GAVIA

Thursday was enormous, no one was feeling like doing anything more than walking to breakfast, having a kip, walking around the corner to the local tipico restaurant and eating lunch and then having a kip.  I managed a few laps of town walking around in the warmth of the post lunch prandialism marvelling at all the closed shops.

Having seen anything I really want to buy but later in the day I found the K2 - alimentation store and bought a bottle of cheap red plonk, a bottle of the local digestif - Braulio; and some fresh apricots. And some biscuits with apricot jam in them; and another bottle of 1 euro 60c vino rosso. Then I watched the Tour de France stage to watch the Manx Moaner take the win over Kittel.

Kransky (polenta?) Klown, Buble Boy and OberGruppenFuhrer went and washed themselves in communal baths in a river on the lower end of town. Not sure if the sewage treatment plant is up river from there but we will see. Apparently they didn't have a good time and couldn't recommend it to anybody.

Dinner was a quite nice pizza in one of the squares (for me Diavolo spicy thin slices of hot salami), washed down with ordinaryer vino rosso. KK went for the ultimate - tomato sauce, chees and french fries - and a salad.

Euro football finals are on, and we watch France demolish Germany.

Sleep for tomorrow is Gavia, but logistically it is a challenge. Couple of hours of driving and parking and then SuperModel volunteers to drive the car back.  All we had to do was climb a mountain, Passo di Gavia. Easy.

Not so easy, after the drive to Ponte di Legno we have a pastry and coffee and we are straight into it. From 1200m up to 2600m at an average of 7.5%. I start terribly, but I ride my own race, feeling my fresh legs feel good for the walking of yesterday. I start feeling really good as I realise that all I have to do is get to the top, then roll down the other side and straight into a shower. No saving energy for the second ascent, none of that. And for some reason I start analysing the ride and treat it like a time trial; I start breaking the ride into ten percent sections, "I've ridden 20% of 1400m, "I have seventy percent distance to go". I pass everybody.

Bye bye Ponte di Legno - we are going to Bormio

And it works! Although I know there are 14% pinches I ride a tempo I can manage. And take in amazing changing scenery. And many many motorbikes.

I am never going to be a climber but the Gavia is manageable for me today.

14% yuck

narrow roads

The road meanders, clinging above sheer drops, driving above the tree-line, I get the chance to look over my shoulder and SuperModel is lurking one or two bends behind me. I am not stopping for photos, I have the front camera and I have my eyes, but often all I am looking at is the few metres in front of my wheel. I glance left and right and watch the landscape past very slowly beside me.

Wild country

Its dark in the tunnel (I have lights) its cold, its steep, the motorbikes are noisy, there is crap alongside the tunnel wall. I am actually scared and I go hard to get out of the tunnel. The dust kicked up by the vehicles is the least of my problems.

 After the climb we gather and watch the riders arrive in various states of elation.

Time to descend after food and drinks. Duncan is going to go back and collect the van, and drive back up! We will just roll downhill.  The roads are awfully cut up, months of severe weather take their toll.

I stop by the granduer of the scenery to look at a war memorial.

I descend until the agreed regroup point at Santa Caterina. Then we ride downhill 13 km into Bormio. My favourite thing! Get into a group and stay well at the back because quite frankly they are rubbish at communicating in the group.

Last meal in Bormio will be at a quiet restaurant.

Then we drive to Cortina.