Thursday 25th June
Today's plan was a bit of an unload day as thankfully John decided attempting the Mortirolo and the Gavia might be a little ambitious the day after the Stelvio. You would sense the wave of relief sweeping the camp!
We had walk/yog round town by the river for 5 km before brekky then after brekky the new plan was to ride 30 km with a climb uo the Torra de Fraele. You ride about 5 km out of town on bike paths then climb up a narrow, winding road which was v pretty and not so busy, although we were on a parallel road actually until we joined the proper road due to Garmin mapping snafu. Well - tired peeps with the fatigue brain scramble. I had a panic attack as somehow couldn't unclip as my left foot was stuck in the pedal, hard as I tried to literally sprain my ankle ligaments to get out it still wouldn't budge and I had to keep rolling up a steep road with internal voices catatstrophising and screaming about what would happen if I still can't get out, but Cam, one of the other campers from NZ came to the rescue and sprinted up the road in his bike shoes and grabbed my bike and was able to unclip so gave my pedal a clean and a quick lube of chapstick from Julie then we went up the switchbacks and made it to the top. It felt like mediaeval type of road and a little further down was a lake - was interesting to look down at the road and all the zig zags set in the hillside but the climb felt pretty sedate - suppose everything will do now after the Stelvio!
I gave my pedal a good clean and realised there was some muddy stuff/ small stones which had stuck and made worse by the chapstick but it caused no issues after that. The descent was my least favourite and felt relieved I made tt down without incident or gravel rash :-)
The rest of the day involved a little sightseeing, shopping, a trip to the pool in Trentino ( lame effort by me to do 700m. Just CBF but recovery was good!) then of course a drink at the hotel and dinner.
Again we are in a very salubrious place, well designed for the ski season but not so much for the 28 degrees outside so the bedrooms are intensely hot like a sauna and even with the balcony door wide open and a window, there is little air flow and any that does draught its way in is also warm. No amount of HRT can fix that discomfort so I'm hanging out for a decent nights sleep; maybe an igloo might be the answer.
Last day tomorrow which , as with Epic tradition, is a triathlon.......ride 40 km to Livigno ( which sits at 1800m, its 1200m here) with a 26 km tt in the middle. Run 10km then swim 1600m in the 50 m pool at the alititude training centre. Then ride 40 km home. I'm already having nightmares about it. Handicap start!
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