super crash

Stage 7. Predozza, Italy to Folgaria, Italy. What a stage. It started with about 17k of downhill bike path. Twelve hundred mountain bikers on a twelve foot wide twisty paved track. Bad idea. At one point I quipped, “who designed this course, a trauma surgeon?” Unfortunate harbinger of what was to come.

Upon finishing, Tyler saw Cath waiting in the finishing area. As it turns out, Aaron had glanced back to see that Cath was doing ok in the paceline from hell and his bar end and hand clipped a fence, launching him at 25 mph over the bards, into the ground. Cath followed shortly thereafter, landing on her shoulder and camelback and taking down three other riders. The medics arrived quickly, but then moved on to another rider who apparently had a pneumothorax (hole in his lung, a potentially life threatening problem). A second round of medics arrived shortly thereafter and attended to Aaron, putting in an IV and loading him up with pain meds. They wanted to heli him to the medical center, but he wisely refused. To make a long story short, Aaron is A-OK. He got a few stitches in his hand, and cannot ride tomorrow, but in the big picture, this could have been a really bad injury. We were all relieved to see him arrive at the hotel. A huge bummer for Aaron and Catherine as they have worked so hard this week. Cath is a bit scraped up, but otherwise ok. She plans to ride tomorrow to enjoy some fine Italian singletrack.

Once again, the Merritts proved to be invaluable travel companions. Bill Merritt drove to Cavalese (70K each way) to get Aaron. Chris Merritt and the Stevenson’s held down the fort in Folgaria while we all rolled in. Additionally, Chris secured lodging for all of us in Folgaria. It’s hard to express our gratitude to the Merritt’s for their help.

Alright, back to the stage. Great days for the two remaining teams on a very demanding stage. Two huge pavement climbs. Today was a 40 mile hilly road ride followed by a twenty mile mountain bike ride. Think riding from Richmond to Waitsfield to ride, but over both Middlebury and App gap first. Or, for the Colorado blog readers, riding from Frisco to Vail and then riding singletrack. Except these climbs were bigger than all of those. After the second climb, it was a real mountain bike race, with dirt climbs, singletrack between rock walls, hardwood forests, passing euros in the woods, loose descents, three quick turns through a farm, singletrack behind the barn, between the garages. Really fantastic riding. The killer was the 1000 foot climb after the singletrack, a loose road descent, and then another 500 foot climb up above town behind a farm. Finally, you pop out on the road for a descent into Folgaria. This is a great stage, but it’s tough, and seems to never end. Mind you, this is the stage that brought me to tears in 2004.

Here’s the breakdown:

Green Mountain Boys: Not quite as high up as yesterday, but our second strongest finish. I was worried about all the road, particularly the flat section between the hills. Ty and I found a strong German team to share to work with across the cornfields, Even better, they were huge. It was like drafting behind a Suburban. Coming down off on Mangenpass, I was passed by a wild and crazy German who was all over the road, using the whole road at 45 mph. I backed off, terrified that this nut would push me into the pavement. Oh but he got his comeuppance. I caught him in some singletrack, putting on a very aggressive pass. “oh excuse me.”

Mile High Riders: Their best day yet. Liz held on to the unforgiving pace line to get a great start for the team. Mangenpass was a bit of a push, but we made it, dodged the cows and passed a couple cars on the way down to the bottom. The rolling cycle path was made easier by a couple motivated riders and we hit the climb to Kaiserjagereg feeling good, but not for long. How did they build that road into the mountainside? We were almost derailed by a wrong turn at the top and then some nice riding on dirt with the pack chasing hard. We kept them at bay and finished strong to end the day.

Looking forward to the last stage.