Damian's DCS Blog Day 1: Quattro Staggioni!

The primary reasons I chose the first leg of the DCS were based on the following principles; i) I wanted to be there to support my old mate in getting this journey of a lifetime underway ii) I figured Rome in February would be somewhat more temperate than Ireland and Scotland in March.

Picture the scene then as we depart the Ritz and the heavens open in the Eternal City. The last minute preparations and endless faffing at the Stadio Flaminio are completed just in time for us to see the first snowfall that Rome has enjoyed for 26 years. Brillante, as they say out here. The Carabinieri arrive to give us a police escort and the sleet is coming down at a pace that makes cycling hazardous, which is bad enough back home, but when you are cycling through a city that is renowned for having its fair share of life threatening drivers, then it adds a certain frisson to the first outing as a 47 strong peleton.

Given the inclement weather, there are a host of fascinating outfits that have got an airing this morning. I must confess that most of my shopping was reminiscent of Christmas Eve as I dashed around London trying to get the correct gear together. Thanks to Bruce and all the troops at Prologue in Sheen for saving the day once more.

The fashion stakes are not particularly high when it comes to staying warm and keeping dry on a bike, and my ugly overshoes make me look more like Sammy Davis Jnr than Sammy Whittingham (google him). However I am reassured by the sartorial elegance of others in the group, and realise that I’m not alone in looking like an idiot. Lawrence has gone for an Ali G (or should that be Ali D?) look with white beanie and stylee glasses – see image, but top marks go to my great friend and all round lovely person Hugh McHardy. To the uninitiated (and there aren’t many out there), Hugh – aka Huge Bacardi – is one of life’s bon viveurs that you will ever be lucky enough to meet. Never a bad word to say about anyone, and while things may get critical at times, it’s never too serious for Huge.

Huge has come to cycling late in life – he started training 2 weeks before we left, but that is a footnote – for most people on the trip, it’s all about being away with good friends, enjoying the experience and raising money for 2 fantastic causes. Huge turns up on day 1 wearing a beanie hat that gives him more than a passing resemblance to Bennie from Crossroads, and his look is completed by the Green Poncho that he slips on over his kit to protect him from the rain. Very wise, if not too aerodynamic.

We say goodbye to the police after 25 km’s with no major casualties to report and the weather starts to clear, and spirits are high as the group starts to spread out on the roads up to Lake Bolsena 110 km’s away. Armed with Garmin sat nav devices and back up directions from French Fred – the group naturally spreads out as we all find our pace and rhythm. We commence our climb up from Lake Baccaccia, and suddenly the weather turns and it starts snowing heavily. The 400 m climb is manageable, but the snow starts to settle and a white out blizzard ensues. The Dunkirk spirit is high, but we soon realise that coming down the snowy roads on our bikes is even more treacherous than cycling through Rome in rush hour. We descend with one leg outstretched as a brake in the 4/5 inches of snow and I muse whether it’s too late to get the IOC to make this an Olympic exhibition sport before the Winter Olympics starts in a few hours time. It’s more Ice Road Cyclists than Ice Road Truckers. The wind has now picked up. If it weren’t so f f f freezing, it would almost be funny.

Having been forced to dismount and walk our bikes down the hill, we see the oasis of our support vehicles and with it a soup kitchen set up in a local farmers workshop where the lovely Jo and Nicky hand out warming refreshments as we all shiver to death in our Jimmy Saville silver emergency blankets. There is a lot of esprit de corps (not sure the Italians have a name for that), but also a few concerns about cyclists who are Missing In Action (MIA). Safety is obviously the #1 concern, and the first victim was the Argentine/Italian Rugby legend Diego Dominguez (or Drop Goalez as he is affectionately known). Given that this was now the worst snow fall that Rome had seen in 26 years, and the first time that Diego had ever seen snow in Rome, then his lack of wet weather gear meant he was unable carry on after stopping at a café for fear of hypothermia setting in. I bet he was delighted to have accepted Lawrence’s invitation to join us for one day!

Under his silver blankets Sir Les is looking particularly shaken up by the day’s events, and complains that as a boy from the Caribbean he is not used to these shocking conditions. To be honest I can’t quite work out where in the West Indies Notting Hill is, but that’s a minor detail – we all feel his pain. I also happen to know that Les is a qualified helicopter pilot, so I stick close to him in the forlorn hope that he might have put a call in to White Hart Lane to second Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy’s Bell chopper.

The decision is reluctantly taken to abandon Day 1, as there is no let up in the weather as the snow settles to some 5 or 6 inches. Our main concern is finding the last 2 outriders who have not been seen for some time. My concerns grow when I realise that one of these 2 MIA is none other than Huge Bacardi. He was last spotted cycling off in the wrong direction with Hannah Harter – who has flown in from Washington DC just this week to join the team from Blenheim, one of the DCS sponsors. My immediate distress is that Hugh has his poncho on and with the strong winds getting up, then he could well be airborne by now. Images of ET riding through the skyline keep returning , as I fear that a gale force wind could well have lifted Hugh to Corsica as we eat our lunch.

A huge relief then, when Hannah and Hugh are located and brought back to the café in Sutri where we are picked up by the coach and driven onto Bolsena for our first stop. The journey is made even more frustrating as beautiful sunshine breaks through 10 km’s from our destination, but that’s life on the road for you, and as the late, great Desmond Dekka once sang “ Rome was not built in a day.”

After a unsteady start, the DCS is off and running – more cycle mayhem tomorrow. Senza dubbio

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