The Monster Day!

View up Mortirolo

The reason we trained for this trip was because of this day.  The Mortirolo and Gavia Loop, 112KM with 3000 meters of climbing (11,000 Feet)!  The Mortirolo averaged over 11K @11%, the Passo Gavia 17KM @ 8%.

Pantani Monument

The morning began with a battle for breakfast!  A French cycling group checked into our hotel the day before and they happened to be doing our same route.  Breakfast normally is a calm nice leisurely affair, but today the whole French squad was waiting for the breakfast door to open and it became a free for all.  The food disappeared as if locusts had descended.  It threw off our normal routine.

Lynne and Jess

 The ride to the base of the first climb of the day was really nice, almost all downhill and through a valley with really great weather and amazing view after amazing view.  I have yet to tire of them.

Mortirolo COLD Aranciata

 The Mortirolo climb was all about your breathing, the pitches were so consistently steep you were forced into your upper limits of oxygen intake.  I did not even feel my legs during the climb.  The climb is on unbelievably narrow roads, that are pretty much tree covered.  (note from Lynne who was a Vanimal on this climb: passing a cyclist on this road is HAIRY.  You have to squeeze by, almost brushing the cyclist while teetering on the edge of the road.  Occasionally a car will meet you coming the other way, and one car has to lean over the edge and stop, while the other car eeks by, everyone holding their breath.)  It was a huge relief that it was cool so we did not have the heat to worry about.  You would occasionally get a glimpse through the trees into the valley below and get an idea of how fast you gain elevation.

The Pain of Mortirolo

 The top of the Mortirolo is just a summit, there is nothing up there but a sign.  But there were so many people, i.e. French, Brazilians, Trek Travellers, climbing the pass that there was a lot of action up there.  As people would summit, there was cheering and cow bell ringing, it was really fun!

View from Passo Gavia

After a great descent, we ate lunch and then headed for a 30KM ride to the top of the Passo Gavia.  The Gavia, as opposed to the Mortirolo, was all about legs.  My legs were holding me back as I couldn't peddle hard enough to get my heart rate up.  The Gavia is big and open.  You get amazing view after amazing view, which you need to use to motivate you as the climb is a sufferfest.

Bike and Beer!

Our Room - Named Stelvio

Wiebe tricking Lynne

Giro Art Top of Gavia

Trek Van top of Gavia

 The van was a very welcome sight.  The Gavia was really hard after having the Mortirolo in your legs (and even without having the Mortirolo in your legs!).  At this point all the climbs of the week were finished, mission accomplished!  One more incredible descent took us back to our hotel and our celebration dinner.

View from the Moose Table

Gavia Conquered

Way up High!

Celebration Dinner

After dinner the guides treated us to a slide show of the week set to cool music.   Great way to wrap up the trip.

Italian Recovery Day

Looking up to the days goal (from MUCH closer than we started-LJ)

 Today was a rest day in anticipation of the next days duo of the Mortirolo and the Gavia.  Of course a rest day in the alps includes a 10KM 6% average climb!

Jason our Trek guide

It has been really hot this week and it was to all our relief that it was raining when we woke up.  We delayed our day's ride a 1/2 hour in hopes we could time the rain, but when we started out it was raining on us.  It was still warm out and everyone who started with rain gear on quickly jettisoned them and just enjoyed the cooling spray of the rain.  Jason, our guide who was riding today, started out in a neon yellow rain coat and combined with his shoe covers could be seen from the top of the Stelvio!

Dan and Lynne at the top!

 This was the first ride that the group stuck together for most of the ride.  It was a recovery ride after all.

Torri di Fraele

Summit Sign

This summit sign does not quite have the fan fare of all our other summits so far!  Since this isn't a pass, there is no hubbub up here.  We didn't have motorcycles, buses or cars zooming by us, so it was quite a pleasant ride.

Wrong Turn 15%

The group did get separated from our guide at one point and that lead to a short cut wrong turn up a steep 15% grade narrow Italy street.  This did put the days total climbing above 1000 meters!

Top of Climb

Mini Stelvio

 They call this climb the mini Stelvio because of all the switchbacks.  As you look up from the bottom the climb seems impossibly steep, but the switchbacks smooth it out and are really effective.

Tranquillo

We ate a bit and took lots of photos from the top.  The descent off the climb went back the same way we came up.  It was a little tricky because of the wet roads and sharp switchbacks.  You had to watch yourself or you could easily wipe out in the corners.  On the descent we broke up as a group, but all made our way down safely.

Bormio 

Alpine Water

Since the day was a short ride we had some time to explore the town.  Lynne and I ate a late lunch and then walked along the Via Roma.  The Via Roma is a pedestrian only street that is lined with retail shops, it is quite a concept that I am surprised more cities don't replicate.  We got there during siesta time so we planned on coming back in between the Tour de France and Dinner.

Hotel Nevada for Dinner

We had a nice early dinner.  Early in Italy is 7:30!  We wanted to fuel up for the next day.  Good night!

