Preface

After going on the A. Hampsten led Cinghiale Cycling Tours trip to the Italian Alps and Dolomites last year, I was left with such a positive impression of Northern Italy, I spent a great deal of time throughout the past few months planning another trip throughout that area, trying to match the level of epicness (sic) as last year; plus, other touristy stuff like Venezia, Firenze, Milano, and Cinque Terre—the tourist stuff was more or less supposed to be retribution and payment to my team car drivers--for being able to enjoy the cycling.

The trip started out great (sarcasm); we were supposed to fly out of JFK on Sun 28 Aug 2011 but that was likely to be canceled due to Hurricane Irene. I quickly re-booked the flights to early Saturday, knowing that my team car drivers would be flying in on Friday night.

However, the following chain of events would be a clear premonition that Mr. Murphy and his stupid law would show up in spades on this adventure.

The re-booked flight was also canceled and Internet Bidding War 2011 started, as everyone stranded by the hurricane frantically wanted/needed to get to where they were going. Normally, I would have reneged on the whole trip but this was too important—I could almost hear the sweet, sweet pave of the Dolomites calling. The airline ticket prices were going up by $100 (per person) every minute! It was madness, not as idiotic as bidding up tulip bulbs or shares of Pets.com but not as stimulating as bidding on something like a third pair of carbon fiber wheels either.

After modifying the original trip schedule, we had a few days to hang around NYC with nice weather considering the hurricane was a bust; however, the day of departure, Tuesday, I was very ill from food poisoning. The plane ride from JFK-Dusseldorf-Milan never seemed to long. After vomiting on the plane, I proceeded to vomit all the way to Como.

There were supposed to be many pictures from the epic rides in Como all the way to Tirano but all I saw for those days were the two bottles of Sprite that I drank and the bottom of the toilet. Just image the best possible roads and some amazing scenery, like this:





But I would not let all this stop me from riding my bike!



Sufferfest, The Hardest Ride In My Life

I had gone over the route from Tirano to Bormio with my Team Car Drivers about 30 times over the past few months. It was programmed into the GPS and backup maps were handed out. This was the only time I would need a team car throughout the trip since it was a fairly long route, over two HC climbs, Mortirolo from Mazzo di Valtellina and also the Gavia from Ponte di Legno, and we would need to check in the car at the hotel in Bormio at the end regardless, so the route--at least, initially--seemed perfect!

Mortirolo:


Gavia:


But that's when the real suffering (aside from not having eaten in the past 3 days) started. At Tornante 8, right after the Pantani monument near Tornante 12 on Passo Mortirolo, I believe the GPS in the car died. Later, it was found to be a fuse problem with something like a coin falling into the 12V to cause it to short.

This was the hardest ride in my life. Riding over Passo Mortirolo was not that bad considering I hadn't eaten solid food in 3 days but here is a map showing bullet points of what did make the ride so hard:


Yes, I was basically left out in the wilderness of the Gavia to ride or die. I basically saw 2 cars the entire time and zero bikers, after I had passed a few on the descent past the Mortirolo.

Here are the only two shots I took while suffering badly up the Gavia, taken with my phone:






Stelvio Day 2011!

After reconciliation with the Team, I was ready for the next day, which would be Stelvio Day 2011, a day where the mountain pass is closed from 8:00AM - 4:00PM to cars and people from the nearby villages come out to root, cheer, and offer tea, pastries, drinks, etc. It's basically a ride that we would have to pay money for in the U.S. but is free to ride, run, roller-ski up in Italy!

Here is me in full poser-mode for the start of the ride from the Bormio side for Stelvio Day 2011:


And here is the profile for Stelvio from Bormio:

In Italy, even kids ride up stuff like this with their parents. It's pretty unreal--here in the U.S., kids ride up stuff like this on their Nintendo DS.