Epic Italy '08 Day 5

Epic Italy ’08 Day 4

We’re in Bolzano on Day 7 as I write this at 6am trying to get caught up. Doesn’t look like I will get there as its now 6am and we’ve got a run to do at 6:30 but I’ll get started………

Cortina would probably be my choice as a place to stay if I were to only choose one place n Italy to come to ride. There are a few other towns in the vicinity like Canazei and Arabba but they’re not quite as big so don’t’ offer quite the variety of shopping, eating places, etc. There’s also a lot of directions to ride in from here – all great. Too bad the pool is shut at the moment as we then could have not had all of our rides heading out towards Brenneco to start off with.

By now Steve has run away with the points and really put that part of the camp out of reach. At some point I’ll have to ask him exactly what he did so I can put it all down for the record as its been very impressive. On this camp there’s been no easy way to tack on for extra points. The running in Trento was flat but other than that all of the extra running and riding has been hilly and wet and after hours of mountainous training in cold rain its very hard to not go straight into a nice hot shower at the end of the rides like everyone else. Like all former winners of the Epic points competition he has really gone for it and my hat’s off to him. He would have been right there with any former winner of the Yellow Jersey competition. This time he gets a unique pink one which is cool.
Gordo looks to have lock on the KOM Jersey. We’ve still got quite a few mountains to cover but he’s still quite fresh and riding well. I’m not sure just how well though as I haven’t been anywhere near him to observe on the climbs except for the Giau.

Little mighty mite Jo is holding up OK too. She’s not missed any opportunities to pick up extra points where she could, so looks likely to be in the top 3 in the points unless she completely craters. There’s always the chance of getting sick of tendonitis when training as much as she is in the cold rain with so many climbs/descents but so far she’s holding up great. On Day 5 (tomorrow) she did another 2-hour run. Michael Peters was sitting in the lobby because he couldn’t sleep so he was up blogging and saw here walk straight into the big glass doors leaving the hotel as she set off on her run. So she is a little tired!

We hopped into the vans to get to the pool today except for Steve who rode there. I was happy not to be riding there as it was still pretty nippy out. It was dry though so a good choice by Steve as its mostly downhill to the pool.
I put on my paddles to get the 3km done asap so I could get going on my ride. I wanted to head into Austria a little bit as it was just right there and fairly flat to get there. Peters and I found the first significant town to stop for a beer, coffee and gelato and then headed back. Once again the sky turned black in the afternoon and we got hammered near the top of the pass and descended back to the hotel in a driving rain. That was a 90km ride for us and that was plenty. I still had my run to do.
Most rode straight back to the hotel after swimming but Douglas headed up the Laveredo on his own in that storm and Steve did a small tour of the rest of the Dolomites he hasn’t already covered! His ride reminded of all previous winners of the points who just go for it using all 12 hours per day each day available to train for points. He actually got kinda lost so ended up using a total of 13 hours today.

Another really nice dinner at the hotel tonight. They are making a real effort for us and the meals are plentiful. The red wine has been flowing a bit more lately too. Randy and Erin have been mostly responsible for that and I’d like to say a big thanks to them!