Friday 9th of September 2011

A day I won't forget for a while.....

Two days in a row I've managed to get up early (for me) and eat some breakfast. Supply the body with some of the fuel it needs for the day's activities. Ok so yesterday was a relatively short but attacking ride. Today was going to be a little different. We had 20km or so to head down the valley to the south with only one ascent. Once at Mazzo di Valtellina we would commence the ascent of Passo della Foppa or as it's more commonly known Mortirolo. When the Giro d'Italia wants to show it's 'tougher' than the Tour de France this is one of the climbs it uses. Obviously the pros do it as part of a much longer day but at a predicted 85km this was still going to be interesting.

The two other main climbs used in the men's and women's Giro d'Italia are the Stelvio Pass and the Gavia Pass, the former is probably as well known by motorbikers and enthusiast car drivers too. I found the Stelvio long but apart from a couple of 13% parts not too tough. It's just long.

Gavia is technically much shorter as it really starts from Santa Catarina making it about 14km but taking the starting point as similar to Stelvio it's 26km uphill with a couple of km averaging over 10%. In comparison Stelvio has no km that averages over 10%.

Officially starts at 12km point but you still have to get there uphill

In contrast Mortirolo is only 12km long but it averages in excess of 10% over that entire distance compared to Stelvio's 7% and Gavia's 6.5% (mostly reduced by the relatively flat few kilometres).

All that red ink :(

To do battle with this climb I thought I'd better ask a favour of the hotel and so they kindly loaned me a back wheel with a maximum 28 tooth gear compared to my 25.  I'd rather have had a 32 to make it much easier on my knees but it was the best they could do for 11 speed Campagnolo.

So the group left and headed down the valley. Bormio is over 1,200m above sea level and our starting point was at 550m so at least the first section of the day should be pretty easy. Indeed the first section followed the route I used at the start of the week, to the road that came to an end. Only this time we rode down the 18% slope and onto the main road.

We intended to bypass that stretch on the way back but it was still to prove challenging.  Currently there were diggers working on the river bed and we were told that this landslide resulted in many deaths to the people in the village below when it happened last century.

Killer landslide

So we followed Riccardo who was an elderly gentleman (supposedly 68 years old) and who also happened to be the coach for the Swiss Olympic cycling team at the last games and next years. He offered us a coffee before we started the ascent but we declined. Following the normal route we were met with a closed village road however it wasn't much of a detour to get to the other side of the village and the challenge commenced.

It doesn't take long for people to settle down to their pace and unfortunately despite the warnings I'd gone off too fast. After passing the church things kick up another notch but I had no more notches left so at the 4km point I had to stop before my lungs popped out. I think the problem was that I thought I was going as slow as I thought I could when really I needed to find a slower cadence which I didn't think was possible but once moving again I managed to find it and from there on I didn't need to stop again, keeping heart rate about 90-92% of maximum and cadence a little over 40rpm. I did however stop briefly at the Marco Pantani memorial to take a photo or two and then off again but unlike the first stop this wasn't forced by over exertion.

Marco Pantani monument

The route up is pretty much through the trees so there was little to see of the valley below. As we passed one point Riccardo had stopped infront to take photos of us passing by. He shouted it gets easier from here. Ah at last I thought. His idea of easy and mine however clearly differ as past the next corner I hit a long stretch that the GPS was reporting as 13%.

As I neared the top I recognised some of the landscape from when I drove over the pass to get to the hotel. I knew there wasn't far and the tornanti (hairpin) signs were now down to single figures from their initial mid thirties. A couple of corners later and I could see the top and I was there.

Was it the hardest thing I've done on a bike? Well it's difficult to compare one to another but in some ways I felt Gavia was more difficult in some ways than Galibier and Stelvio was tough but mainly because it's so long, although a couple of steep bits at the end hurt quite a lot. I'd probably say that Mortirolo was as hard for me as Ventoux a couple of years ago. When I did that I had a dodgy knee but I kept going (only stopping for Tommy's memorial near the top) for 2 1/2 hours solid. Ok a draw between the infamous french and italian climbs.

