My friend Hedrich went to Italy and brought me back the coolest cycling cap I've ever seen. It's from a little bike maker near the famous Bassano del Grappa, one of the most famous passes in the Giro. The company is called Calavera. The cap is all white with a red white and green ribbon down the middle. Unlike many cycing caps, it's plenty large and doesn't cut off the circulation to your scalp. On the side it says "Biciclettes Calavera, Bassano del Grappa." It was brand new before the trip; here's what it looks like now. On the first day of the tour, I pulled into a hardware store in Palo Alto to buy a bicycle lock. I wheeled my handsome Rivendell into the store and leaned it near the front counter. Then I asked the clerk if they carried cable locks. "For your bicycle?" she asked, with an accent. When I said yes, she walked with me back to the lock section and said she would keep an eye on my bike. I thanked her, selected a lightweight cable lock and walked with it up to the register. "I ride a bicycle too," she said. "I don't have a car." When she said that I gave her a big smile and reached out to shake her hand with gusto. Cyclists without cars are always good people, as a rule, in my experience. "I ride every day, rain or shine," she said. "Me too," I replied, and we shared a moment of mutual appreciation as she rang me up. She asked me if I was Italian, then quickly withdrew the question, remembering that I didn't have an accent. "It must have been your hat," she said. "Turn to the side so I can see what it says? Biciclette, we have the same word in French but spell it differently. Biciclettes Calavera. It's a very cute hat!" "Thank you," I replied. My friend sent it to me from Italy. "Actually, you're very cute!" she exclaimed. "I hope you don't mind me saying so!" "No, that's quite sweet," I said, heading out of the shop and back onto the road. I'm glad my friend Hedrich went to Italy and brought me back such a cool hat.