Gino Nacey is heading to Italy for the fifth time, and he is taking his child and brainchild.
Mr. Nacey, 54, of Lower Burrell, and his daughter, Nina Wilczek, 29, depart for the Mediterranean today. They are taking their bicycles to participate in a charity race they started, the 403-mile Giretto d’Italia. The Giretto d’Italia will precede the Giro d’Italia, a three-week, professional event on a par with the Tour de France — and one in which cycling legend Lance Armstrong will participate for the first time. The four-day event will cover a course that is flat for the first half and in the foothills of the Alps for the second. Ms. Wilczek, of New Kensington, and her father hope to raise $10,000. Slightly more than $8,500 has come in, and pledges will be taken during and after the ride, Mr. Nacey said. The typical pledge is 10 cents a mile, he said. Mr. Nacey, a businessman, and Ms. Wilczek, a marketing professional, will ride as a team with Josh Carson, of Vandergrift, and Jennifer Sage, of Vail, Colo. A fifth teammate, Raquell Schmidt, of New York, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer after signing up and will not ride. Mr. Nacey, a father of five, took up cycling 10 years ago following hip replacement surgery and said he became hooked on the sport.
“It made me feel like a kid again,” said the owner of Global Ride LLC, a spinning, yoga and Pilates studio in Lower Burrell and founder of Tele-Tracking Technologies Inc., which makes software for hospitals and is based in Pittsburgh.