super long climbs

Stage 4. Brixen, Italy to San Viglio, Italy. Two big climbs, two big descents. Very little flat in between. The weather was once again hot and sunny. The euros were once again heroes on the climbs and zeroes on the descents. A new joke has emerged on this race.
“What’s the German translation for mountain biking?”
“Pushing your bike.”
The final climb today was 3600 feet of gravelly switchbacks up a ski area. We all kept looking down in the valley and thinking “damn- that’s gotta be 3600 feet.” The descent was ripping fast pavement with views of the Dolomites. At one point, there was a 10 degree grade - 1 mile straightaway. Blistering speeds. Great time for all. Here’s the breakdown:

Green Mountain Boys: Another good day for me and Tyler was once again strong. He was passed by a woman on the final climb though- I saw it myself. We rode much of the day with Team Whistler. Super nice guys who took me on the last climb. We managed to move up in the standings once again. I think we are hitting our stride.

Mile High Riders: Liz and Brian fell into a good paceline today on the first rolling climb, feeling the benefits. They crossed the finish line feeling looking very psyched, and Liz once again jumped into the town fountain to cool off. Sounds deliciously quaint, I’ll acknowledge, but A LOT of sweaty shammies had been in that water before she had.

Team Soft Core: Cath gave me the finger after her ride today. IP was disappointed in the lack of singletrack. Yet they did well, and moved up in the overall standings.

On another note, Chris Merritt hiked to the top of the pass to watch us riders and is now on her third bottle of San Pelligrino. Clean living indeed.

There was some discussion that our hotel was still under construction. This is in fact completely true. They were pulling mattresses out of wrappers and putting sheets on them for the first time. There was an army of electricians and carpenters and spools of wire on the floor as we wheeled our bikes into our brand new rooms.

We are now in cool garden restaurant, loading up on red wine, pasta and more Italian cuisine. If nothing else, this race is an excuse to eat three course meals. `