Tutti Dolomiti Stage 9

Vipiteno to Stelvio

Strava (to lunch): 65.53 km, 1,473m, 3:33, 80 shifts, max speed 71.3 kph

After a good night, with little or no coughing, my throat and lungs felt better so I had high hopes of riding all the way to the little town of Stelvio. We got started as usual at 8:20 and the big climb to Passo di Monte Giovo started almost right away. It was interesting for me since I had unicycled this pass in the reverse direction in 2012. This time I felt weak but just kept turning the pedals. I stopped at a gorgeous viewpoint after I’d climbed 1,000m, and the summit was in sight from there. There was lots of traffic, motorcycles, cars and trucks, in both directions which was a little annoying but I don’t think anyone had any close calls. It took me close to two hours for the 14 km climb; I just had no power. But once on top, our whole crew was there and we took some photos and just to be done climbing felt so good.

I didn’t stay very long on top – Mike and I headed down and the descent turned out to be really fun. The surface was pretty smooth and since we kept up a good speed, traffic wasn’t much of an issue. It was 20 km of fast riding, slowing for the occasional switchbacks. The air warmed as we dropped and it was all pretty pleasant. We had another 20 km to Merano, on a somewhat crowded road, but mostly all gently descending so it didn’t take long. We had a four-man pace line for this section and my turn in front was hard as I couldn’t breathe properly. We navigated onto the bike path, then headed up and out of Merano to the famous big chairs (Trauttmansdorff Throne Chairs) I visited in 2012. Lunch was just above and again, I had to assess: another 52 km and 1,000m climb or relax in the van? I opted to save myself for the famous Passo dello Stelvio tomorrow.

I road in Dion’s van, with three others, and we arrived at the hotel in the little village of Stelvio before 3 pm. Wijnand already had delivered everyone’s bags to their rooms and passed out room keys! This was a lot of sorting and carrying work – our room was on the third (top) floor. I had some of his excellent asparagus soup, snacked, then headed up stairs for a shower and a rest. Dinner was the usual, quite excellent, again alcohol-free for me.