshine in the mountains and coast of Sicily were becoming all the more enticing as the cold snap was dragging on.
We were travelling with Giant Dublin MTB rider Daragh Smith and his lovely wife Anthea who we both know socially, so a good bit of craic and banter was guaranteed into the bargain too - Happy days!
We met up with the guys at Dublin Airport and after a pretty uneventful flight arrived in Palermo to start the passport control - shuttlebus - rental car waiting game. As nothing ever happens in too much of a hurry in Sicily, after a (good) few minutes, we'd exchanged paperwork & got handed the keys to one of the fancier rental jalopies I've had given to me in a while - A Citroen 4DS, nice car!
However, although the car was technically an upgrade from the compact station wagon we'd booked and infinitely fancier and more comfortable, it was a challenge to say the least to engineer the installation of four adult humans, their luggage, camera kit and a bicycle flight case into the interior so that all the doors closed.
This exercise was carried out to the bemusement of a British family waiting on the shuttle bus back to the terminal I might add.
Anyways, once we were all squared away for the trip down the coast to our base in Cefalu, a compact city by the sea about 80 km from Palermo and 24 km from the race venue, once going, arrived there in pretty good time. It was after all the evening time by now and there was little or no traffic to speak of. So after checking in to our respective hotels, there was little more to do than head into town for a bite to eat and a glass of Sicilian red before hitting the hay for the evening.The plan for the following day, once Daragh had built his bike up was to take a run up to Castelbuono to get our bearings, suss out the venue and for Daragh to get a shake down run in on the bike to make sure everything was in order. The assembled Giant Trance to a small bit of getting into the car, so Anthea stayed behind to check out Cefalu, while Daragh, Marta and I made the trek up to Castelbuono to explore.
Finding the trails took a bit of doing, everywhere was quiet as it was Good Friday, we had a satnav that didn't parla Inglese and I had double the backseat driving input than usual. But found them we did, by a combination of following our noses, going up dead ends and speaking with the locals in hand gestures, fractured Italian and at one point opening the boot and showing a guy the bike! We even managed to get a copy of the Carta di Pista, so although we didn't know which trails would be in use on Sunday at least we knew how to get to the trailheads.On up we drove, up the narrow winding road, strewn with rocks & potholes, nibbling at the fancy alloy rims and low profile tyres on our rental motor, passing glimpses of Bluegrass tape in the clearings as we went, stopping here and there to take a few tentative steps down sections of steep northshore boardwalk. Marta and I looking for good shooting angles and light, Daragh trying to figure out how to ride it competitively and still be in one piece at the end!
Once we'd gotten as far as we could get in the car, we decided that Daragh would attempt a run down the north shore trail & we'd take a couple of pictures at the start of his run and follow him down to where the trail met the road. He got set up and going sooner than expected and passed us at speed as we were "discussing" the best spot to shoot that particular section. We ended up with A photograph from that particular spot.
Down the hill then with us to meet him and despite the course being more downhill than his enduro machine and comfort zone were set up for he beat us to the meeting point easily. 1:0. We figured we'd do the same again starting from what looked like on the map the final stage that finished in the town. We decided to meet where that trail met the road or in the town, depending on who got to the intersection first. When we arrived at the intersection, there was no rider to be seen. A bit of amateur tracking revealed a fresh tyre block in the clay - he'd beaten us to it again! 2:0. Back into the car and down to Castelbuono again to find a smiling Irishman waiting for us.Figuring that was enough for the day, we loaded the bike into the car and headed for Cefalu where we had a couple of cold beers while Daragh gave the trance a clean & some tlc.
Showered and changed sometime later we headed into town for a bit of grub, while unexpectedly participating in a candlelit Good Friday procession along the streets of Cefalu old town to the Cathedral - Our mammies would have been proud of us!
Saturday was practise day, so we figured we'd head up to the hill and hopefully find more people to let us know what was happening and find out about sign on etc. Both of our wives stayed behind, opting for a bit of relaxation beside the sea while us men got on with the serious business at hand. The trip to the trailheads was a lot quicker this time around, although when we got there, it was still pretty much deserted so we figured, we'd head down to Castelbuono to see where sign on was.
On the way back we bumped into Alex Lupato & Hannah Barnes, although they were as much in the dark as we were and were climbing up the hill for a bit of pre practise before heading to the city to look for sign on.
A little farther down, we met Fabrizio & Marcello, part of the organising club who gave us directions to the sign on. Shortly after, we got back to the city centre and proceeded to walk the longest way possible to the town square, despite the fact that we'd parked right beside a map of the town centre! Eventually arriving at the Bluegrass tent we were met with a very warm welcome by the folk from Bluegrass and the guys from the local club, much to the relief of Smithers who was starting to get a little stressed at this point.
