Peter Verburg cycles the Giro D'Italia with Lance Armstrong and the rest of the professional racers, with detours for luxe linens, gourmet meals and fine wines. He updates us en route.
Day 6
The Fedaia Pass has been visited frequently by the Giro d'Italia. It is a brutally tough climb of approximately 10 kilometres. We rolled out of the hotel parking lot at 9 a.m. and descended 400 metres into the valley below. Then the climbing began. The guides mentioned it would be a hard one, and they weren't kidding (half of the guests did not even bother to join us, opting instead to do short rides around Arabba). The death blow came at the end, with grades in the 15 per cent range. It was so steep and I was so tired in the final kilometre that I was making my own switchbacks, weaving back and forth across the road.
At the summit, we had a marvellous view of the mammoth Marmolada Glacier. Then we enjoyed a fast twisty descent to the town of Canazei, and stopped for refreshments. I downed a doppio espresso and a Coke. Then we remounted our bikes and immediately started climbing Pordoi Pass (coming at it from the opposite direction of the day before). Jake, one of the Trek guides, put the boots to all of us, reaching the summit first.
Total climbing for the day was close to 6,000 feet, over a distance of 64 kilometres. The weather was ideal, as it has been every day of the trip. We feel quite fortunate; the week before the trip began, the guides encountered driving snow and closed passes while scouting the routes.
After the ride, we ate a hearty pasta lunch, drank beer and headed to the Hotel Evaldo's spa — a nice facility featuring everything from the usual (pool, hot tub, steam room) to the unusual (heated stone lounge chairs, a foot massaging rock bed with hot and cold jets, an infrared sauna). This hotel feels more like a luxury resort than the first place we stayed. Even the beds and sheets are soft. Later in the afternoon we gathered in the lounge for drinks to watch the finish of today's Giro stage, across the border in nearby Austria.
Day 5
Today we rode the Sella Loop, a circuit of four mountain passes in the heart of the Dolomites. Our Trek Travel guides picked a scenic and challenging route that has featured in the Giro many times (though not this year).
The first climb began without a warmup. There was no chance for one, since the town sits at the base of several passes. It is clear why this region is a cyclist's paradise and why Italy produces so many great climbers. One imagines that each day begins with a simple question: What ride should we do today? The answer is not obvious, as it seems the country felt no compunction about building roads over just about every mountain pass, even if it required insanely steep grades and dozens of switchbacks.
Our ride started in the parking lot of Hotel Evaldo in Arabba, our base for the final few days. From there we climbed 10 kilometres to Pordoi Pass at 2,239 metres.
A fast descent brought us to the base of the next climb, Sella Pass. And so it went, up and down, until we had crested both Gardena Pass and Campologno Pass. In the winter, this series of passes is traversed by skiers and is thus known as the Sella Ronda. The scenery is incredibly beautiful. The Dolomites are multi-hued (grey, tan and streaked in black) and rise up abruptly from the earth; the towering peaks have sharp vertical faces. The green valleys below are dotted with villages.
The entire ride covered only 50 kilometres but the grades were typical of the Dolomites, in the 8 to 9 per cent range. Along the way we encountered three-metre snowbanks and pygmy goats with a peculiar passion for banana peel.
