TGS take the Dolomites (Part I)

Having had 11 days off of the bike (I am not sure I can really count my rides in Yunnan, despite the thinness of the air) following my trip to Yunnan, my last weekend in Hong Kong and then relocating back to London I had managed to get out for a couple of decent rides back in the UK (the UK rides will surely get their own, combined, blog entry at some point) as preparation for one of the trips I was most excited about this year – the annual Team Gun Show cycling trip.

I had been away for two-and-a-half years and in that time the loose group of cyclists, triathletes and runners that made up TGS had grown in number, got more serious on the stash front and ramped up the number of triathlons and ironmen they had competed in. Most importantly though, they still didn’t take themselves too seriously. Taking yourself too seriously is an annoyingly common occurrence amongst cyclists/triathletes.

As was normally the case, Williams had organised the trip and, in addition to myself, the group would be made up of Beard, Roly, Paddy (Hoy), Durden (W), Durden (H), Emily, Jonny, Flinn (confusingly, also a Paddy, but Flinn for the purposes of this blog), Gibson and Chrisie.

We were heading to the Dolomites.

I was particularly excited about the choice to go to the Dolomites, as I had never ridden in Italy. I was similarly apprehensive though, as the Giro had failed to go through a number of the mountain passes we had planned to ride just two weeks earlier due to the mental snow and weather. A stage of the Giro was cancelled entirely, something pretty unheard of.

Day 1 

The trip started early, very early. An 8am flight from Gatwick to Verona meant a 5.30ish train with Roly from London Bridge. Despite living just 5 minutes walk from London Bridge station, Roly managed to miss the train we had agreed on and we ended up travelling to the airport separately.

After meeting everyone at the airport and checking in our bikes (with some repacking to ensure they all fell under the weight limit) the flight went off without incident and the bikes all arrived in Verona (something that hadn’t happened on the previous year’s trip I am told).

A three-hour transfer to Bormio, where we would be based for the weekend, awaited us. Fortunately the views out of the window got more spectacular as we headed deeper into the mountains, passing close by Lake Garda and along the shores of Lake Iseo, and whilst the time didn’t fly by it certainly wasn’t too painful.

On arrival at our hotel, Hotel La Genzianella, we checked in, the bikes were quickly built and a ‘short’/’easy’ out and back ride was muted before dinner. Williams thought a 30km round trip, including a small climb, up to Lake Cancano was ideal.

We quickly set out from Bormio as a group and within 6kms were at the base of the climb to Lake Cancano. The group, as is often the case on climbs, quickly fractured and I found myself heading upwards with Roly and Paddy. I don’t think any of us were expecting an 8km climb at an average of 7.5%. We certainly weren’t expecting to see a wall of 18 switchbacks carved into the side of the hill (mountain?) as we approached the halfway mark.

An unexpected wall of switchbacks....

Accepting that the ide was probably a little more than a little warm-up ride, we pushed on to the top just as the weather was getting cold. Turning the corner towards the lake we were hit by a wall of icy wind and decided to layer up and head back down instead. The switchbacks at speed were great fun and, of course, before long Roly had completely shot out of sight with seemingly little regard for his life. I then managed to lose a contact lens – the lack of a reliable depth of field made approaching hairpins at 60km a little hairy.

Chasing Paddy on the descent

We soon arrived back at the hotel, showered and all headed down to dinner in the hotel. A five course meal where it was possible to ask for seconds of every course. Even if it is was a steak. A perfect scenario for calorie hungry cyclists.

The hotel was in fact full of hungry cyclists, the majority of whom were taking themselves a little too seriously. There was coincidentally a big Grand Fondo starting in Bormio and finishing atop the nearby Stelvio on Sunday. Anyone would have thought some of the guys (almost everyone in the hotel was a guy), were two days out from the World Road Race Championships. We, however, got a number of our needed calories from some very nice bottles of red.

 

Day 2

Bormio is a brilliant base to cycle from in the Dolomites, from it you can do a number of challenging loops that each take in a number of the famous/iconic climbs of the region. For the first full day on the road it was planned that we would do one of these loops – a 114km circle, going over the brutally steep Mortirolo and the high pass of the Gavia with a cumulative total of over 4000m of climbing.

