Today I would be hitting the parcours for Checkpoint Three, but before I reached it I still had a reasonable climb ahead of me – the Passo Valparola. My plan was to get over it before the day got hot. Beyond that, I knew that between the end of the parcours and the actual checkpoint there was a big hill that I really wasn’t keen to go over when it was cold, dark and wet. To try and avoid the heat in the morning and the cold in the evening I thought I should get going relatively early, so I was on the bike well before light, with a fairly chilly 4 degrees.
I hit a slight delay with a routing issue as I went through Cortina d’Ampezzo (yes, I could have carried my bike down that, but the ground was so slippery I thought I’d fall and break my neck, and yes, I could also have just turned right and gone around it for almost exactly the same difference, but I didn’t know that at the time so I just backtracked and took the long way – not ideal but I got there…) but still managed to make it to the top with cool single digit temperatures.
Dropping down to the town at the bottom of the hill I found a place where a guy was making truly excellent hot chocolates right next to a very good bakery. I obviously stayed there much too long, because as I sat there my bike computer (which was, to be fair, in the sun) went from reading 8 degrees to reading 28 degrees. Since the next step was up another hill (Passo Gardena) I probably should have been a bit quicker about it, but firstly I was very much in protective mode, repeating the “no power equals no wear” mantra over and over while focussing on just preserving myself long enough to make sure I reached the finish, and secondly they were truly excellent hot chocolates.
It wasn’t far until I hit the start of the parcours, and I was well and truly into cycling country here, with a steady flow of cyclists all around, including a buck from Slovenia out for a ride with his mates before his wedding the next day. While still not pushing myself too hard I did at least feel like I should be able to match this guy, who was riding in a tutu and full on wedding dress from the waist up, including the veil. It really would have had an impact in the heat, and to my relief I could actually stay within a reasonable distance of him!
After that hill there was one more little bump before the descent into Bolzano, and I think that descent was the closest I came to a really big issue over the whole ride. Heading down the hill I was rolling at around 55km/h when the shoulder I was on ended just as I approached an intersection. I moved into the lane ahead of a bus, confident that there was plenty of space and we were going the same speed anyway. Then a car started pulling into the intersection from my right.
I moved further left to try and go around her but there was oncoming traffic heading up the hill, and I didn’t want to go there. On top of that I wasn’t at all sure she was actually turning hard enough to make it into the lane I was in and she wanted to be in – most of her attention seemed to be on her phone and not which way the car was pointed. I was hard on the brakes and looking for space to go behind her when I realised that I was hearing the wheels locking on the bus behind me. Not a good feeling, I assure you.
In the end, it was all ok. I managed to go behind her, the oncoming traffic moved over enough to avoid a collision, and somehow the bus slowed down enough to not slam into her. I can guarantee there were some anxious moments for all involved though.
From there the route took us around the northen edge of Bolzano, and everything was fine until…
Rounding a tight corner I was faced with a wall in front of me. I understand it was somewhere over 20% gradient, but I wasn’t worried by the numbers. Looking at it, it was immediately clear to me that I would not be riding up it. I pulled over. managed to jam the bike up against the guard rail well enough to stop it rolling (or sliding) back down the hill, changed into my walking shoes, and began a long, hot, slow trudge up the hill. Beyond worrying about not dying of thirst, heatstroke (my computer was reading 46 degrees by this stage) or falling down a hill the only other thing on my mind was not overextending my achillies. It was feeling alright, but I was pretty sure that stretching it out too far as I walked up here would be the end of it.
This particular section was the second section that raised a lot of discussion on whether the parcours were too difficult. In this case it was again unnecessary, as there was another road that split off and rejoined further up the hill after following a much less steep route, and I thin some people were pretty upset by it. I realise it may make me seem very inconsistent, but actually I didn’t have a problem with it. Yes, it was very steep, and no, I was never going to ride it. I understand someone did ride it though, and I never felt like I was on the wrong bike for it (I wouldn’t have ridden it on any bike, except one with a motor, which is a completely different thing).
