Rapha Randonnée Appennini Report, Days 3-5

I do my best to not make excuses as I go through my days. As I've shared with my global band of merry men on this trip, there is an American saying about excuses that I learned growing up, "excuses are like….., and everybody's got one." Still, I do have three good reasons why there has been no posting from Italy's Appennini region the past couple nights.

- Something about Italy and Wi-Fi that doesn't seem to agree.
- AT&T/iPhone data roaming.
- I was so shattered last night from the two HC climbs that I hit the bed before I could even get out of my clothes.

Five days down, just one day of 140k and 2900m of climbing to go and we'll be attempting to toast with vino rosso before we all fall dead asleep at the table tomorrow night. This weekend we'll all head back to Australia, South Korea, Sweden, Portland and London, hopefully knowing that we had no excuses and left it all on the road in Italy. After all, I'd imagine that we all want to enjoy our riding, but most of us would agree that there aren't too many better feelings than the accomplishment that comes of destroying yourself for the "win" (whatever that means to you), then getting up the next day to try and do it all again. It is after all what I think is so amazing about the heroes I have in this sport and to now have done just five days of it on many of the same roads as they've ridden (even at my non-pro pace) has given me that much more respect for how fast they ride and how much they suffer.