MAD OLD MAN: 3 ITALIAN MOUNTAINS

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This week was a great one with three days of climbing in Italy, around the nice city of Bormio. We faced three fantastic and tough mountains: Stelvio, Mortirolo and Passo di Gavia in one of the most beautiful areas I‘ve cycling been so far. Great scenery, steep long climbs and fantastic food.

Take a look at the pictures and how each climb went after the link.

Uma programação especial essa semana com uma viagem para Itália e três dias de subidas ao redor de Bormio. Subimos três montanhas famosas: Stelvio, Mortirolo e Passo di Gavia numa das áreas mais bonitas que eu já pedalei até hoje. Grandes vistas, subidas super íngremes e excelente comida.

Dá uma olhada como foi depois do link.

PASSO DELLO STELVIO

Day one in Bormio and we decided to climb first the iconic Passo dello Stelvio. This is a 21 kilometers with ever changing gradients and 42 hairpins. It is exactly the way I like. It starts with low gradients of 4 and 5% and and than it picks up to 8% average gradients all the way to the top. But as averages don’t mean much, in every one of them we faced gradients from 4 to 11%, including a section of 14% inclination. I decided to push during the climb and keep my heart rate around 174 bpm. I really enjoy it with fantastic views, hairpins that drive you into speeding up in the turns and varying rhythm. I completed it in 1 hour 55 minutes and join the group at the top to enjoy a great Italian coffee and a coke to warm-up from the 5 degrees celsius from the top. From the climbs of the three days, this was the one I managed to do exactly the way I planned, with an average hr of 173 bpm, average speed of 10.9 kms and 60 rpm average heart rate. One thing that I really enjoyed was going up thru the tunnels on the way up and the very safe descend, which I reached a 75 km/h speed

MORTIROLO

The plan for day 2 was to go down to Grosio (in a 30 kms descend) and climb the Mortirolo from the easy side (also know as La Panoramica) and continue with the climb of the Passo di Gavia from the difficult side and complete the loop back to Bormio. The descend to Grosio was fantastic, with speeds around 44 and 48 kms/h. After that we started climbing and went straight to a ramp of 11%. The climb isn’t a beautiful one with great views. It is more a very hard one with gradients that rarely goes below 10% with big sections of 14 and even 17% and with high trees on both sides. There is really nothing to see but trees. I kept a good rhythm until half the climb.

At some point the threes open a bit and we went to the very steep area as gradients stays mostly around 11%, reaching 14% in every kilometer. From that point on I started really struggling. I don’t know if because of the cold I had or because I was overheating (over dressed after the 5 degrees of the previous day), I couldn’t bring my heart rate to the same level of the day before and couldn’t keep up with the cadence. I completed the climb in 1 hour and 22 minutes but was toasted. As the plan was to go and climb the Gavia from the hard side, I thought that it would be too difficult for me and I decided to come back to Bormio. I descended the Mortirolo, which is a very technical and fun one. Managed to reach a 82 kms/h speed on the way down as I was mostly alone and there was no traffic.

Back to Bormio wasn’t easy either. The 30 kms road back is a constant climb of 5 to 6% and even some sections of 11%. I managed to go back home right in time to avoid the rain. Just the last 2 kms from the city center to our cottage was another 11% climb that drained the rest of the energy. Hard day. The rest of the group managed the hard side of Gavia but they all looked properly exhausted

PASSO DI GAVIA

The third day the target was to climb the Passo di Gavia. It is a 25kms climb with mostly 8% gradients. Straight out of Bormio, the climb start with a couple of long stretches or open roads with heavy traffic. But after the first two or three villages, the road really start going uphill with a couple of tight hairpins. I decided to save energy for the second part of the climb that is harder. Up to 18 kms into the ride it is a constant climb around 8% gradient and than the slopes really goes up to 14%. That in combination with a worse cold and the poor tarmac condition , made it for a very hard climb. The climb also gets out of the trees and into rocky landscape. I got confused with the distance and pushed hard in the first part of steep hills but went out of energy. That combined with lack of eating, I imploded and went down to a very slow climbing. At that point, my cadence went down to 39 rpm and speed to 6 km/h. Very slow. But the last 3 kilometers levels down to just 3% and I completed the climb with 2 hours and 4 minutes, with the most amazing views of the three mountains. We went down immediately and what a descent it was. Technical at the beginning but very fast and safe at the end. Top speed of 72 kms/h a good racing down the mountain with John.

And that close 3 days of fantastic climbing and a great year in cycling. Below some more pictures from the climbs and Bormio.

TOP OF GAVIA. NICE LAKE AND SNOWY TOP MOUNTAINS