and on the seventh day it rained...and rained, and snowed, and hailed, and there was thunder and lightening. and did i mention it rained? after 6 days of flawless weather, the passo stelvia proved to be the lightening rod. literally. 70k to the start and then the prospect of 6000 ft. of climbing in weather that was as bad as i have ever seen. couldn't see through glasses, was dropping temperature, and we were still in the valley. the passo stelvia loomed high overhead and the portland boys bailed. ugh. yeah. we jumped in the van for a ride to the top. as did about half the group. the half that didn't looked misearable every mile. reassuring us that our choice was right. at the top, they were frostbite, shaking, ghosts. we were at least dry, although the temp at the top was 1 degree celcius. felt misearable the rest of the day. not for the cold, but for stopping. hard to swallow. right choice at the time but you always wonder...
today we had revenge. after our firs night in a new town, bormio, we rode about 40k downhill to matzo and the start of the motorolo. the motorolo is ranked the third hardest climb in europe although doing it fresh was not as bad as we thought. 12k to the top. the middle 6k average over 14%, yeah that's steep. the first and last 3k average over 10% and that seems flat compared to the middle which reaches 18-20% too many times. weather was great again today, really amazing that we had one day of rain! racing to the top, gilden showed his dominance on climbs over 10%. it is no question that that man can climb some steep shit. anything under 10% and i kill him. anything over, he kills me. period. based on the fact that we have climbed so much stuff over 10% this trip...gilden gets the portland polka dot jersey! i had a hard time writing that, but he earned it. tom, i must say, was amazing. ths guy has only been riding a year and conqueered the best the dolomites had to offer. really amazing, and i couldn't be prouder as a coach and as a friend.
as for this trip. not much to say. the best riding in the world. easy. the best staff in the world. easy. the best friends in the world. easy. wish i could share this with everyone reading this, we have already started planning our next trip...2010!
tomorrow to milan and the final time trial and maybe one more blog before i have to come home. get to come home? come home. period.
ciao!
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4 comments:
You guys are studs! Kudos! Way to represent.
Time to come home Jer. Love Mom XO
DUDE I'm still On the Hater Express...I wished I was there... Have a save Trip Home!
Phenomenal! Thanks for sharing your adventure, Jeremy. What a treat to follow you to heaven and back! 2010....let's see, will my kids be old enough to stay at home alone!?!
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