Wrap up on La Bella Italia

OK!

This is where I probably need to confess what I believed occurred on the Stelvio with the end of the tour within my sight / grasp, cause as you will have all probably realised by now I didn't make it to the end. 

Sure I made it to the top as the following photo proves. I even bought a jersey as a commemorative means of celebrating this achievement. I am sure you will see me riding it around town in due course even if it is now with a little bit of tongue in cheek... Okay so what happened. Well having spent almost all of my energy getting up this climb I didn't particularly listen to the vibe which seemed to be running through the group nor to my own gut instinct which was to say "Get down safely".

The number of tourist buses, motorcyclists and other cyclists on the road, along with the very nature of the descent meant things weren't going to be easy.... Sure I planned to take photos on some of the corners - the downhill route being to my mind more picturesque than what I had ridden up, not that I didn't stop on the uphill side for photo (rest stop) purposes either....

What happened as I descended however remains somewhat unknown...... One moment I was taking photos - the next about a week later - I woke up in a hospital with a couple of injuries which I still cannot account for...

1. A left elbow that was fractured to smithereens;
2. A suspected fractured vertabrae;
3. Possible bleeding on the brain;
4. A sore left knee

From what I have been able to deduce it would seem that at some point coming down the Stelvio I had a slight accident in one of the tunnels, and it was only the fast thinking and acting of a Canadian fireman was the road closed off, whilst I was airlifted off the mountain,

I have subsequently been up the road I was to have ridden (thanks to a good friend - Dave) and I could not identify any areas of particular concern / danger, nor does my bike indicate that I was hit by anyone / anything.

What I can tell you however is Thank God I was wearing a helmet.

I also owe a great deal of gratitude to countless people including

• Canadian Firemen training manuals;
• Nicki & Annie (fellow La Bella Italia cyclists)
• Doutse & Wilbert ( La Bella Italia crew)
• The Italian Air Ambulance crew
• The Italian Hospital system

Laces to Grosio

Well, here we go up the Stelvio. Forty eight hairpin corners, worth some twenty four kilometres of climbing. Just a good thing that the gradient ain't in the double figure range early on. 

No idea how far I had climbed by this stage. Not all the corners were marked / counted down but obviously a good opportunity to collect one's breath, take a sip of water and to rvitalise one's energy.

Yet another pit stop.

 

It's a bit like Beach Road in a way, given the number of cyclists from all around the world who want to challenge themselves with something as formidable as the Stelvio.

 

A group photo taken at the top.

Just one of the views of the valley in which we were to descend.

At this point I should mention that we were tackling the mountain, just slightly differently to the way the Pros were to have done it in the Giro. IE: We were to descend the way they were to come up and vice versa. 

As for which way is the harder. Who knows... The Pros didn't do it anyhow....

Stelvio - The day we do something that the professional's didn't do!

Well tomorrow we head out from our campsite in Latsch to do something that the professional riders in this year's Giro d'Italia were unable (or unwilling) to do only 2-3 weeks earlier and that is to ride up and over the Stelvio Pass, which has a certain amount of cycling folklore attached to it, being that at 2757 Metres in height, it is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps.

Not too sure whether I am looking forward to this climb or not, and expect that there may be one or two photos taken on any one (or all) of the forty eight switchbacks that the climb entails, given my lack of enthusiasm / ability to climb mountains all that easily.

To make things more interesting, we've made the decision that as there is to be a group photo taken at the top and so as to avoid the faster riders on the tour sitting up top for hours at end, to put riders into groups of three (a General Classification Rider, a Team Domestique and a Sprinter) and then on somewhat of a handicap system in terms of start times.

No prizes for guessing, how I have been classified (Sprinter) where apparently my only job is to get to the top, before the other team's sprinters and before the race cut off time (Not that there is one in this instance) unlike the way the poor sprinters have to do it on the professional circuit.

We'll just have to see how it goes - All I know is that I will be setting a P.B!

Canazei to Latsch

Sorry folks, no photos today although I did record on my helmet camera the entire decent from Passo Costalunga at an altitude of 1728 metres into Bozen at around 289 metres which represents (If I am doing my maths correctly) a drop in approximately 1423 metres over a distance of 26 kilometres, which I believe equates to a gradient decline of around 5.5%. I will try to get that up on this site, along with some of the other recordings, shortly.

