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.