Stage 5 was a mountain stage, passing over 4 “rated” climbs. Climb ratings range from 4 to 0 (actually rating 0 is called “hors category&rdqo;, or beyond classification). The climbs for stage 5 were rated 3, 1, 3, and 2. Monte Ceneri, a feature of my several rides to Bellinzona and beyond, was rated 3. (It's nice to know that this hill I've taken so many times earns a rating for professional racers.) The final category 2 climb was Cademario, a small town near Lugano, and that's where I decided to watch it.
It was a long climb, but no steeper than others I've grown used to. I left myself lots of time to get there because I didn't know the way, and because I didn't know what to expect from a category 2 climb. Finding my way turned out to be easy enough. Near Bioggio (on the plain below Cademario) I saw lots of cyclists heading the same direction, so that had to be it. As I got further, there were advertising banners, crowd control devices here and there, an occasional arch over the road ... and now and again a clump of fans, or another cyclist grinding up the hill. I passed a few and wasn't passed, but I noted that the strongest-looking cyclists made their way up the hill later than those of us who were less sure of how well and whether we would make it up.
I was looking for a spot a little below the crest of the climb, and ended up going a bit beyond Cademario to a tinier town called Lisone (though I didn't know that at the time). That was at 2672 feet altitude, starting from a little under 1000.
You see much less of a race watching it in person than watching it on TV. Being on the uphill side of a hill helps, because the riders are moving more slowly, but the leaders still pass within a minute or two. The rewarding part is just having ridden the same road you see top professionals riding over.
Frank Schleck of CSC was alone in the front as he passed; he would soon be joined in the escape by one other rider, together ahead of the main group. But, a little beyond where I was, Schleck misjudged a corner and went over a siderail. (I did not learn about this until I got home.) It looked pretty awful ... you could fall a long way off the edge of these roads. But Schleck was lucky. He landed in a tree that broke his fall, and in about a minute he was back on his bike (probably a replacement bike, since the bike he was riding took a pretty bad tumble too). He finished well out of the lead, but well enough to continue to the end of the Tour.
So where does a racer get a quick replacement bike? As it turns out, you see a lot more support cars than riders in one of these races. (We saw them too in the Giro, and probably many of them were the exact same cars since many of the same teams were competing.)
There are also lots and lots of motorcycles, including motorcycles with still and TV cameras.
Overall it was fun, and I'm glad I went, mostly for the novelty.
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