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Giro d'Italia and Trentino rides - 2003

Arrival

2003-05-19

Well after the 950 mile drive through France and Italy, I arrived here yesterday lunchtime. Driving down through France on the autoroutes is very straightforward and I was quite happy to pay the tolls to ensure I had a kilometer of tarmac between me and any other cars sharing the road.

The only delay I had to the journey was when an Italian policeman stopped me after the Mont Blanc tunnel. But having checked my passport and certified that my sunglasses were suitably fashionable to be worn in public in Italy I was sent on my way.

Did a short ride down to Lake Garda, which was packed with German mountain bikers and will remain that way until September. This whole area is a Mecca for mountain bikers, but especially Lake Garda.

Today the first ride of the week took us up to Passo Bordala (1200m) from Villa Lagarina via Castellano.

As with most of the mountain rides in the area this kicks off with a sharp pull up out of the valley for a few kilometers and then eases off a little before another step section leading up into the trees. A few words of support for Mario Cipollini painted on the road indicate that the Giro (Tour of Italy) has passed along this route in the past.

I have ridden this before but then the lasting memory of the ride was of an altercation with a local wasp in which I came off decidedly worse. This time I had no intention of picking a fight with the viper that slithered away from my front wheel as I disturbed its morning sun bath. To tell you the truth I'm not sure who was more shocked, me at the sight of the snake or the snake at the sight of my milk white legs. Apparently the Italians call people with such an astonishing lack of tan 'mozzarelle' on account of the likeness in colour to the cheese.

Mario Cipollini took today's stage of the Giro after a good sprint and broke Binda's record of 41 stage wins in the Giro. More interesting however was the fight between two riders on the run in to the finish. Petacchi and another rider managed to exchange punches at 60 kmh and stay upright. That's talent.

Thought for the day - I wish Photoshop had an 'Add Sun-Tan' filter.

Wash out

2003-05-20

Wash out today. Rain and wind all day, so took the opportunity to go down to Trento and visit Francesco Moser's bike shop. Moser co owns the shop in Trento with Gilberto Simoni, who is currently leading the Giro after an excellent attack on the penultimate climb of the day.

Apparently the weather should be better tomorrow so we're planning on doing the first big ride of the week. Watch this space!

Monte Bondone (1650m)

2003-05-21

Well, no excuses this morning. The sun was out and a few white clouds were all that was left of yesterday's rain.

Today's ride would take us up the valley from Rovereto to Trento and then up to Monte Bondone via Sardagna. We rode the 13 miles up to Trento on the pista ciclabile (dedicated cycle tracks). You occasionally have to give way to an agricultural vehicle, but on the whole they provide an excellent way to get around the valley by bike.

After a short stretch on the roads around Trento the climbing starts. Gilberto Simoni uses this climb as his training ride and can apparently ride it in one hour. I would be happy just to say I rode it. The hairpins provide a welcome distraction from the gradient which varies between 7 and 13% and the patches of shade provided equally welcome protection from the sun.

Sardagna is the first town you reach on the climb. Students at Trento University who live here get to lectures by cable car. Empty bidons can be refilled at the water fountain in the middle of the town.

Just after the town Phill decided it was photo time and disappeared up the road (with disturbing ease) to wait behind each hairpin for the opportunity to shoot me with the far more photogenic Trentino valley in the background. Nearing the top of the climb, 17 kilometers and 1400m later, you are rewarded with a fantastic view of the snow capped Gruppo Brenta mountains. After stopping to take in the vista it's on to the cafe for a capuccino and sandwich.

The 20 kilometer descent down through Lagolo to Drena is awesome, the road is well surfaced and traffic is non existent. Arm warmers and a windproof are essential descending kit, it is really cold coming down from the top and it takes a few minutes of pedalling to get your legs warmed up back on the flat. From here it's onto Dro and then Arco and the final climb of the day up to Nago.

We rejoined the pista ciclabile at Nago and rode down into to Mori and then a short stretch on the road back to Rovereto, by which time we'd covered 106 km and climbed 1842m.

Lago di Cei

2003-05-22

Short ride today up to Lago di Cei from Aldeno

It is a tough climb rising 600m in 6km but once up to lake level there is a good flat stretch of a few kilometers to allow you to enjoy the scenery. I was paying the price for yesterday's efforts though and was glad when the climbing was over.

From the lake the road goes down to the town of Castellano above Rovereto. You can turn right just above Castellano and head up to Passo Bordala but we had an urgent appointment with the television (to watch the Giro), so it was straight back down to Villa Lagarina.

An excellent Giro stage today with Simoni winning the stage to Zoncolan. The gradient was insane. Garzelli didn't lose too much time so hopefully we're still in for some good racing this weekend.

No pictures today I'm afraid. I'll make up for it by publishing some from the last few Giros tomorrow.

