Skiing with Kessiakoff and riding climbs

When we came here the snow layer was around 70cm thick but now it has thawed to about half less and the roads are dry, so we have no problem riding. Today the temperature was hovering around 13 degrees up here and it was about 20 down in the lower altitudes. It took us three days to get acclimatized, so we only went out for easy training rides.We had a rest day on Sunday so I went skiing in the morning. I hit the ski slopes with my Swedish teammate Kessiakoff because we are the only good skiers in our bunch and we had great fun. It is a weird feeling looking down at the sea from above but considering that we are almost in Africa, the slopes are well groomed. As it was the first fallen snow of the season, the slopes got pretty crowded, but because we skied from 9 to 11am, it was not so bad. Today we did a more intensive ride and I have a great feeling about it. On Thursday we are planning to pre-ride another part of this year’s Giro stage. On that occasion, our sports manager Giuseppe Martinell, is coming here. The finish of the stage is planned right next to the hotel that we are staying in. The climb from the town of Nicolosi is around 19km long, with 1200m of climbing and 6.5 percent gradient on average. We will ride it twice, each time  from a different side so it will be hell of an experience….