Today's plan was to ride from our base in Cortina back up yesterday's descent and then on to Tre Cime de Lavaredo and do a small trail run at the top then bike back down with a stop for a swim in Lake Misurina on the way home.
Easy right !! I had no reason to be complaining given the previous day when the others had endured a mammoth ride , also in the heat ( although seems we received the worst of the thunder storm and rain, guess that's penance for being slack)
It was a pleasant climb with a freshly surfaced road, smooth like velvet. A delectable treat for those is from NZ who understand how much the big chip seal sucks the lifeblood ( and velocity). That was until we hit the last 4 km where the road suddenly hit 15% for eternal stretches and my cadence hit an all time low of about 20, the Grinder was struggling to grind! It wouldn't have been so bad but was moving so slowly I was weaving a bit and the sheer terror of large buses also attempting to get up there and swing round the bends was making me more jittery .....rounded a corner and saw a few of the others had dismounted as there was a small lay by and we all needed a reprieve. My quads were actually trembling at the effort. Sadly , it was nigh impossible to get on and attempt riding again as the pitch at that point was still 15% and I didn't like my chances of not ending up like a squished possum so I did something I have never done before and walked the bike around 1-1.5km up ( calves screaming , cycling shoes aren't built for pedestrians) until the road "flattened off" to 11% so was able to ride the last ~ 2km to the car park. Bloody Oath!
We got changed and I went to spend a euro then scrambled up a steep trail and realised I was supposed to way down below and didn't have a map so yogged back to the car park and then set off with a couple of the others so we just did an out and back as would have been out of time... we got to see the Tre Cime though, breathtaking ! The Dolomites are spectacular. Did you know the actual stone IS called Dolomite. My inner geography nerd had to google it last night.
Managed to get down the descent without incident and stay on my bike, we stopped at Lake Misurina with John stating minimum swim was 20 mins. It was not highly appealing and the floor full of triffid like weeds - but actually, felt so good to swim and get a bit of recovery. Just as we were getting changed a few plops of rain appeared then it was properly raining - you gotta be kidding, right ?!! Deja vu from yesterday... but actually was nowhere near as heavy and it had ceased by halfway down and certainly wasn't cold.
Kylie gave me good pummelling on the massage table in the evening, I'm such a cry baby on the massage table but I felt soooo much better for it today. The support crew certainly look after us well! if only life was one big Epic camp right ...:-).... well, as long as I could bring my dog of course.
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