So I was happy enough with that section being in the race, and happy enough to just walk up it. I walked for two kilometers. The second half was actually considerably less steep than the first half, and there were a couple of places where it flattened out enough for me to get back on the bike and pedal in my walking shoes, and if I had been feeling good I would have started riding a lot sooner, but as it was I walked for two kilometers, with so many pauses to rest, drink and eat that it took me over an hour. But I was fine with that. I felt like I wasn’t hurting myself, and it was a nice view. My only real issue was that I was getting hungry. Having skirted the northern edges of Bolzano meant that I didn’t see anywhere that grabbed me for lunch, and now places were pretty rare. I was snacking all the way, and I had my emergency food with me, but really just felt like a decent meal. Happily though you can’t go too far through that part of Italy without finding good food, and pretty soon I did. The place I found was set on a hill looking out to the mountains beyond, and was doing a roaring trade to groups of touring motor-bikers. And the food they had was good. I ordered a lot of it, and sat and enjoyed it as I soaked up the view and just let myself rest.
By the time I finished eating it was 6:30, and I was feeling very relaxed, but of course there was a problem. Remember that second big hill I had mentioned at the start? The one I wanted to get over before it got dark? Well, I was still probably 50km from were it actually started, and it was going to take me a long time to get up it. With the low speeds I was riding at, it seemed like I would be hitting the top at about midnight. Now riding up a mountain in the cold and the dark is not a problem. You’re working as you climb so you don’t feel too cold, and my lights were nice and bright, especially for the low speeds I would be climbing at. The problem is with what happens once you reach the top. A great part of my day job revolves around risk management. That doesn’t mean risk elimination, it means managing risk to ensure you hit an acceptable risk level while compromising as little as possible in other respects.
So if you climb a mountain at night, there are basically two options – you can stop at the top or you can go down the other side. Stopping at the top in a nice warm hotel is great, but finding a nice warm hotel on a mountain-top at midnight is not so easy. You may find yourself camping out, and even if it is hitting 40 degrees through the afternoon it still gets cold at the top of a mountain at night. This is compounded if you’re wet, and like most evenings in the high mountains there were storms about. So there is significant risk in that option.
The second option is to go down the other side. Again, there are problems with this. On the way up you are working and it keeps you warm, and there usually isn’t that much wind. On the way down though you are basically just rolling. You aren’t working at all, and there is a lot more wind, and suddenly you go from sweating your way up to shivering your way down. Again, significant risk involved.
All of these thoughts were rolling through my head as I headed towards the base of the mountain. Alongside them were thoughts of the need to keep going, and knowledge that my ride so far had been really very short. I had climbed nearly 4,000m, but the distance covered was relatively tiny. So I was torn, and basically needed to balance reducing the risk against sacrificing the distance I covered.
I rode into the town of Merano, and saw a lot of very fancy looking hotels. I paused, as voice in my head immediately started saying how nice they would be to stay in, but a louder voice pointed out that they also looked ridiculously expensive, and I was in no state to enjoy a fancy hotel. It would be much more appropriate for me to find a bed under the stars, or at most a quiet little Pension. I decided to keep riding. The risk balance was still front of mind.
That lasted about 50 meters, until I saw the sign pointing to the other side of the street, where there was a quiet little Pension. It wasn’t even 9 o’clock, but I rolled down the driveway and had the usual discussion about a safe place to keep my bike, agreed that my room would be fine, said I didn’t need the breakfast as I would be leaving at 4am, and then very happily accepted some sandwiches tonight and some more ready to take with me in the morning in exchange.
The room was actually a beautiful one, and I spent longer than I should have stretching my aching muscles on the balcony overlooking terraced vineyards as the clouds boiled and lightning flashed around the mountain tops, before finally climbing into a very comfortable bed for really a relatively long night of sleep.
As I closed my eyes I knew I had climbed around 4,200m for the day but at only 169km I still wasn’t convinced I should have stopped. And that is the difficult thing about risk – you go ahead and mitigate it, but then you have no way of knowing if the mitigation was necessary or not. If nothing goes wrong then you know you were cautious enough, but were you too cautious?
The next day something happened to make me very pleased with the decision, but it didn’t set my mind at ease that night. Happily I had fatigue instead, so I only worried about it for around 30 seconds before slipping into a wonderfully deep sleep!
So tell us … how good was that hot chocolate?
They were about an hour and a half good! The bakery probably helped too though, to be fair.