Vallarsa - St Anna

2003-05-23

A bit pre-occupied with preparations for the Giro stage to Alpe di Pampeago tomorrow. We still managed a ride across the valley to St Anna in Vallarsa.

It's a great 2hr intermediate ride with some challenging undulations as the road rises up to St Anna. There are also plenty of distractions to keep your mind off the exertion. Just after leaving Rovereto you get a great view of a church built into the cliff face below the dam. Churches built in obscure places seems something of a fashion in this area. The dam is an equally impressive sight. The road from Spino to St Anna on the eastern side of the valley is in excellent condition and the traffic relatively light, however there is very little protection from the sun and the light road surface and bare rocks combine to make the temperature pretty uncomfortable.

From Anghebenia, a few kilometers further along the valley, a right turn took us down into St Anna and across the valley floor into the shade. The climb out of the valley was sheltered and fairly gradual and once up onto the western side most of the day's climbing was behind us. Heading back down the valley towards Rovereto there were a few gentle slopes to spin up and a viaduct just after Zanolli, which provided a great excuse for a photo stop. From then on it was 5-6km downhill and, as the signs told us, around 10% all the way into Rovereto.

Well its a big day in the mountains for the Giro tomorrow and the last chance for the climbers to gain time on the time trial specialists before the first TT to Bolzano. Simoni is still in the lead and I'm sure will put in a good ride tomorrow. We are planning to head up to the Pampeago in the morning and ride up before the race arrives, hopefully we can find a good spot for some pictures of the race.

Alpe di Pampeago

2003-05-24

What a day, one of the toughest days in this year's Giro and we were on the final climb to watch it. It was a great race and as expected Simoni tried and suceeded in putting more time between himself and Garzelli.

We got back really late so I have not had time to write a full log entry so I'll write about it tomorrow.

In the meantime enjoy the pics in the Giro 2003 section of the photo archive

Alpe di Pampeago and Merano - Bolzano TT

2003-05-25

We have spent the last two days following the Giro. Yesterday took us up to Alpe di Pampeago and today we were down in the valley at Bolzano for the time trial.

Pampeago was a great stage. We started early and drove to the Cavalese near the base of the final climb and from there set off to ride the final climb before finding a suitable spot to watch the racing. The climb was an unrelenting 7km haul made more difficult by the rucsacs we were carrying. We got at the finish line six hours before the race was due to arrive and already the place was so crowded we had barely enough room to turn the bikes around and head back down. We found a good spot around 2 km from the finish and sat down to watch the world go by and wait for the race.

There's always enough to look at before the race arrives and a favourite past-time this year was spot the Pantani look-alike, of which there were an many (bandanas, earrings and some even had the ears). The real Moser and Fondriest put in an appearance and mixed it with the fans on the way up the climb as part of a charity ride.

As the race approached everyone crowded round the nearest radio or portable TV to find out the positions before the final climb. Vladimir Belli had been out in front until the foot of the climb and now Simoni had gone on the attack. Before long the police motorbikes came round the corner and the screams and cheers from further down the mountain told us that Simoni was on his way. He was flying. I barely had enough time to get a picture before he had disappeared up the mountain and left us waiting for the chasers. Garzelli, Cuapio and Rumsas were the next up and were really straining to limit their time loses to Simoni. The speed the riders were going up the climb was phenomenal. Having watched all the climbers come past we saw Petacchi leading the Gruppetto up to the top of the mountain. These are all the riders who make up the back end of the race and do not really try to compete on the climbs, I think most of them are just happy to get to the top.

Because this was a summit finish the pro riders had to return to the bottom of the mountain the same way as everyone else. This provided the opportunity for a few more photos and the gave all the fans the chance to descend alongside and shake hands with their favourite riders.

Photos from Pampeago


Today was the Merano-Bolzano time trial. We went down to Bolzano to watch the riders at the finish line in the city centre. We took the train into Bolzano as much of the town center is closed off well in advance and parking would be a problem. From 12pm onwards riders arrived at the finish line every two or three minutes. Once again the thing that hits you is the speed that these riders can go. Even those at the back of the field could post times at over 45km/h average. The real battle today was between Simoni and Garzelli. Simoni was leading the race this morning but Garzelli was expected to make up time. Aitor Gonzalez won but Simoni rode a great race and actually managed to make more time on Garzelli, who was having a really bad day.

Tomorrows stage leaves from Arco on Lake Garda. We will ride over to Arco to watch the start and then back over a climb called Santa Barbara which featured in last years race.

Passo Coe

2003-05-27

Well it wasn't fast and it wasn't pretty, but I did it. Today we rode up to Folgaria and on up to Passo Coe, my nemesis from the last time I was riding in this area.

