Sella Ronda Bike Day 2009

Hello from Val Gardena, Italy. This might just be the most beautiful place in the world. Today was Sella Ronda Bike Day. The Sella Ronda is a 55 km loop in the Italian Dolomites that includes 4 mountain passes; Passo Gardena (2137m), Passo Campolongo (1875m) , Passo Pordoi (2242m), and Passo Sella (2244m). (Profile here) The roads were closed to all motorized traffic from 0900hr to 1530 hr to celebrate Italian cycling.

At least 10,000 cyclists participated starting from various locations on the route, mostly riding in a clockwise fashion.

We (my son Blake and I) started from St. Christina shortly after 0900hrs and climbed from here to the Sella Ronda, a further 350m of climbing. The weather was perfect, about 12C, sunny with the occasional cloud.

The atmosphere was very relaxed with bikers on all forms of 2 wheels, from mountain bike to road bike, from kids on 20 inch wheels to tandems towing kids in trailers. There were lots of road teams out for (I assume) recovery rides and the occasional hammer head blasting up the road. The descents were quick but not race fast as the various bikes and caliber of riders required a degree of conservatism.

The scenery was spectacular as we basically circumnavigated a dolomiti massif. Many of the restaurants, cafes, and refuges went out of their way to provide exceptional service to the many riders. Blake and I stopped for lunch in Arabba, a town about half way through the ride and grabbed a sandwich to fuel our ascents of Passo Pordoi and Passo Sella.

The same route holds the Maratona dles Dolomites race in early July. The winning time in this year’s race was 2:02:50. Blake and I rode the route in 4:55:00 with a stop for lunch and many conversations.

Any day on a bike is a good day, and celebrating Italian cycling along the route of numerous Giro I’talia’s makes it that much better.

Tour TransAlp 2009: Day 4

Happy Canada Day from the Tour TransAlp 2009!

Our start today was in Solden, the site of the opening round of the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup.

(Profile here) Directly out of town we hit the major climb of the day the Timmelsjoch; 23km long with 1250m of elevation.

We slowly ground our way up to the top, the last 200 to 300 meters cut out of the snow banks. Another world!

At the top our support team had their ghetto blaster blasting out “Oh Canada” and the entire “pre” feed zone painted up in the red and white.

Like good Canadians they had our water bottles embedded in the snow banks so that they were good and cool for the descent off the top.

And oh… what a descent! 1800m over 25 km. Not a single hill to slow you down. Ripping around switch backs at the top and blitzing through km after km of snaky turns. I looked at my speedo once and thought I didn’t want to know how fast I was going. It just went on and on. I don’t think I have ever had that much of a rush riding a bike. The ultimate high!

Once to the bottom we leveled out a little bit and pushed our way into Naturns, the whole day taking just over 3 hours to complete. This must be our rest day, tomorrow we start what I think is the crux 2 days of the race. First, over Stelvio (difficulty 194, Cypress is 76), and then 180 km day with 4 major passes including Passo Gavia, the site of many Giro I’talia memories. (Results here)

Tour TransAlp 2009: Day 3

Day 3 saw the 1100 riders in the 2009 Tour TransAlp head from Ischgl, Austriato Solden, the site of the opening events of the FIS Alpine World Cup. Once again the weather was stellar. (Profile here) Just like yesterday, the day started with a 20 km neutral start, only today it was all downhill. When we reached the first climb, the race would be on. As in past days, we discussed again whether it would be better at the front or the back of our start block as we descended the first 20 km. We elected for the back but as soon as we started it became abundantly clear to me that this was the wrong decision. So began a rather tiring next 90 minutes.

I headed for the front to avoid what I felt was a very dangerous situation as the neutral pack descended at close to 35 km/hr. Obstructions caused quick braking situations and I felt that it was way safer to be in front of the majority of riders than behind. Dave held back and we became separated. The first climb appeared and I was up it in a flash, immediately starting to gap out on the C block riders. Unfortunately, Dave was not with me and knowing we had well over 100 km ahead of us I pulled up and waited for Dave to appear. Minutes seemed to go by very slowly, and more and more of the riders that I knew passed me by. Where was Dave? Eventually it became clear that I was now seeing the very back of start block D and I knew that I must have missed seeing him go past. Oh My God, now comes the hammer as I have to try to bridge back to his group. Off I went full tilt, passing riders left and right for the remaining part of the climb, many times doing it cyclocross style by riding up the grass beside the road. Who says mountain biking skills cannot contribute to road racing results. Thankfully, I quickly hooked up with a very fast rider who had flatted on the downhill start and had even more distance to make up. Between the two of us pulling for 60 second bursts we, caught Dave and the rest of the TNA team as they started up the Pillerhohe 42 km in. What a way to start the day, and certainly not conducive to having a strong finish.