As you can imagine, being in the Dolomite's with snow capped peaks on either side of the valley and at the top of our one and only climb for the day, was amazingly spectacular. Very enjoyable scenery, made all that much better by the fact that the roads were all in good condition, the corners on the down hill running predominately sweeping and very open, hence easy to pick a line to follow and the sun was out (been awhile since that has lasted all day)!

Admittedly however I must confess that even I found it hard work after awhile, pushing the peddles over at a great rate of knots, during the descent so as to get to the bottom as fast as possible, though that is certainly not a whinge or a compliant. I would quite quickly & easily be conned into doing it all over again, but alas our journey marches on.....

Today's route, including the descent all cyclist's dream of - Canazei to Latsch

Cortina D'Ampezzo to Canazei

A view of the ski resort village of Cortina D'Ampezzo where we had stayed in a hotel, the first for a few nights and a much deserved & needed one at that, given that yesterday had been the Queen Stage of the tour (basically for the non-cyclists among you, the day with the most climbing) on what had been a wet and somewhat miserable day.

A view of the scenery a few kilometres down the road, and a good excuse for me to take a brief rest stop, given that there were to be three fairly reasonable climbs on today's stage, even if it wasn't to be a particularly long ride from a distance perspective.

Oh, and the problem with riding at altitude, as if you couldn't have guessed it - It's bloody cold! Do not believe for one moment whatever the bike computer has recorded / shows you, the temperature was actually recorded at 3 degrees at the top of at least two of our mountain tops.

In other words, quite a fair bit of time today was spent with a view of snow on the mountain peaks and quit often by the side of the road. Very picturesque, but cold nonetheless. Today's route map  profile - Cortina D'Ampezzo to Canazei

Team Red - At the highest (and final) peak for the day, showing off our purchases from the night before. Getting soaked to the bone yesterday had been no fun at all, hence the three of us had headed off into town to see what we could pick up that would be water as well as wind proof.

All three of us, Annie, Nicki and myself all tried on a multitude of jackets and it was by pure chance and I suppose a bit of "team building" that we all ended up buying the exact same colour & design of gortex jacket. My legs incidentially are not as pale as they might appear, it's just they were a tad cold.

The Queen Stage - Tramonti di Sotto to Cortina d'Ampezzo

Having spent the last couple of riding days on the flat, and by that I mean it was only the bridges and overpasses that had counted as climbs, today was to be our biggest climbing day for the entire tour. 

It started out well enough as far as the scenery and weather is concerned, however I was to ride the day without my Garmin and hence was to have no idea as to how much distance I had covered / was to ride at any given stage on the ride. Nor did I have any idea as to what my heart rate was doing or anything. The reason for this little mishap, I had charged the phone in the support vehicle had picked it up and popped into my jean's pocket which I promptly forgot about when I packed my bags later in the evening. A consistent routine is crucial, in terms of where things are put, in which order and so on. A little oops but with a rather unfortunate outcome.

In amongst the climbs were a number of tunnels, many of them probably having been dug out years and years ago, with very dim lighting, water constantly dripping from the roof and cobblestones on the floor just to make things even more interesting. The picture below is of Helen, entering a tunnel which was to go for three kilometres in length.You wouldn't want to be afraid of the dark....

By the same token, when you did come out into the daylight, you'd come across scenes as below.

Anyone would think that we were in Switzerland or Austria, given the design of the buildings and churches, rather than Italy.

By the same token, it would seem that if one was to take a wrong turn on a couple of the roads we were climbing today, one could well end up in Austria fairly quickly.

There's no more photos taken, from lunchtime onwards as the heavens began to open and the climbs all that much steeper. All I will say is that it was bloody cold, wet & miserable, to the point in fact that had I seen our support truck on the final climb (as opposed to at the top) I suspect I might well have called it quits even though I'd have only been 20KM from home.

Fortunately, I didn't and trudged very slowly up the hill, before rolling down the other side at a great rate of knots, despite the treacherous conditions just eager to end the day as soon as possible.

Chioggia to Venezia

Gee, it was a hard day in the saddle today. I mean we had to ride all of nigh on thirty kilometres, and all of it pancake flat..... with the hardest part of the day being having to manually lift my bike, on and off the various ferries on the route from Chioggia to Venice.

Some of the boats in the Chioggia canals

One of the three ferries we caught today!

My first view of the Grand Canal as we sailed past to our campsite.

Once we arrived in Punta Sabbioni, which is a port located on the southern most tip of the peninsula which separates the Venetian Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea, I set my tent up, changed out of my lycra gear (not too sure why I bothered to put it on) then headed into Venice to see what all the commotion is about. 

