Ride Day 5: Trento to Sorriva

In 2016 we rode some of the same route that we rode yesterday.  Our destination is Sorriva, a tiny village at the base of the renown Croce d'Aune pass.  We are staying 3 nights in the same B n B in Sorriva where we stayed three years ago -- a wonderful place with an engaging host.  We'll use Sorriva as a home base to watch two more mountain stages of the Giro.

WiFi has been a bit spotty but it seems to be working now, so here’s your update.  The first thing to note is this: sunshine!  Yeah, it is warm (ish) and sunny (mostly) and in my opinion a very nice development.  Since I missed a day-o-blogging, I will update tomorrow first, when we rode from Trento to Sorriva.

We have many long days on a bike but both of us agree that yesterday was perhaps the longest and toughest day we’ve ever had.  There were no problems, the weather was great compared to the past days, but the distance and climbing added up to a day of misery.

We arrived Sorriva, a beautiful and tiny village in the Dolomites that we visited in 2016 on another ride (to Venezia) and are staying with our friend Luciano at his BnB.  When we arrived, Luciano met us and introduced us to his Hungarian friends who are also here to watch the Giro.  And Luciano had a beer in hand.  Just what we needed to try to get our rubber legs to solidify just a bit.

Our day started early in Trento.  Trento is a big city but set nicely in the confluence of three big valleys with mountains looming overhead.  Our room for the night is above the city and overlooks the university district. 

 

The view from our breakfast room

Overlooking Trento

From the University terrace

The Trento valley with the Dolomites looming over

In the morning, Favio, the guy at the BnB, told us that we ought to visit the nearby Trento University school of engineering to see the view from the terrace and have a coffee.  It was still early, before the BnB’s breakfast, and the sun was shining, so why not?  We walked up the hill to the school and quickly found the terrace and the view in the morning sun is gorgeous.

Coffee and food from the school cafe

Last night we walked down the hill to the main part of Trento to find something to eat.  We stopped at the first place we saw, Dorian Gray’s (of Oscar Wilde fame).  The food was decent and the wine was good and the walk back up to the BnB nearly killed our tired legs.  Sleep would maybe help.

We also found the student café and grabbed coffees for nearly nothing, and also bought a sandwich for lunch, down the road.  Then back for a nice breakfast at the BnB.

Bu onward, so we hit the road.  And it was quite a climb getting out of Trento.  We muddled our way through a bunch of confusion with our GPSs (which is pretty standard stuff for us) and we got super lost a few times, but eventually we got on the right road.  After the initial climb to get on the road, we dropped down to a beautiful valley that runs easterly toward Verona and which is bordered on both sides by enormous peaks of the Dolomites.  And there was a nice bike path, which we’d actually ridden a few years ago in 2016.

We're heading up there, eventually

On the way up

Unbeknownst to us, the Giro follows our ride, tomorrow

Near the summit of the Forcela pass

The bike taking a rest.  Us, too, out of frame.

We knew what was coming and when our GPSs said turn left we looked at the mountains and cringed a bit.  We hit the hills right away and dropped our gearing to the smallest gear we had and got set for a long, long climb.  It was ridiculous.  We went at least 25 km on a gradient no less than 9%.  It never really varied – 9% the whole way.  We were so slow that we could have tipped over.  At least the weather was good and the traffic was very light – those who passed us must have gotten a good laugh!

We crested the top of the Forcela pass and stopped for some food (energy bars; we’d chowed down on our University sandwich a few hours earlier).  There was some up and down after that and then the big descent.  We had ridden this descent in 2016, so we remembered it, but we realized when we got to the top of the Forcela that we’d ridden up another road in 2016.  Maybe it was easier since neither of us remember it being this hard back in 2016.  On the other hand, maybe I’m forgetting on purpose.  Maybe I am three years older and the hills are getting tougher.  You know what they say: Memory is the second thing to go.  I can’t remember what the first thing is…

The descent off the Forcela pass really steep and I’m constantly on the brakes to keep the bike at a reasonable speed through the hairpins.  By the bottom of the 20 km drop my arms and hands are wasted.  So we stopped at a bar for a coffee even though it was 1600 – a bit late for us to have coffee.  I would have loved a beer, but we had another 10km of climbing to Sorriva.

So up we went, again.  By this time we were like automatons, simply turning the pedals over.  But we made it, and were greeted by Luciano and the Hungarians who were just getting ready to head out for a ride (they’d arrived only an hour previously, after a 12 hour drive from Budapest).

With an hour off the bike, we are recovering nicely but our legs are useless. 

Sorriva is all decked out in pink -- the village went over the top to dress itself up for the race.  It seems that every village tries to outdo the next.  It is a fun competition.

Putting up a penny farthing,..pink, of course

Luciano invited us to join him at the neighboring village Fonzaso for a village party to celebrate the arrival of the Giro.  We were only too happy to join him.  We drove to the village and had huge plates of pork braised in wine, polenta with sauce, fries, and wine and beer.  There was a band playing and we had fun with Luciano and his friends.  We understood little of the conversation but had a blast. 

Tomorrow (which is actually today) we have a rest day, so to speak – we ride up to the San Martino di Castrozza to watch the Giro.   But before that, we do have down-time when Lorie can relive her inner hippy...

Ciao.