Stelvio

The Stelvio day was also a transfer day for us.  We said goodbye to the Dolomitis and hello to the Alps.  We had a much earlier start, 6:30 am, because we had a two hour van ride to the beginning of our ride.  Our bus driver was a classic italian and greeted Lynne with a kiss on the hand!  Lynne also said she saw him while she was on the Stelvio and as he went by he blew her a kiss!  We stopped at a point 27 kilometers from the summit to begin our 27 kilometer climb.



Beginning of Switchbacks

All the switchbacks are numbered and count down from the first which is #48.  It is a nice mentally to be able to count them down one by one.  It is especially nice at the end because they are much closer together and your motivation gets a real boost as you quickly tick off switchback after switchback.

The first part of the ride was very hot and runs along a river, which occasionally gives you a nice relieving spritz.  I ran out of water a good way into the ride, but as in most of the alpine roads there are spouts coming out of the mountain that you can fill your bottle with.  The water was really cold and refreshing, I loved it.  Lynne took a few breaks to cool her feet, which afforded her with these great views up the mountain.

Midway Break

Lynne's Emonda

View of last few Kilometers

The picture does not do it justice, but from below the last few kilometers look like a straight up wall.  It also looks a lot further than it really is, and you wonder how the heck do you get up that.

Cima Coppi Sign

All our bikes lined at the top

At the begging of our ride we came across a guy from Bonn, the former capital of Germany as he said, who was on his 2nd climb of the Stelvio today.  He was super friendly, so I was glad he made it.

Double Stelvio Rider

One of the best carrots for making the summit was our guides' talk of Richard's Brats.  The key to ordering them is that when the cook asks if you want mustard you say yes, sauerkraut yes, yes to it all!  I probably could have eaten two of them!

Richard's Brats

Grubbing on Richard's Brat

Classic Stelvio Shot

Lynne and the Summit

View from the Top

Trek Emonda Snow Bound

Stelvio from Restaurant

View of Switchback

The descent was so much fun!  It wasn't too steep, but was steep enough to have the switchbacks which are really fun to go around.  About halfway down there were a series of tunnels that were identical to the tunnels of the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland.

Recovery Beer @ Hotel Bar

Hotel Bedroom

The guides and the hotelier told us that it was the hottest spell they can remember, so you can guess that a beer in the garden was the best!  One of our fellow riders asked the waiter if we could have some potato chips.  First came bags of chips, corn nuts and peanuts, then came bruscetta and finally a board of prosciutto and salami!  All for the price of a few beers!

View from our room

We love our room.  We were awoken at midnight to the most amazing thunder and lightning!  There were lightning flashes every second and lit the sky enough to see the clouds as if it were day light.  The thunder sounded like the whole mountain was crashing down upon us.  Then the rain came down in buckets.  This should be good news for our next couple days rides as we will get some needed cool fresh air.

A Beautiful Day

3 Passes

Top of Sella

We had a beautiful loop today which hit four passes, Sella, Gardena, Compolongo and Pordoi.  Sella was the hardest of the day and was more of a Alpine climb compared to our climbs so far.  Once you got to the top the views were by far the best of the trip.  From the top you can look down and see the entire route you took up.  After a really nice descent off the Sella you head right onto Gardena, which is the easiest of the climbs.  There were some really fun switch backs to get you to the summit and once again you were rewarded with some great views looking back at your route to the top.  Next up is the Compolongo and our lunch spot.  In comparison to the other climbs this one paled, but we had lunch waiting for us so that was a nice carrot for the climb.  Today's lunch was a sack lunch prepared by our Hotel Dolomiti.  It was fun because they wrapped everything in foil and provided a surprise each time you opened up the packet.  It was a ton of food, so much so I didn't finish.  I hooked up my GoPro for descent off Compolongo and the ascent of Pordoi.  The decent was another stellar descent with switch backs and views.  The Pordoi started immediately and was not as hard as the Sella, but it was hotter and the legs already had three passes in them.  Lynne was done for the day on this climb and as our van went by she hanged out the window and rang a cow bell.  It gave the legs some extra umph!  At the top we were greeted by the van and freshly cut fruit from Wiebe.

Jeff's Ride

Inspiration on Pardoi

Wiebe is a 47 year old ex-dancer and current sponsored triathlete.  He is orignally from the Netherlands but has lived in Italy the last 40 Years.  He speaks five languages and is a magnet for people.  When he has the food table out locals are drawn to him as moth to a light.  He has some Italian saying for everything and is quite a character.   After the Pordoi it was a descent and a ride through the valley back to the Hotel.  Lynne got back on the bike and we rode in together.  I was glad because she took some nice pulls through the headwind in the valley on the way home.

Wiebe slicing fruit Pordoi

4th Pass Pordoi

Wiebe and Jason at Group Dinner

Dinner was a six course affair, pizza with ham, rissotto with leeks and ricotta, tagliatelli with ground vension, strawberry sorbet drink, pork loin with rosemary and finally a semi freddo chocolate cake!  It was a great way to say goodbye to Moena and the Hotel Dolomiti.

Summit Store

Top of Sella

Top of Sella first pass

Window Sella

Passo Gardena Summit

Looking at Gardena Climb

Compolongo Summit