It's a wonderful & very photographic city but once I put my camera away, I couldn't help but feel that it had somewhat of a "theme park" feel about it. Now I am sure if I had done some research before I set out on this trip and knew which of the art galleries, historic buildings or museums, I should explore in depth I'd have got more out of it but I hadn't..... 

Bumping into my good cycling buddy Rien, as I aimlessly wandered the canals / alleyways of Venice, we convinced one another to visit a supermarket, grab a six pack of beers and to take a seat alongside the Grand Canal to chat and to just watch life go by.... 

Firenze to Castel San Pietro

I must confess it was with somewhat of a heavy heart that we rode out of Florence this morning. It's a very beautiful city with lots to see & do.

I have a ton of photos, the majority of which were taken yesterday which was a rest day but unfortunately I am not in a position at this stage to upload any as they were taken on my proper camera and hence the file sizes would bring the entire net to a standstill if you were to try and view them on line. I don't have enough memory capacity on my laptop to load Photoshop, hence don't have the ability to manipulate or save the files as a smaller image.

What I can tell you however is that our campsite, which was located on the top of a hill overlooking the city and close to a lookout area, meant that it was only a fifteen - twenty minute walk in to town. Slightly longer for the return journey mainly because the stairs were so steep, though one's propensity to indulge in a couple of gelatii's or two probably doesn't help the issue.

Anyhow, getting back to the story at hand, today's ride was in many ways similar to that of Gerace to Nicoliosi both in terms of distance & metre's to be climbed and as a result I was a little anxious / keen to see how my performance would compare. Things didn't start too well, as I found myself at the back of the pack very early on in the game, having experienced a bit of hassle negotiating my way through the morning's traffic on the way out of Florence. The road headed upwards and I found myself catching back on to the stragglers within the pack. As the gradient went upwards, I found myself (surprisingly) passing some of my colleagues, one by one.

By the time I crested the top of the pass, I found myself halfway through the group and with a long descent ahead of us, I decided to open things up a little and to take a few calculated risks, in order to see if I could latch myself back onto the A Team or at last near the front of the pack. By the time we had reached the bottom, I was out front. It's surprising what happens when you throw caution to the wind.

This then left me with the decision as to whether to sit up and follow or lead a few people in to the 40KM coffee stop or whether to keep going and I ended deciding on the latter, purely because the legs were feeling good and I figured I may as well keep going, rather than trying to ride at somebody else's pace. I rode through the next little village and despite supposedly going through the centre of town did not see a single coffee shop. As a result I continued to ride on, vowing that I would stop for a cappicino at the first opportunity that presented itself. Little was I to know that this was to be halfway up our big climb for the day, nor that by the time I'd get there it was to be a cold bottle of coke as opposed to a latte

Ah well, one drinks caffine in whatever form it comes in, so as to provide that little bit of an energy boost for whatever lays ahead, though I knew that it would be a few more kilometres of climbing through a wonderfully lush forest. No idea as to the nature of the trees (You should all know by now that I am not a green thumb) but it was pretty nice nonetheless and provided a bit of much needed shade.

Whilst there was a resturant at the top of the mountain and I could have stopped for a coffee as I believe some people were to do I decided to keep on rolling. Lunch was a mere ten kilometres away and the majority of that was to be down hill. Yeah!

As a result, on I peddled, with only one or two riders ahead of me. Not quite to sure how I managed to get up the hill without being passed by the hordes behind, other than to assume that the rest of the peleton found somewhere for a coffee, that I had not spotted. At any rate lunch time was fast approaching.

The lunch van, which I must confess I nearly rode straight past, given that I was so enjoying the scenery, the descent, the whole box & dice.

The lunch spot!

A couple of the lads Michael (Black Top) and Kenny G (Pink Top) discussing team tactics for the afternoon's ride.....

After lunch the first five to ten KM's were predominately downhill (which I loved and took every advantage of) and went through a couple of valleys, which had rivers running through them, as above. Wonderful scenery, it's just a pity I didn't have my helmet camera with me.....

I nearly popped in here to ask for a bit of divine intervention, so as to give me the ability to climb my way over the final mountain top for the day, before then heading along a twenty kilometre and predominately "flat" stretch of road to the hotel. Didn't however, as it would have meant dismounting from my bike and then having to find the ability & courage to continue riding. 

Managed to roll into Castel San Pietro without too much undue stress and was the second person in and to hit the showers, before heading out into the hotel courtyard for a much needed beer or two. Refer to today's route profile. Firenze to Castel San Pietro