A Couple of Days of Rest

This is a 2-day update, yesterday and today.  You will be thrilled to hear that I’m catching up, at least with the blog.  Work?  Not so much.

It has been just superb weather.  Sunny, warm but not too warm, and spectacular scenery in the Dolomites.  on Friday we were supposed to do the ride above to watch the finish of stage 19.  But after 30 km or so, our legs said “no more” and we listened.  We parked ourselves at the side of the road at the 10 km to go to the finish banner (the hardest 10 km were those beyond where we stopped) and watched.  Well, we waited and watched people go by.  It is great people watching.  The valley that we rode up to get to where we waited was stunning in the sunshine.  The tallest peaks loomed over the verdant green valley and every tiny, tidy alpine village was done up in pink and loaded with locals.  Since we’re the only tandem that we’ve seen the entire trip, we are also probably the only tandem that the locals have seen.  They all applaud and make jokes (“hey, she’s not peddling!”) but we don’t mind being a source of fun.

Friday: San Martino di Castrozza

The Dolomites

This is where we hung out for the day

Here are some shots taken along the ride up to San Martino di Castrozza

The road is open for riders until about 30 minutes before the race comes through (closed to cars
much sooner)

We had to ride through 6 long tunnels.  We turned our tail light and headlight onto super bright blinking but it was still scary.  Then we figured out that there is a bike path around each tunnel.  Doh!  The last three tunnels were averted.

Eventually the race came by, and it was fun the cheer the riders on.  Almost as fun as it was to people watch.

The ride back to our place in Sorriva was super fast.  Downhill the whole way.  And we rode straight through the tunnels since the traffic was light (read: non-existent) and we were easily holding 60 kph.  Except the last 5 km that are uphill at about 11% grade.  They were slow.  But it felt a lot better without all of our bags than it did when we rode it the day before with all of our panniers.

For dinner we visited the same great pizza spot down the road that we’d enjoyed years ago. Excellent pizza again!

 

Yum.

Saturday: Croce D'Auna

Saturday we had a very short ride to the top of the famous climb Croce D’Auna.  This is the second to the last day of the Giro, and the last mountain stage.  Our BnB sits at the base of the climb and the road in front of the house is the race route.  We just walked out the door and road up the hill.  Total distance: 6 km up, 6 down.  Total up: 1700 m up (same down...)

It was pandemonium.  Thousands upon thousands of fans, all crazy, and every switchback was claimed by a different nation.  Dutch corner.  Swiss corner.  Hungarian corner.  And the zaniest, Slovenia corner (precisely ½ of the population of Slovenia was here today to root for their hero Primoz Roglic (who sits in 4th place).

The fan watching was equal to the race watching.  What an experience.

Every village is done up in pink and the entire population will be at the side of
the road as the racers come by

We stopped and had coffee and Lorie loved these centerpieces

A romanesque looking mausoleum, with a pink bow

Things are heating up on Slovenia corner

We're almost to the top.  Blurry not from our speed, but from our wobbling...

Almost there

The top.  This is about 6 km from the finish, but is where we stopped.  We sat on the grass slope
on the right -- it was a great viewpoint and was in the shade all day

The lead rider.  The riders came by in ones, twos and small groups

These are the race leaders...Nibali, Carapaz, Roglic, and the rest

Riders came by for about 45 minutes

After the all of the racers had roared by, we hung around the top for about an hour to let the crowds head down the hill to Luciano’s place. There are five Hungarians who also are staying here.  They are a fun group -- here because they love the Giro and they have been coming to stay with Luciano for about ten years.  They said “let’s go get pizza” so off we went.  Dinner started at about 1900 and I am writing this at about 2300 – we just got home.  Stephan, Lazlo, David, Ben and Gabor.  What a group.  I have said it before but the best parts of our rides is the people we meet.  And this year we have met more engaging people from more different parts of the world than in any prior trip.  We consider ourselves to be very, very lucky.

 Tomorrow we start phase 2 of our trip: no bike racing, leaving the Dolomites, and just having touristy fun.  We ride up the Croce D'Aune again (with our bags this time) then downhill to Valdobiaddene where they grow the grapes and make prosecco wine and where they make the wine.  We have a short ride but are really looking forward to this next part of our travels.

Best to everyone.