A few years ago we rode up the famous Passo dello Stelvio. The Stelvio and its 48 hairpin corners tops out a 2757 m above sea level (just a bit over 9,000 ft). It was a momentous ride for us. Remember our blog post? Here it is:
https://munich-to-venice.blogspot.com/2016/07/ride-day-7-passo-dello-stelvio.html.
This year we wanted to tackle the next door neighbor in Italy's high Alps, the Passo di Gavia. The Gavia is just a bit lower than the Stelvio and tops out at 2650 m (just over 8,700 ft). But as you all know by now, the Gavia was removed from the Giro route due to lots of snow and avalanche danger. That is a disappointment, but when we woke this morning the rain had stopped and so we decided to ride up the Gavia to just go. It was cold but not too bad. Dry at least. The road was steep but we had no panniers so the bike felt light by comparison to the days when we are moving from town to town. We got about 1/3 of the way up and the skies darkened rather ominously, so we bailed out and headed down to catch the finish of the day's stage in Ponte di Legno.
This is what the full Gavia route looks like. Our actual route was pretty wimpy, only about a 1/3 of the map:
The finish line of the Giro is a big party for a few hours before the race comes into town. It was mostly dry through the day, but threatening rain.
 |
| The Alps look down on Ponte di Legno |
 |
| Rain even up high, right now at least |
 |
| Long before the race came by we rode up the finishing straight |
 |
| The finish line -- this is where we camped out to watch the end of the race |
 |
| Our spot for the day. What a picture perfect setting in this alpine ski village. |
 |
| Cold but smiling... |
 |
| The only photo we took on the way up the Gavia today |
As we waited for the race to finish we watched the party. Lorie actually was a big hit -- a radio guy with RAI (the Italian National Broadcasting group) was walking up and down the road interviewing people. He stopped right in front of Lorie and shoved his mic in her face and said something in Italian. She pretty adroitly apologized that she does not speak Italian, only English. That got him going and he asked her (in perfect English) where she is from. She said "Oregon" and the crowd actually applauded. I have no idea why. Apparently familiar with Oregon, he asked where she lived. She paused and I could see what she was thinking..."if I say Camp Sherman that will just be weird." So she said "Bend." That brought a blank face from the interviewer. So he shifted to "who do you want to win." Lorie intactfully said "Roglic." (A Slovenian guy.) I whispered "Niballi" to her and she said "Oh, Niballi of course!" and the crowd went crazy -- it is there race, after all. That was fun.
The party goes on for a long time and here's a flavor of it. Typically loud.
We waited a long time and the weather decided to dump on us, but we had rain gear and umbrellas from our AirBnB. It was a hoot to watch. The guy who deserved to win won. And the rest was just fun to watch. We felt sorry for the racers struggling in. 200 km in horrid conditions with constant rain and about 7 degrees -- some of them nearly fell off their bikes at the end.
 |
| Blurry, but a well-deserved win for this Italian guy |
 |
| Sint Nik showed up from Switzerland. I reckon that he approves of the weather. |
We stopped by the super market on the way home -- about 3 km down the hill. We dumped all our soaking wet stuff in the dryer and made some pasta. Tomorrow is a long day on the bike with a lot of climbing on the front end. We're keeping our fingers crossed for better skies!
Arrivederci.
No comments:
Post a Comment