Out of Livigno, we immediately retraced our route back up the Passo d’Eiro and then Passo Foscagno. Thankfully this time it was not raining, and although cold, with the lessons learned from the previous day we were much better dressed. The descent off of Passo Foscagno through the towns of Valdidentro, Premadio, and Bormio was pretty crazy. The train that I was on included about 40 riders and we ripped through these towns at about 55km/hr, dodging tourists, traffic, parked cars, dogs, cats, ferrets, all the while weaving through tiny little streets even occasionally on cobbles.
After this ride, I can now see the attraction of road racing; what a natural high!Out of Bormio, we headed up the infamous Passo Gavia. This is the pass that in the 1988 Giro d’Italia promoted Andy Hampsten to the Maglia Rosa, the only North American to win Italy’s grand tour. The story goes that despite the Italians pleading with him to ride “piano piano” over the climb, he went on an epic attack. Story here. The weather was so bad, -4 C and snowing that Hampsted remembers that “I kept one gear moving because all my other gears were frozen up with ice”
Our climb up the Gavia was not quite so cold but there was fresh snow at the top from yesterday’s storm.
The descent included probably the scariest moment so far in the race. About halfway down, while traveling at about 55km/hr we entered a totally unlit tunnel about 1 km long. As could be expected… you could see nothing. Not the walls, not the roof, not the road surface… Oh yeah, not any of the other 10 riders you entered the tunnel with. How there was not a major crash is beyond me…I personally just started yelling “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me, don’t hit me”, hoping that the sound of my voice would “encourage” others riders away from me. When I saw the “light” at the end of the tunnel, I have never accelerated so hard on bike in my life figuring that the sooner I was out, the safer I would be. Absolutely INSANE!The rest of the descent was not quite so crazy although Passo Gavia does not quite meet North American road standards. The majority of the road is probably a little over 2 m wide, and this often requires that the cars that meet back up to a wider area in order for you to pass. Throw in 1100 crazy road riders descending and you get the picture.
The next pass was Passo Tonale, about halfway through the day, and again as in the 3 previous passes Dave and I summited as the first of our motley crew. Our support team was at the top dressed in “black tie” with a table set out with white linen, crystal and silver.
“Supported” we headed down the other side for another crazy 45 km long train ride. On this descent I just decided to hide well back in the group and save my energy for the last big climb of the day. 
It turned out that this was good planning as again the “Mediterranean” heat started to take its toll on those that had expended a lot of energy pushing the head wind on the descent. In my group, people started popping off the back in droves as we started the slow climb up to Passo Mendola.Passo Mendola turned out to be the “pussy” of the day. We kept expecting it to rear its ugly head as we climbed, but the farther we went up, the less the gradient became. The descent on the other side was again epic. It seemed we flew through at least 50 full switches as we came down and the central section was blazingly fast and flowy, while perched on the side of a vertical cliff. How they build these roads is beyond me!
The finish arrived and Kaltern put on a great welcome as the beer was cold and flowing well. 6 down, 1 to go! Results here.
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