Epic Italy - Day 7

Day 7

Run 50mins

Swim 3km

Bike 115km incl Stevlio Pass (2772m)

The pools over here are just brilliant but getting into them early morning is not possible. So we ran first with a city highlights tour then made our way to the pool. Scott said he did not want to be in the pool longer than 45mins so I said lets go with 30x100 on 1:30. The morning was a little cool and the water wasn’t quite warm enough so the sooner we got out the better.

Everyone had been looking forward too anxiously to the Stelvio climb (the highest pass in the alps). I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but had read that we were coming up the harder, steeper, bumpier side. It took 3.5hrs just to get to the base with some decent elevation gains and some long pulls into the head wind. Everyone seemed to be eating a crap load of food today, Michael Peters was helping Douglas out with some gels and he reminded him of this for the rest of the camp.

As we started the climb the grade was nothing too scary and myself, Gordo and Steve were straight off the front. Knowing it was 25km to the top I was taking a conservative approach to this climb and the three of us split after a few km’s. I then decided I wanted to enjoy this climb and settled into a rhythm I could reasonably comfortably hold. There definitely were a few steep pitches but nothing too excessive. As we came out of the tree’s the beauty of the climb became clear. The final 7-8km was like it was up a rock face. From the bottom of the climb the 48 switchbacks began counting down - the majority of them came late in the climb. There were motorbikes and sports cars for Africa. The noise some off the motor bikes made was deafening and did ruin the solitude of the moment somewhat.

As we approach ‘the wall’ I could see Steve ahead of me and as the swtchbacks began I could see Molina behind. I decided to just hold my pace and if Molina came to close I would drop the hammer and see what was left in the legs, I knew I’d only catch Steve if he cracked. Even though I was going at a pretty sensible pace the final few km’s were bloody hard. The temperature had dropped down to 2-3c, my arms and back were getting sore and every time I got out of the seat the jelly legs were kicking in. To add to that there isn’t much air at 2700m and everyone had a good hacking cough (ala Russell) going at the summit. When I rounded the final hairpin I was a happy man.

We had planned to go up the Gavia Pass today also but sanity prevailed as we wouldn’t have been done until about 8pm

Another great day with plenty of memories.