The msr live-thread won't let me post, so i'm going to post this here.

Huge chapeau to Maratsafin for being nuts enough to want to fly to Nice and then ride to san remo in the rain. Was huge fun. Rode well, great company, and was fantastic riding up the poggio with absolutely no one around. Was so cool to see that familiar road on the bike. Also i now really understand about it being an easy big-ring climb and all that (not that i rode it in the big ring or anything). Just great fun.

Then the finish line! Ha ha! Was so weird to ride by the stands full of people there with the announcer on the loudspeakers going on excitedly about the race as we rode through. HAHAHAHA! So fun. My only regret is losing that damn sprint.

After marat's triumph we went in to a café to talk things over and warm up and watch the approaching race on the telly. We came out of the café to see them go by for the finish and then ride home. I was absolutely freezing! But a few minutes of pedaling and all was well. Had some kind of super energy for the way home. Sometimes i couldn't see anything in the dark and rain though (need glasses to see, but in rain they are worse than useless and i see better without them) so i'd just get behind the rolling christmas tree (marat and his bike) and follow that at a reasonable distance, as his bike is particularly effective at pissing water at anyone following - that worked pretty well except for when gusts of wind would take he and his deep wheels halfway across the road.

Just to finish off his epic day (getting up at 4:30am, flight to Nice, ride to san remo, ride back in the dark, in the rain) - to be truly epic marat felt it necessary to also have a crevaison and had to change a couple tubes in the cold and rain. I stood by and helped out by providing plenty of useful comments. Personally i'm pretty sure that this was just a punishment for his surely-doped-up sprint victory.

And now that's he off on a plane heading back to london, i see we've got some nice blue starting to show up in the sky. :)

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