Epic Italy '08 Day 6

Epic Italy ’08 Day 6

As I’ve said many times over the years I write these blogs mostly for the campers as its hard to recall everything you did and the places you went afterwards. It all becomes a blur. I’m sort-of at that point now trying to recall the last few days. I’m only trying to recall yesterday now and even that is a bit fuzzy.

It poured all night last night and we awoke to a cold, rainy morning and the prospect of starting out with a mainly downhill 55km ride to the pool wasn’t very appealing to me so I talked everyone into a van ride to the pool so we could swim and run before deciding what to do.
It was raining solid and 4 degrees C as we crested the summit in the van so everyone was relieved not to be out there on the bikes.

The swim - The nice 50m outdoor pool was closed due to the weather (taking the covers off on a day like this cools the pool down too much is what they told us) so we went to another pool – indoors and 25m.
Everyone was content to just do the minimum 3k. I managed a 200fly for a bonus point. Russell and Jo had a crack at it but didn’t make it!

The run – By the time we exited the pool it was dry and looking like it would remain that way.
After swimming we assembled for a 10km run race where there were race points on the line + ½ points for a guess your time competition. No one was allowed to wear a watch.
As it turned out Ian made the course a little short so Gordo took it out in under 30 minutes with Newsom second and me 3rd about 4 minutes back from G-Man. I actually felt pretty good running for a change and it’s the first time I’ve ran hard and not felt my right knee hurting in over 2 years. I did ache later on the ride, but I’m was still very encouraged that I might be able to run well again at some point this year.
It was good to see Peters run hard on the second ½ today also as he could barely walk a few days ago.

The ride – Starting from Brunneco the ride was shortened to 100km with one significant pass to manage – Psa d Erbbe.
That pass turned out to be a magnificent climb. Way harder than I thought it might be as I hadn’t Googled it to see the specs beforehand. Lots of time in my 30x25 again.
The descent down the other side was absolutely brilliant. You can see from the photos that the road could be mistaken for a bike path. It did have a few wet areas where water was running across the road but it was dry so made for a fun trip down. Once we got onto the S12 towards Bolzano it was more downhill and tailwind so the last 30k went by very quick.
The S12 runs along side a raging river which was nearly in flood due to all of the recent rains. Above the river the Autostrada runs for miles elevated on amazingly high pillars and through huge tunnels. Freakin’ amazing roads here.