Epic Italy Day 3

Day 3

Run 10km

Swim 3km (incl continuous IM set 12x100IM/150 free (no rest for 3km)

Bike 160-165 (incl Passo di Feddia 2042m and Giau 2233m)

If we look at epic camp Italy as a meal, day 1 was the aperitif, day 2 was the prima and day 3 was the secondi (main). We all ran to the pool this morning for our swim and Scott and I did the IM set for a bonus point. We were 50m apart (long course) so when I was doing my breastroke Scott was coming down the other way doing fly. It wasn’t looking pretty but I knew my fly was about 10 times worse!

I had driven today’s bike route (Trento to Cortina) last week so I knew what we were in for and it’s fair to say I had quite a bit of anxiety about the passes we were going over. They seemed awful tough in 2^nd gear in the Fiat Punto so I wasn’t sure how we would get over with pedal power. Straight out of the hotel we were climbing, I set an easy tempo to try and hold things together before Steven and Gordo went off the front. The rest of us more or less stayed together which was good for everyone’s piece of mind. We were traversing along the ride of a mountain and the views to the left were just spectacular. Mile upon mile of terraced fields with little villages dispersed along the way - this was a great start to the day and the weather was cooperating also. The second part of today’s ride was up a valley through ski towns and again was pretty cool, however at the end of the valley we could all see the road finished and there was no tunnel to go through. As we came through the town of Canazei we knew it was going to go up fast over the Passo di Feddai (Marmolada), most of us stopped for coke at the bottom and I stayed a little longer to give my hammies a stretch as my back was really starting to tighten up. As it turned out the climb was not as bad as it seemed in the car, I’m not sure of gradients but there wasn’t much over 10%. I settled into a comfortable pace and wasn’t too concerned about what place I was at the top. I remembered from last week the views from this climb - they are out of this world - I’ll post some pics tonight on the epic camp site so you can see what I mean. Thankfully at the top the weather was warm enough to have lunch with a vista that made coming to Italy worth it just for that moment alone. It’s fair to say we came up the easy side of the Feddia; the decent was incredibly steep and the rain had returned. I was a little (maybe a lot) worried at times even going in a straight line. We could have gone over 100km/hr on some of the straights if it had not been for the rain and the fear. Scott and I were dukeing it out on the front not thinking about our families we could be leaving behind if we went over the edge. Gordo too was hanging on as he didn’t want to start the next climb with a deficit (he normally descends like a grandma).

Onto the next climb, it started out not too bad but it didn’t actually seem like we were on the pass. When we actually made the turn onto the pass road my god did you know about it. I was straight into the 39/27 and was grovelling just to keep the pedals turning over, I’m picking it was over 15%. All the way up there was no respite with an average grade of probably around 10% for about 10km. I was taking it as easy as I could but really only had one speed and it wasn’t fast. For the first 2/3 of the climb my energy levels were OK but there was just nothing in the legs, however the last few km’s were very painful and I wasn’t a pretty sight slumped over my handlebars. My HR was only sitting in the low to mid 130’s most of the climbs so it’s fair to say it’s starting to get a little suppressed which is normal. At the top although I was slouched over my handlebars the views did make me feel so much better and knowing we were staying at the bottom of the climb in Cortina also gave me hope.

So a tough day at the office and I didn’t feel great but the ride was without doubt one of the most memorable of my life…living the dream….