We didn't have that long to wait for the other guys to arrive (one got there before me) but the sun wash shining and it was lovely and warm so no problems with hyperthermia at the top of this climb. I thought on buying the italian kit that it might cause some confusion but the first time I wore it I noticed no confusion. However today I was asked something three times in italian, on one occasion by a couple in a Citroen looking for Pantani's monument, at least I could answer their question on this one and sent them back down the hill looking for a left turn to the road I'd just come up. After a bit of a fiasco with photo taking where we asked an elderly italian lady to take a picture only for her to find she could only see herself in the reflection on the screen, one of the dutch guys called out to another random dutch guy to help out and he duly did. Soon we were a little further down the road at a restaurant where I munched some biscuits and banana and bought another €2.50 can of coke.

The complicated process of taking a picture helped out by random dutch man 

At the top - some looking happier than others.... 

At this point some of the group wanted to go down the other side of the pass and approach Gavia from the south. To be fair if I hadn't already done it and was going home tomorrow then I'd have considered it too but I had and I wasn't so I was happy to head back to the hotel for a celebratory beer (I'd been abstaining since I got here). So after lunch some of the group heading to Gavia and we headed back to the route we'd taken to get to Mortirolo. The guide had gone with the other group but I had the GPS and had taken the route I had taken in the car. [THANKFULLY I didn't follow them as I found out the following day the climb is a nightmare even in a car]

The downhill route had some fantastic views and I stopped a couple of times for photos but I was almost off the bike at one point when I presumably hit a pothole in a shaded area and lost grip on the bars. It was close. After that I took the shades off and stuck them in my pocket for use on the main road. The speed wasn't that fast downhill anyway so better to see where I was going that worry about getting a bug in the face.

The route up - through all those trees

Same route I descended in the car getting there - great view

Back down in the valley we headed back about 5km before stopping for what I thought was going to be a coffee/ice cream stop however one of the guys was asking about something proper to eat and soon we were sat in the back terrace eating a large bowl of pasta. I started the rounding up of the week by ordering a large beer, splendid. There was too much for me to eat and we probably confused the waiter by speaking english, dutch and some german and italian but it all worked out fine in the end.

Spaghetti with al'arriabiatta ragu and a celebratory beer

We were back on the road after about an hour and heading for the 18% climb up the cyclepath, or rather to sneak through the "construction truck only" gate and miss out a reasonable ascent and later descent. The only slight snag was the 15% climb to get to the gate. We all managed it ok but it was an interesting contrast in climbing this kind of slope in direct sunlight and something like 27c in the shade compared to what we'd done up our main climb.

This was the last challenge of the day though and soon we were home via the shortcut that I'd learned yesterday. I swapped my wheel back (remembering to take the speed magnet off the wheel too) and headed upstairs for the cake and fruit. I was disappointed to see that my usual favourite cake wasn't there but the lady behind the bar kindly went to the kitchen to find a piece for me.

Stats for the day:

Temperatures were ideal - spike from GPS being in sun at the coffee stop

Slow cadence - not good for the knees I find.

Dinner... well even at 7:45pm I was still full from the pasta and the cake so I asked only for the second dish which was the chicken and it was very nice. I also decided to partake in a little vino rosso but after a 50cl bottle I wasn't going to know which way was up so I had a couple of glasses and offered the rest to the guys I'd been riding with. I even managed to turn down meringue, well something with little pieces of it. Time for a rest.

I was given a CD by the lady on reception after picking up a book that one of the coaches had borrowed. It contained the photos from today and yesterday and while writing this I haven't actually looked at it yet but I will do soon and probably add a few pictures later. Also they apologised that for one reason and another (a big group here and some bad weather) they hadn't really done a "friends of Pirandello" week. Well I was a bit of a misfit to that anyway on the Viner but I'd had a good week doing some things myself at my own pace and some things with a group. She also gave me some "Hotel Funivia" socks and a bandana too. I actually quite like their cycling kit and it's not expensive but I promised myself I would never wear white lycra cycling shorts and for the good of the general public I have stuck to this rule.

Soon be time to pack and back to B+B al lago for a few days and then the trip home will commence.