There are two ways up to Folgaria from just south of Trento. The first goes up from Calliano, north of Rovereto, and takes the same route as the 2002 Giro. However, this is the main traffic route up to the town and is used by many cars and lorries making it a pretty unpleasant ride. The second route leaves from Rovereto and goes via Valduce and Piazza. This is much quieter and once up to St Nicolo there are some really great views of the valley on the way up. Its around 20 km up to Folgaria from Rovereto and there are some longer stretches of relatively low gradient to recover from the steeper sections. It's the distance of the climb that really takes its toll. At village of Serrada there is an ever welcome water fountain in the square. All water fountains in the area provide drinkable water unless a notice says otherwise. There's a short downhill into Folgaria (1166m) and then you join the route of the 2002 Giro by takng the road signed to Passo Coe.

The rest of the climbing to Passo Coe (1610m) is fairly steep and consistent but short in comparison with the ride up to Folgaria and before too long you arrive at the cafe at the top of the pass. A quick shot of caffiene and its on up a gentle climb to Cima Valbona (1782m). As we reached the top of the climb another one of the local snake population put in a appearance. This time it was one of the vipers I have heard so much about. Thankfully, it was only a youngster and seemed more interested in avoiding a photograph than putting on any display of aggression.

From Cima Valbona there's an excellent descent down to Bocchetta degli Alpina and then the road continues on round the side of the mountain to Passo del Sommo just above Folgaria. From Folgaria you can take either of the previously mentioned routes back down to the valley. The whole ride is around 80km with about 40 km of climbing.

Arco - Santa Barbara

2003-05-26

Last day of following the race for us. Today's stage left from Arco di Trento on the shore of Lake Garda and finished in Pavia. We rode over from Rovereto via Nago to watch the sign-in and get some photos of the riders leaving.

It was really good to see the British Champion Julian Winn signing in as well as the two other GB riders Wegelius and Wiggins. It's a shame that we do not have a strong enough race scene to host a national race that would attract teams from Europe and help promote cycling a bit more in the UK. Until then however I would recommend a visit to any of races in Europe, we have had an excellent time.

My encounters with the local snake population continued today as we rode towards Arco on the pista ciclabile. Thankfully today's specimen was a long but harmless water snake. I have heard that the baby vipers drop from the trees sometimes, this is something I have no desire to witness.

Once the race had left Arco we headed back to Rovereto. This time we took the direct route over the top of Santa Barbara. This climb featured in last year's Giro on the way to Folgaria. For those of you that witnessed the race it was the stage where Cadel Evans lost the pink jersey and where many of the top names lost huge amounts of time on the climb to Folgaria. Santa Barbara is a 13km climb with a mix of gradients. The temperature today was above 30 degrees and I was having a really tough time of it right from the beginning. The variation in gradient thankfully gives you some recovery time every so often and one major bonus of this climb is that most of it is in the shade. There's a water fountain in the Santa Barbara at the top to refill bottles. Once at the top there's a short very steep descent of a few hundred metres and then it's left at the junction in Ronzo-Chienis and a 1-2km climb to Passo Bordala. From Passo Bordala its downhill all the way into the valley and I can't say I was disappointed to leave the climb to Folgaria for another day.

MART

2003-05-28

Took a day off the bike today and went down into Rovereto to look at a new modern art gallery that has just opened up in the town (http://www.mart.trento.it/). It's a new building with a large circular court in the middle and a really impressive self supporting glass roof. Check out the website to get an idea of what it looks like, it is definitely worth going if you're in the area.

It's not fully open yet and a number of the floors were still having installations set up when we looked round. To tell you the truth I found the building itself more interesting than much of the content. Sometimes you're not quite sure if your looking at a piece of art of if they just haven't finished the building work in the gallery. There were also some really good bits of work and I expect there will be more to look at when the galleries are complete.

Trento - Dover (970 miles)

2003-05-31

The final stage for me was the drive from Italy to the UK and I arrived home early this morning. The drive back to the UK was fairly uneventful however I was stopped by the police again on the way into the Monte Blanc Tunnel. They took a good look at my car tool kit and showed some interest in my newly acquired stock of polenta and sun dried tomatoes before letting me go.

As I have no photos from the last few stages of the Giro I have published some of last year's stage to Folgaria. It would have been great to see the last couple of stages, they looked excellent. All credit to the fans who stuck it out in the snow and ice to watch the riders on Thursday. Simoni has proved he is the strongest in the race and I reckon he has deserved the win. It's a shame Garzelli has lost so much time due to his crash, I hope he manages to put in a good TT performance and hold onto second place. Popovych, I'm sure, will do even better in the future.

I will continue to trawl through the photos we have taken and publish all those that are of any interest. I also plan to start writing some route descriptions for UK rides in the near future.

At least the weather here is better than when I left. No excuses not to ride now.