AliciaRose Pastore Finishes in 19th for Team USA

Sidetrip Stories:

The Olive Garden Story:  Once upon a time there were four hungry cyclists wandering the isles of an Albany grocery store.  Alicia, Teal, Elke, and Darian couldn’t be bothered to spend another 5 minutes deciding on ingredients to make a fourth dinner for the week, so they decided to go out that night instead.   After exiting the store, they loaded $200 worth of groceries into their clown car ( which was already packed to the gills with suitcases, duffle bags, and bikes) and drove off in search of a place to eat dinner.  The first establishment they stopped at had a 25 minute wait!!!! Being from the great town of Durango, the travelers were spoiled and not used to having to wait this long for a table.  This was unacceptable, so they continued their search in hopes of finding a restaurant were they could be seated immediately.  Unfortunately, they were in a city at 7:00pm, right in the middle of the dinner rush.  The foursome did not realize this until they drove up to an Olive Garden and saw people standing around outside like a herd of cattle.  They now understood that they were going to have to wait no matter where they went, so Elke went in and got one of those vibrating pager things and they joined the rest of the cattle waiting for their turn to eat.  The promise of all-you-can-eat salad and bread sticks sounded well worth the wait.  The group sat and chatted about the up-coming race until the vibrator/pager went off, and went inside to their table.  Where it was FREEZING!!  The group perused their menus with chattering teeth and growling stomachs.  Dinner choices were quickly made and the waitress came to take their order.  Yet she brought some distressing news;  there were no more bread sticks.  Not only could the travelers not eat all they wanted, but they couldn’t eat ANY!   Darn you Olive Garden and your empty promises! Elke, in her never-ending attempt to get away with as much as possible, tried to coerce the waitress into giving us their best appetizer for free.  But the waitress wasn’t having any of it and brought some strange dinner rolls instead.     The cyclists ate their fill of salad and pasta, paid there tab and squeezed back into the smallest SUV known to man.  They had survived eating pasta at an Americanized Italian chain that caters to the overweights masses during the busiest time of night.  The rest of the weekend should be a piece of cake.  -DarianH