TransAlps 2010: Day 2 - 4

No internet in our hotels in Northern Italy until today.

Day 2: Solden (Austria) to Brixen (Italy)

Here's the start.

Here's the finish. In between, 124KM and 3,000M of climbing over two passes that were 25KM and 20KM, respectively. In retrospect, my toughest day so far.

Post race routine includes cold water on the legs, preferable glacial river. In this case we used the fountain in Brixen's main square. Hot day with temperatures consistently over 30 degrees.

Net result was 14th for the stage and 16th overall in Masters category (64th in the entire field).

Day 3: Brixen to St. Vigil

Here's the start.

Here's the finish. In between, 90KM and 3,000M of climbing. The steepest terrain I have ever ridden. I felt great at the end of the day.

This is a scenic of St. Vigil.

Net result was 12th for the stage, 13th in our category and 60th in the entire field.

Day 4: St. Vigil to Alleghe

Tough day. Hump day and our longest distance in addition to our biggest vertical. Only a couple photos care of team TNA/Shape I (Haas and Wilf).

With 130KM and 3,500M of climb over 5 mountain passes, I didn't savour the view of the Dolomites as much as I would have liked.

Lots of crashes today. Tutti, an experienced rider who last night proclaimed, "I have never crashed my road bike" went down not once, but twice. I definitely underestimated the challenge of the descents here. Every morning more and more road rash shows up at the start line. My motto continues to be "rubber down". Today one German rider was helicoptered off the mountain and a Canadian is currently in hospital (concussion).

Net result was 10th for the stage, 12th overall in category and 56th within the entire field.