Wheres the Watts?

There really isn't any thing spectacular to report on this front. I learnt very quickly to be ultra conservative on these rides. With an average of 5 hours in the saddle each day, my average power on climbs was only around 250w. Caution had to prevail as the mountains can bite back very hard!

The only day I threw caution to the wind was up the Mortirolo where the NP went up to 272w.

Will be interesting to see if the altitude and large volume block improves my cycling in the future... I'll guess we'll have to wait and see!

Back - Part V

Day 5 saw us challenge the infamous Mortirolo. Lance Armstrong said it was the hardest climb he's ever done. Its hard to argue any differently.

A point that needs to be made about these rides. You really have no choice but to get over these climbs. There is no flat way home. There is no sag wagon. This removes the soft options of  stopping half way after you've had enough. You simply have to suffer.

Day 5 was a day of suffering. The Mortirolo averages 10% over 12km. With very very  long ramps of 16%. I was fortunate to be feeling strong so was able to tap out a decent pace. For a comparison the lead group averaged 11km/hr up the Mortirolo, we averaged 8km/hr it was nice to see the pro's suffering like us!

Made it to the summit in 3rd spot behind Lazye and our Ex-Pro tour guide with a time of 1hr 28min. The last finisher scaled the climb in 2.5hrs!

The Mortirolo is a nicely paved goat track.
The Pantani memorial was very touching, and located smack bang in the middle of the 16% gradient. Right where he would have loved to launch an attack.
Relief!
The obligatory photo snap.
Just one of the many funny road paint marks littered on the way up!

Back - Part IV

Day 4 saw us do a single climb up the Gavia. With its summit at 2652 metres it is one of the highest in Italy just behind Stelvio. The climb is about 16km with the first 4km flat. The road then pitches up to its average gradient of 8% with plenty of long ramps at 14-18%!

You certainly could notice the thin air at altitude, although not debilitating I'd hate to be trying to race up this climb!

Around 4 km from the summit was a 800m tunnel which was not internally lit. We had no lights on our bikes so were riding in total darkness, felt very weird and the mind started to play games a little bit.

The Lazye climbing machine made it look all so easy.
This was the Gavia on the day the Giro passed through. The Gavia is completely enveloped in a cloud. It was a miserable day up there for the riders as it rained and the temperature was close to 0 degrees.
The snowline in the Italian Alps is at 2000 metres at the moment. We got to see a lot of snow!
You can just make out the road way way down below. The Gavia's backdrop was the most dramatic of all the climbs we did.
I highly recommend the Speck and Cheese panini at the top of the summit. There is no ski resort at the top of the Gavia, so the single shop at the summit caters mainly for cyclists and has a great memorabilia section and amazing photos of when the Giro passed over the Gavia.

Back - Part III

Day three saw us move from our hotel in Bolzano to our next base in Ponte de Legno located around 120km away. We elected to ride instead of taking the bus... mainly to avoid being bus sick, again...

This saw us take in 2 decent climbs. The first was the Passo del Mendola 10km @ 6% gradient. Then a gradual downhill for 50km before the start of the Passo del Tonale a monster in its own right with an average of 4% over 40km!!!!!

The after noon temperatures cooked us reaching over 30 degrees for most of the final climb. I felt  pretty strong and out of the 15 riders that start this ride only 6 finished.. So i was pretty pleased to survive the day.

Beautiful rolling orchids were littered everywhere on the climb through Mendola.

Self-Portrait
Insanely beautiful vistas dulled the pain.

Halfway. Over the Mendola and on our way to Tonale!

At the top of Tonale with `LazyE`, the climbing machine.

Back - Part II

Day two took in two awesome climbs. The Passo del San Pellegrino and the fearsome Marmolada. Our route took us around 100 km and once over the San Pellegrino (800m climbing) the only way back to the hotel was either to retrace our steps over the Pellegrino or get over the huge Marmolada!

All started reasonably well, however a lack of nutrition kicked us in the butt when we finally got to the climb of La Marmolada. Like most climbs in italy - it starts fairly easy with ramps of around 4-6% the end ramps are always way above 10% in this case 15% for the last 2-3km or so. This climb kicked my butt like no other. It took 3 cans of coke and some hearty ham and cheese panini's to get over this climb... 

The red blob in the distance should have checked into the starting house pictured for a bit of advice and reflection prior to starting the Marmolada... I now know why it is at the foot of the climb!!!

The start of the Marmolada is deceptively flat.
Extreme beauty masks the pain about to unfold

Ski lifts and snow... and the obligatory cyclist pushing his bike up the Marmolada... for some it was the only option of getting home..

Back - Part I

Well i'm back!

Had a blast to say the least. Those mountain passes we both ecstasy and misery all wrapped up in one. In total 500km with 12000 metres of climbs in 6 days. Here are some pictures and comments of my journey!

Our first day was based in the northern city of Bolzano which provided us access to the first 3 mountain stages. Including the first won by Emmanuelle Sella up the Pampeago. We did a 90km circuit that took in the passo del santalucia followed by rolling hills to the base of the final climb which was around 8km at an average of 10% with the last 2km being at 16%!! Tough way to start the trip - but this was just the tip of the iceberg!

Check out the gradient. May be hard to appreciate from the photo but your staring down 16%

The crowd went nuts for Sella - the road up the final climb looked like this pretty much the whole way up! More crazy days to follow!

Mediocrity at its best

Just over a week before I head on a plane to sunny Italy to enjoy some pain in the Dolomites.

My preparation has been less than ideal - but given the circumstances, I couldn't have possibly done more kilometres. In hindsight I would have liked to do more climbing and strength work - as i'm just starting to reap the benefits of my intense strength work from the past few weeks.

Picking up a bug also set me back substantially... I feel at the moment, my fitness is at a plateau and I haven't stepped up to that next level. Weight is down an average of 1.5kg to 81.5kg - I'd like to get down to a flat 80kg sometime within the next 3-6months.

I hope my time in Italy pushes me up into that next level - i'm sure those massive mountains, altitude and big mileage in 9 days will have a positive effect on my overall cycling fitness.

It has been an interesting journey. I can't wait for the pain to start!!!!!