Munich→Venice Day 4 to Campo di Trens, Italy

Nathan’s stats: 72.41 km, 1298m climbing, 3:37 riding time

It seemed like a normal day starting out: wake up, pack up, breakfast, drop off our bags, get on the bikes, wait a while until everyone is ready, then take off. Actually, since Suzy had just arrived and our group was finally complete, we did a group photo with our jerseys before starting.

After just a few km, we started climbing steeply – a long section of 10-13%. It touched 15% a couple of times. By the time we had done less than 10 km, we were already seeing amazing mountain views.

The angle eased off as we continued toward the famous Brenner Pass, but the temperature was rising. At one point Nathan caught up to the Santa Cruz squad and it seemed just perfect – and a little comical with us all in our checkerboard “lederhosen” jerseys. But just when you start thinking it’s perfect, something happens. In Nathan’s case it was the clang of a broken spoke – and on these bikes you can’t continue really. We adjusted as much as possible to try and get the wheel to spin and our amazing guide Fabio rode the bike down quite a steep hill, wobbling like crazy and making scary sounds as it rubbed. There was a cycling race on so our support vehicle wasn’t allowed to proceed. Nathan ended up waiting an hour for the van with a replacement wheel, then headed up to the pass at a good pace with Fabio.

We were reunited at a gorgeous little café, high on the mountain where Katie and others were taking a break. After that, there was another 10 km of climbing, some of it on gravel and the final section was on the road but super hot; this was tough for lots of riders. On top of the pass, we entered Italy and came upon the Santa Cruz squad again, swilling beer at a nice outdoor bar. We ate a second lunch, drank some radler (cold beer mixed with lemonade), and reunited again.

We had heard that the 32 km to go after the pass was up and down but it ended up being the most gorgeous, continuous, smooth and perfect downhill ever. The bike path is really just perfect. If we had paths like this in the US, cycling would be so much more popular! It was a dream descending. Fabio and Nathan raced a guy on an e-Bike and won soundly on a section Nathan had unicycled in 2012. Everyone was having fun. Some people had taken the train up, either all the way from Innsbruck or from a higher station, but you would not want to miss this descent for anything.

We had another refueling stop with the van, then headed the last 10 km to the hotel. Chilled watermelon was brought out to the bike garage which seemed surprising but we didn’t fully realize the extent of our luck until later. We had a suite, spacious and nice. After delicious cold showers, we sat outside drinking more radler, chatting away the afternoon. We walked around the extensive grounds…what a place.

Finally it was 7:30 and time for the main event: dinner. We have been having three course meals, with soup or salad, a main course and a desert, one drink included. Tonight was six courses with two drinks and off the charts. We heard many people say, “Best meal in my life!” And it was! We found out toward the end that the chef has a nearby restaurant with 2 Michelin stars. The service, the presentation, the tastes…off the chart. When you are here, stay at Romantik Hotel Stafler.