The procedure for the prologue race, to be run in the narrow cobbled streets that afternoon and forming special stage one of the event was explained to us as well as the stages that were to be used the following day.As it happened, Daragh had covered part of one of the stages the day before, so we nipped back up the hill to take one run down the other two. I dropped him at the top of the trail - Sentiero de Carbonai and proceeded to hoof it down to where the trail exited onto the road, feeling more than a little like we were taking part in a "Top Gear" man races machine special. And for once I beat him! 2:1. Time then to head back uphill for the start of the Castelbuono DH trail wondering what it held in store, if any of the previous trails weren't considered downhill! I left him get lidded up while I took a couple of background shots and then took off in chase to the finish to meet him. After meeting some traffic on the way, it was no surprise to find his grinning head waiting for me at the end of a big northshore tabletop. 3:1! Bast'd!
There was a little time to spare before heading back to town to be ready for the prologue, so we set up for a couple of test shots at the jump. The request for about 3 or 4 runs was met with a horrified "Are ya feckin' mad? It was bad enough doing it once!" I'm fairly sure it was a joke because he was already scooting back up the fire road before I could get into my second position! Another two quick sessions over the jump and I'd three decent shots in the bag, happy that I'd a decent spot for race day.
Back then to the town and the start of practise and the prologue stage. I left Smithers to his own devices and went round with a couple of very friendly local photographers shooting both runs from a couple of different spots. I was surprised to find that the event had only attracted 26 entries overall, perhaps the fact that it fell over the Easter holiday was a factor, whatever the reason, it didn't dampen the spirits of the competitors, organisers or the spectators, clearly eager to see urban enduro racing on their streets!With the small entry, the stage was over pretty quickly and I made my way back to the finish to see how Daragh had done. He'd been given his time but not his overall classification. Happily he was only a few seconds off of Jerome Clementz's time, not that the Frenchman's chain coming off had anything to do with it!
And so, back to Cefalu with us, despite the clamorings of our newfound Sicilian friends to come and have a drink and some food with them. We declined gracefully and headed back to meet Anthea & Marta, who had made the most of the Sicilian sun and were waiting by the seafront when we got back.It was quiet nights all round that evening, as although the small entry meant that Daragh's chances for a good result were more favourable, the factor of so many unknowns were stretching his comfort zone a bit to say the least. It's probably the quietest I've ever seen that man...
Sunday morning arrived and the springtime changing of the clocks by an hour was cancelled out by the organisers delaying the start time by an hour, presumably in case anybody did a Rory on it and slept in. We managed the loading of 4 bodies, provisions for the day and the bike without any fuss and made our way up the hill to the meeting point for the uplift.
As with the day before, there was a very friendly, relaxed, welcoming atmosphere as everybody milled about , chatting in the morning sunshine, making final bike preparations and gear checks before the off. Bikes loaded on the uplift truck, the riders set off on the bus and we jumped in the car to head for the finish point of Stage 1. Not before the organisers topped up our provisions with a packed lunch and a bottle of water each though - Mille Grazie!Anthea, Marta and I made our way to what we believed was close to the finish of Stage 1, but after a while of everything being very quiet, made the move to check were we actually on the correct stage at all! We're still not sure how it happened, but we were sat on an intermediate part of stage 3, luckily we were no more than 100m away from stage one and the long transfer to the very top of the mountain meant we'd plenty of time to get embedded for a bit of picture taking. Crisis averted!
After a bit of a chat at the end of that stage, it was time for the riders to saddle up and head up, while we headed down for the end of stage 2 and the monster table top finish! Pleanty of time then for a bit of a snack and to catch a few rays while we awaited the return of the riders and some fairly epic shtyling from some over the jump.
All hands safely through, another quick chat with Daragh later and we were on the road back to town for the finish in the square. This coincided with the end of the Sicilian lunch time and while the streets were deserted when we arrived back, the were soon filling up with excited spectators by the time the bikes made it back into town.
Once everyone had made it back, we headed round the corner for some more excellent Sicilian hospitality. Really and truly, I can't speak highly enough about the friendliness and generosity of the people we met at this event!So then, bellies filled and thirst quenched, we made our way back to the square for the podium presentations:
Overall Race winner was Frenchman Jerome Clementz, follwed by his compatriot Bastien Dieffenthaler and local man Davide Cammeda took the third spot on the podium.
The Women's Race was won by Scotland's Hanna Barnes, followed by local rider Laura Scorpa.
Bastien Dieffenthaler, Davide Cammeda and Luca Morana took the expert honours and in the Master category, first place was claimed by none other than Daragh Smith of Giant Dublin - Go Smithers!!
Local riders Paolo Catania and Sergio Alcamo took second and third spot in this category.
Once the prizegiving was over, and a few farewells were said, we made our way back to Cefalu for some hearty celebrations late into the night. Needless to say it involved champagne, dancing, laughing and joking as the texts and congratulations were coming in from home.
It was four weary and sore heads then that sat down for a proper Italian four course lunch on the seafront on the Monday afternoon, well maybe not, I don't know if it's considered a proper lunch if you don't have wine?
And so, hangovers almost gone we bade farewell to Sicily, 4 days of glorious sunshine, great racing, beautiful countryside, wonderful people with the warmest of welcomes and headed back home.
I can't wait for next year already!
