Jul 10
2
Day 3 – Brixen to San Vigilio
Today started almost exactly like yesterday with bright sunshine and a climb that started right out of town. There is no way to explain how starting a ride with 2 hours of straight climbing can drain you. The Wurzjoch is not a particularly difficult climb but it is 25 kms (32 if you count the first pitch) long and at this point, regardless of the altitude, it is very hot. The one saving grace is we did have a few sections where we had a little respite from the unrelenting sun when we wound our way through beautiful pine forests with lots of shade for an hour or so. We also ran across a bus full of tourists who were stranded up on the Wurzjoch due to the races closed roads. Rather than be mad about it, they were all out along the road cheering us like we were doing a pro tour. Good energy boost that unfortunately did not last long as there was still plenty of mountain to climb. The trek from the Wurzjoch to the Furkelpass was a lot of fun, there were long winding sections through small little towns and we had one section where the road through some valleys and forest was more like a goat path and it had some really short steep pitches which none of us had too much trouble with because they were so short. Then there is the Furkelpass.
The Furkelpass is, how can I explain the Furkelpass; let’s just say that it didn’t matter what language they were saying it in, you knew what all the riders were calling the Furkelpass. This thing is just nasty. I don’t think we hit the 18% we hit of the Khutai on day one, but it was switchback after switchback of 14 to 16% that just never seemed to stop and it was really getting hot. I had one section where I have to admit I got off my bike simply because I had to. Not to eat or take a picture, I just couldn’t turn the pedals over anymore and the back was really starting to lock up. The descent was wicked though and I really let go on this one and left everyone behind, it wasn’t that I wanted to drop anybody, I just figured I worked so damn hard to get up there that I was going to have some fun on the way down and I was really getting comfortable with just how fast I could take the switchbacks and not drop too much speed on the descents. The cobblestones heading into San Vigilio caught me by surprise though and I almost did a header when my wheel slipped off one of the cobbles.
A humbling day to say the least considering that I can do a half ironman quite a bit quicker than it took me to do this “recovery ride” of 85k ride.