Given the relatively mixed ability of the group and a desire to ensure that we were all together for lunch, we split into two pelotons. The first peloton heading out an hour before the second. The plan being that the second peloton would catch the first somewhere on the first climb of the day, allowing everyone to have lunch together at the top.

I headed out in the second group with Roly, Paddy, Beard and Durden (W), the day starting with a 31km sweeping descent out of Bormio and down to Mazzo and the base of the Mortirolo. An awesome, wind-assisted, fast way to start the day. It was noted that cycling the other way up the long drag and into a headwind would have been far less fun…

Swoooooooossssshhhhhh......

The small town of Mazzo was the start of the Mortorilo and an hour and a quarter of pain. The name itself gave an indication of what we could expect, morte means death in Italian, and the climb is notoriously very difficult. Sections would pitch up to 22%!

A worrying amount of red!!

After a brief ‘comfort break’ at the base of the climb Beard, Durden and I set off in pursuit of Roly and Paddy who had a couple of minutes head-start. Roly was already pulling away and out of sight, doing a series of one-legged squats all the way up the mountain.

The Pantani memorial halfway up the Mortirolo.... some great and some tragic connections with this climb

It wasn’t long before we were passing the members of the first peloton, by now scattered across the mountain in varying states of pain. The road was horribly steep, barely allowing you to get out of your granny-gear, and very narrow. A total brute of a climb.

I left Beard at the Pantani memorial and caught Paddy not to long afterwards and we rode to the top together (passing Roly on the way down, having got to the top and deciding he’d like to do the final kilometre again – for fun!) – both very glad to finally see the top!

A sight for sore legs...

Once everyone had gathered at the top we layered up and prepared for the descent, unsure where the first opportunity to stop for lunch would be (t’internet had been pretty unhelpful/contradictory on this). Fortunately we had barely gone a kilometre before we passed a quiet café serving coke, espresso and pasta – the perfect cycling pit stop!

Fed and watered we continued the descent and began the false flat drag up to Ponte di Legno and the base of the Passo Gavia, the second highest paved road in Italy. Not a particularly memorable section of the route, being on quite busy roads, although there were some hairy moments with the traffic.

We started the Gavia climb and quickly passed a number of signs saying that the pass was closed. This is not too unusual in fairness and often passes that are closed to cars are perfectly passable on a bike – no one was particularly concerned at this stage. This would soon change.

Turns out this sign wasn't lying!!

Roly and I found ourselves at the front as we climbed, with Roly dangling out in front of my by no more than 15-20 metres for the majority of the 17km climb. After the Mortirolo, the promised 7.9% average gradient was supposed to be easy – it was anything but. The road continually pitched up to far higher gradients and as we neared the top (by this time Roly and I were riding together) the weather turned and we were faced with icy head-winds.

Deceptive

As we approached an avalanche tunnel around 4km from the front we plummeted into darkness with huge icicles dangling overhead and a icy patches hidden below us in the darkness. Roly turned to be and asked if I was ‘seeing black spots’, I assumed he meant black ice but in reality his vision was going as his early exertions on the Mortirolo caught up with him and he began to bonk…

We stopped at the end of the tunnel and put as many layers on as possible and then headed out again. We got 20 metres before we had to dismount and climb over some snow. Not discouraged we continued. We only got another 20 metres before it became very clear that the final 4km of the climb was completely covered by a snowdrift. The pass was very definitely closed!

Confirmation that the pass was closed!

At this stage Paddy caught Roly and I and we all decided to head back down, stopping to let the others know the road was impassable. We were initially met with smiles – the pain of climbing would stop – but soon the realisation that, rather than just having a fast descent into Bormio to complete the ride, the only way back to Bormio was now to retrace our route and cycle 80kms back to Bormio, over the Mortirolo again and up the 30km drag into a headwind that had been so much fun earlier dampened the mood slightly.

After some debate at the base of the descent we continued on to find a small town (and bar) to hole up in whilst we called a cab. Not an easy task when there are 12 riders and bikes. Eventually our hotel were convinced to send out two vans to collect us – a 4 hour round trip for the drivers – and we piled in for the long drive back to the hotel, arriving back just in time for a late dinner.

We all agreed that we would check whether the passes were open the next day before we headed out on a loop!

 

Days 3, 4 and 5 to follow......