02/08/2019
160 Miles Approx (Computer failed)
13 Hours Moving Time
14,101ft Gained
12mph Average Speed
Rain.
Waking up from a deep sleep to the sound of heavy rain is always fun, no matter what anyone says. Even if you plan to spend all day outside pedalling up bloomin long hills, while trying to stay awake. Fun.
Checking the forecast the previous night, I saw it was for heavy rain and thunder storms the next morning. Sleep saw this worry pass me by. Ready and attempting to step out from under the bus stop to get going for that day saw this reality sharply come back to the fore. Once soaked through, there isn’t anything else you can do, so off I headed just before 6am and by 6:05am I was soaked through. It wasn’t too cold, so not much of an issue.
Following the cycle path for the first 30 miles or was a great start as it was smooth, no traffic and all downhill. I remember planning this part of the route while sat at home a few months back and thinking to myself, that part looks fun. It was. In the valley, following rivers with steep rock faces either side of me, through specially dug out tunnels for bikes, even in a storm, this was what this race was about.
Off the cycle path and onto the slippy Italian duel carriage way brought me back to reality and I dived into a local coffee shop near Amaro, just before the hail started. I was greeted by the owner who was singing at the top of her lungs and nothing seemed to matter anymore apart from inside these four walls. What an uplifting stop. After a few very tasty and fresh cornetti, plus the obligatory double espresso, I waited for the worst of the hail to pass and headed out again.
Here the climbing began.
Most of todays riding was in the Dolomites and I would be reaching the parcours of Checkpoint 3, just after Cortina d’Ampezzo. Most riders had decided to take the flatter route, South of the major hills, sticking to flat roads, and heading for the CP from a more Southerly direction. I decided to tackle the hills head on, for some reason, and had a couple major climbs (one over 7,000ft) to compete with before the challenging parcours had even started. Was I questioning my decision, maybe slightly. I refrained myself from looking at the tracker website to see how quickly people were going along the other route.
The first climb was on a duel carriageway and still with heavy rain, my legs started to weigh me down. I stopped more than I really wanted to and checked out some of the roadside shrines while I was at it. After 20 miles climbing, I eventually reached the summit of the Passo de Mauria, above the clouds and plummeted back down ready for the next climb.
The next climb was around 35 mile and topped out at 2,105 meters. It was the Passo Falzarego. When I plotted my route at home, I didn’t really take elevation into consideration. I just tended to look at which roads look the most interesting. With most mountain roads being squiggily (technical term), I am drawn towards these, more so than straight flat roads.
As I climbed higher and higher, the temperature started to drop and even while climbing and sweating, I started to get cold, but refrained from layering up anymore until I reached the summit so I could feel the benefit on the downhill.
The views were stunning and this kept me distracted from the long climb. I had never visited the Dolomites before, the mountains are mesmerising and I vowed to myself to visit again to climb more passes in the area.
When I reached the summit, pulling on all my layers and gloves I started to shiver. The rain/sleet/snow mixed with the headwind was chilling my whole body and I set about getting down the hill as quickly as I could in an attempt to keep warm.
The descent was tough, not technically, but I was shivering like mad and it was too steep to even pedal to keep warm. I was a sitting duck, a frozen duck. Struggling to pull the brakes hard enough to slow for the corners, I was pleased to reach the bottom and the town of Corvara-Alta Badia. This was also the start of the CP3 parcours, which all racers had to ride, so I was pleased to see a few racers stood outside the supermarket filling their faces with carbs and sugary goodness.
I went into the supermarket shivering and in contrast to yesterday when I was lingering under the air conditioning unit, I stood under the heater for as long as was socially acceptable in the doorway of a busy supermarket.
It did nothing to warm me up and I struggled to open my food packaging. After a fight to get to some food and a few lukewarm coffees, I decided to tackle the start of the parcours. This was the only way I was going to get warm, by putting in a big effort in an attempt to raise my core body temperature.
This wasn’t too hard as the parcours started with the Passo Gardena, a switchback climb up to over 2,000 meters. Nicely warmed up, I settled into a rhythm and as the rain stopped I sang to Steely Dan on my way up the climb as if the cold shivering spell had never even happened. Also seeing a few other racers made me feel a bit more connected to the race and recognising some faces reassured me that I wasn’t too far off the pace.
Getting a second wind after the long descent, I picked my pace up considerably and was on a bit of a mission throught the dark. I hadnt pushed on the pedals like this for a while, so it felt nice to let off some steam, and to actually be able to go at a decent pace. The parcours descended past a few castles, which during the night lit up to get my imagination running and joined a small road that switched back and forth at a pretty intimidating gradient.
My main GPS and back up decided to both pack up at the same time, but luckily I had the parcours saved on my phone, so was using it for navigation and at 11pm it died. Luckily there was only one road so I couldn’t go wrong. I came across a guesthouse and called it a day, hoping the owners would still be awake.
I knocked hopefully and a young lad came to the door. Luckily the owners son and his mates were up playing Fifa, so he was more than happy to give me a room.
After a chat, his mother came down and after asking what I was doing, demanded that I must eat and she sat me down in the restaurant and cooked up some pasta for me. I was overwhelmed by this, to be woken up by a scruffy cyclist in the middle of the night and to start cooking was amazing. I was so grateful and was pleased to be in such welcoming company, in the middle of the mountains, with a plate full of pasta in front of me. Yes, I do love Pasta. Yes, I did eat everything on the table.
Jordan Matthews 