The Pillerhohe was one nasty climb with quite a few sections approaching 15% gradients. The temperature was very high and we started to see a great deal of suffering as the heat and the combined efforts of the past 2 days took its toll. Can you say tick, tick, tick, BOOM!!!! Dave was starting to get his legs and was really flying. It seemed it was all I could do to stay with him on the climbs. The next 30 km were over in a flash despite some roads on the down hills that seemed more suited to the mountain bike TransAlp than road racing. Eventually, all that remained was a long 40 km uphill slog into Solden. We put our heads down and pushed the pace as high as we dared pulling past several other trains as we approached the finish.

Once again as soon as we finished our great support team of Jeremy and Clive had the recovery drinks and roast chickens waiting. The daily pasta party saw then get an award for their efforts at helping not only us but any rider who needed assistance. Once again, thanks to all the volunteers who make these events happen! You know who you are. Tomorrow is hump day. The race will be one half over. (Results here)

Tour TransAlp 2009: Day 2

After the cramping issues of Day 1, and a night of worrying by my partner that we were in for a very long TransAlp, Day 2 came off almost perfectly. (profile here) We made today BC Bike Race Day. We also had a great surprise from our support crew in the middle of a long day.

A long neutral start of almost 20 km allowed us to get our legs warmed up before we started racing for the day. Today we headed from Imst up the valley to St. Anton, the site of several FIS Ski World Championships. Once through the ski town we headed up the first pass of the day, the Arlbergpass, a climb about equal in difficulty to Cypress Mountain.

When we reached the top we started a very intense downhill of about 55 km. The pack riding and pace lines set up! The speeds we were pushing over this distance rarely allowed me to get any food or drink into my mouth as I was afraid I would cause a big crash. Eventually the gradient turned the other direction and things calmed down a bit to allow us to eat. Thankfully, the long neutral start had allowed us to get our energy levels topped up before things got into crazy mode. It also helped that our amazing support crew set up our aid station at the most opportune location to allow us to power up for the rest of the day. They also provided a great deal of comic relief and really settled us in for the final push of the day.

I do find the pack riding very mentally draining. It seems I have to concentrate all the time to make sure that I understand what is happening around me. If there appears to be a sketchy rider in your vicinity, it makes it even worse. There was much discussion at dinner last night as to what is the ideal position to be in, front or back. The long neutral lead outs in the morning are great to warm up the legs, but with all the speeding up and slowing down as the pack maneuvers around cars etc., the risk of crashing can be high. Front or back? We will see as the week goes on what is better.

The last climb of the day, the Bielerhohe, was again a brute. I lost count of the number of switchbacks heading up the front of the pass, but the view back down the valley was spectacular. Once up the initial climb, we passed a large reservoir and most of us thought the climb was over. Not so! A second reservoir was farther up the pass, and the in between section had several nasty 12 to 15% section to test our metal. Once over the top it was a quick downhill to Ischgl, although many of us suffered through rain showers on the way in.

Once again the support crew came through!!! Chicken in the finish area. Yeah!!! Day 2 down!!! (Results here)

Tour TransAlp 2009: Day 1

Day 1 is over and what a day it was. The weather improved and for the first day we saw not a drop of rain. The sun broke through on multiple occasions and helped raise everyone’s spirits even as the gradient of the climbs tried to knock them back down. Sonthofen put on a great start and we had a neutral roll out for about 8 km before the race was on.

Racing began at the bottom of the first big climb; (profile is here) the Oberjoch and pretty much everyone pinned it up to the top. Once up to the top the pack riding began and we motored through some rolling terrain. It was pretty cool looking down at your speedo and seeing 40+ km/hr as we booted along. The race started to sort itself out as the faster riders in the deeper start blocks started to move their way through the field, and the slower riders from the early start blocks made their way to the back. As a team, Dave and I learned some early lessons that being at the back of a pack or a pace line was not the ideal place to be. Although initially it seemed like everyone on the line was riding at the same pace, it soon became obvious that the weaker riders would collect at the back, and if the grade or pace increased just a bit they would be popped. If you were behind them by the time you had a chance to move around them, it became a real challenge to bridge back up to the faster group ahead.

The first descent was too cool. Ripping down the hill at 60+ and having the road “mostly” controlled allowed you to dive into the corners and rip out the other side. My anxieties about pack descending did not prove founded as my speed was pretty comparable to those around me and there were not a huge numbers of riders cutting across my line.

The scenery was spectacular, especially as we rolled out of Stanzach. Exiting the town, we were on a straight section of road and could see ahead the first several km of the last climb. It was quite intimidating as it was cut into the side of the mountain, and basically heading straight out of the valley. The last climb was a brute, with several kilometer long sections of 12-13% gradients. The last 2 km were particularly daunting as it switched up the mountain with little kickers every few 100 m. The 20 km long descent off the other side was almost as crazy with speeds in excess of 70 km/h. I personally have never reached those sorts of speeds on a bike and I have to admit that a few times I was quite nervous about the possibility of flatting. In the end we made it to Imst. One day down, six more to go. (Results here)