super psyched

Friday July 13, 2007
OK so we’re all here in mittenwald.
Green mountain boys- ty and me (carter)
Team soft core- cath and aaron
Mile high riders- liz and brian

Thursday dawned as the prettiest day in bormio, complete with the 69 year old chalet owner mowing the lawn shirtless in his bike shorts. Fabulous. Thursday’s ride was a singletrack descent from bormio 2000 after a shuttle from bill merritt. We were quite pleased to see liz return from her 48 hour multi city train ride. Miraculously uneventful I tell you. Why you’d buy panties and lipstick in Venice is unclear, but perhaps an answer will appear during the ride.

Thursday afternoon we headed to the bagne vecchio, some roman baths carved into a hill. After some massages we retired to the baths, except for me as my stitches weren’t quite ready for soaking. Saunas, baths, bathrobes, young Italian women and paper panties for men. It ruled. We finished with a brew in a grassy lawn overlooking bormio and the ski areas. Really remarkable.

Friday am was also beautiful. After dealing in bormio, we headed to mittenwald for transalp registration. The hotal post was once again welcomingyhjkiuy76tuij8yij8yij7yjhkuiytghjkuiythgjkuiytghjkiuygbnmjhgbv bvbnm ,njbhgvfcxb vbnmkjiulo7i6u5ydcvbnjhuy6trcvb njhuyit6u5yrgdbxcv nbnmkjiulyi7kt6ur5egsegr56ut7yu8i8y7t6r5e4w345rt6yuy7654ewertyuiuytre45678io0
That last indecipherable series of letters was the result of me wiping off the keyboard of bill merritt’s laptop after spilling some beer on it. Mayhem on the terrace at the Hotel Post.

So, the white jersey’d teams will throw a leg over their bikes (mine is the coolest and tyler’s second hand hardtail is junk) and take the first stage from mittenwald to Reith im alpental; Germany to Austria. Wish us luck.

As they say, the hay is in the barn, and we are ready to roll.

super descent

time to get my blog on. today started late with a van suttle up to stelvio pass. this pass is both the highest pass and highest paved road in europe. 47 switchbacks, 5700 feet higher than town. tyler nearly hit a van in a narrow tunnel, but we arrived w/out event. the plan was to descend an old WW1 road back to bormio. high alpine sigletrack paralleling the road. made us all think of ski touring, especially with the snow. after a 30 minute uphill hike a bike through the snow to a col that had WW1 gun turrets, ty, IP and I started a 5k descent to town. we stopped off at a WW1 barrack that was now in ruins, including pretend gun fighting between IP and I from high alpine to pine forest, we descended a WW1 road down the valley. unbelievable.

you'll note cath was absent from the ride. with the near freezing temps she perhaps wisely opted out of the ride and opted to rest a weary body in preparation for the big showdown in mittenwald.

the evening has ended in a power cocktail hour on the merritt's balcony with views of the alps. cath's extra energy from not riding has given her the strength to have a third gin and tonic. no biting just yet, but check back tomorrow for more details.

fortunately, the ten stitches i got in my calf the night before we left have not bothered me.