Ed and I spent a week recently working on the Giro d’Italia, and after doing quite a few trips like this we have our routine down to a tee; we always travel light, just carry-on baggage, it makes getting through airport security checks and moving around in a hire car for a week or two far easier. Fortunately, just before leaving, we got our hands on some of the new T-shirts by Peloton Racer, which we were happy to put to the test on our travels.
Since we’ve got cameras, laptops, BlackBerrys, all the related paraphenalia to go with them such as cables and chargers, and we know we’ll collect a lot of extra stuff when we’re on the race, such as roadbooks, race manuals and so on, there’s not much room left for anything else in our wee trolley bags -as we often find when it’s time to fly home and our bags are weighed!
It’s cool though, we only take two or three items of each type, and once there we quickly fall into our system of wear one / wash one / dry one. Our undies, socks and t-shirts take a beating, literally, as we delouse them in the bath each night with travel wash.
It’s a harsh regimen for clothes, particularly since it rained most days we were there, and walking up roads like the Bivio Poggio Salvi, part of the famous Strada Bianchi, which was more like a mud bath that afternoon after two days of rain, certainly tested our washing skills and the robustness of the clothes too.
It’s perhaps because we were in Italy, that both Ed and my favourite was the “Campionissimo“, a nice shade of light blue and a simple, classy logo celebrating the Italian legend Fausto Coppi – who earned the nickname “Champion of Champions” by winning five Giri d’Italia, two Tours de France, as well as a World Championship and an hour record, together with many other monuments and classics.
Ed liked the “Milan” shirt too, which features a nice rendering of Cav pipping Haussler last year in San Remo, whilst I really liked the bright orange of the “Kaanibaal” T, a reference to the colour scheme used by Eddy Merckx’s Molteni team in the ’70’s
The other shirt I used was the “Devolder“, in tribute to twice Belgian Champ and twice Tour of Flanders winner Stijn.
It’s a testament to the quality of the Peloton Racer shirts, that after the less-than-ideal treatment they suffered at the Giro, they’re still going strong, they’ve washed down well; keeping their shape and vibrant colours.