The Transcontinental Race 2017 Pt II

31 July

 

I woke up just as it was getting light, still buoyed by what had turned out to be a very satisfactory day previously, which I think helped with me getting up and away quicker than I had managed the previous morning. I now had a new goal in mind, to get to the next checkpoint at the base of Monte Grappa in Italy by tomorrow evening. To achieve this I just had the small matter of The Alps to negotiate!

 

The going was relatively flat to begin with as my route flirted with the fledgling Danube. The previous nights weather had given way to a misty calmness, which made for a very pleasant first hour or so of warming up the legs and reacquainting the arse with the saddle. I reached a small shop/café after about 20km where I was able to breakfast and restock provisions. It was now Monday and I was aware it had now been quite a while and quite a distance since my last shower on Friday morning as clean-cut commuters came and went from the premises. I was truly now embracing my new role as a hobo of the road.

 

I carried on at a steady pace as the sun rose further and burnt off the early morning mist. I stopped for another coffee and breakfast before too long and was also able to buy some more lithium batteries and some replacement glasses cleaning cloths (the previous one I carried got soaked inside my top tube bag during the thunderstorm at CP1, I attached it to my handlebar bag to dry out that morning only to find it wasn’t there about 10km later!) from this great multi purpose store across the road.

 

The road was starting to steadily go upwards now through some very pleasant countryside which was starting to take on more of an alpine feel. The early morning sunshine was now giving way to some cloudier skies and it was beginning to look quite threatening. I stopped at one point when it was starting to spit with rain to put my waterproof jacket on when all of a sudden a cyclist amongst a group of three coming the other way called out and wheeled round to approach me. “I’m not supposed to give you any help!” he proclaimed with a big smile on his face as his opening greeting. Not entirely true but it was lovely to meet someone on the road who obviously knew about the race I was in. He was a local and after a short chat said not to worry about the rain as it always just skirted round this bit of the world. He was right too as it never developed beyond those few drops as we talked!

 

The road topped out at 912m, and just in time as the resulting downhill stretch enabled me to clock up 100km ridden just before midday. This became a daily target of mine. The base of the downhill section took me into Kempten, a pretty non-descript town with a drag strip of retail outlets, car lots and garages. I stopped at one to adopt the long distance cyclists’ tradition of consuming the comestibles just bought whilst sat on the forecourt.

 

As I bumbled towards Austria, some proper big mountains were starting to appear. The roads around this part of Germany were quite busy but for the most part they had a lovely well-surfaced cycle path alongside. This was yet another reason why I so enjoyed my time cycling in Germany, it’s definitely somewhere I would like to explore more of by bike in future. As a final hurrah, I amused myself by taking a photo of the road sign directing travellers towards the town of Wank just before the border.

 

Austria began in a most unwelcoming manner as the pristine German cycleway suddenly turned into a rough gravel track at the border before then disappearing altogether. Great, I thought. To compensate, it was already apparent that I was going to be treated to some spectacular scenery on my passage though this part of Austria. Great big rocky Alpine peaks thrusted skywards all around and the colour of the water in the rivers was that wonderful hue of bright blue signifying a make-up containing some glacial run off.

 

Before long it was time to turn onto one of the major Alpine passes, the Fern Pass. Not before double-checking myself as the junction to it looked like one you’d see on a motorway! After assuring myself this was fine I cycled up the slip road to be confronted by nose to tail traffic. I groaned. It was of course holiday season and this is one of the major routes through the Alps. I remembered from my route planning that unless you wanted to go seriously off piste, there wasn’t that many viable road choices around here. I’d just have to suck it up.

 

The road ground ever upwards and it soon became apparent why the traffic was so slow moving. Larger vehicles were getting stuck behind fully laden adventure cyclists on this busy single carriageway road, whoops. At one point I had a truck stuck behind me for the best part of half a kilometre whilst I churned my way up the slope, I pulled in at the nearest opportunity at a rest stop and waited for about five minutes before I was able to pull back out into a gap in the traffic. This was not my idea of enjoyable cycling and I wanted to get off this road as soon as possible.

 

After a while, a much needed cycle path appeared alongside, I would guess that geography prevented one from appearing any earlier. My relief didn’t last long before a flat rear tyre halted my progress. I was hoping to run a tubeless set up for this race but annoyingly I had already had to but an inner tube in the rear tyre after puncturing on a gravel track back in Surrey whilst cycling to the start. It was this inner tube that was now flat. I swapped it out for the ‘spare’ spare I had bought back in France and I was on my way again before too long.

 

The route along the Fern Pass continued to be a mixture of cycle path and back on the main road sections. Thunderstorms were brewing again just like the day before. I remembered from a previous holiday in Austria how dramatic these could be in this part of the world. Sure enough whilst climbing up to the highest point of the pass (which was thankfully a bit quieter than the earlier bit) the heavens opened. It was pretty heavy for the next twenty minutes or so which included a soggy descent down the other side.

 

Once finally off the Fern Pass my route took me up my next alpine climb, a much much quieter route, so quiet I wondered if it was someone’s long driveway at points.  It was damn steep though with ramps of up to 18%. Why did I choose this climb? I cursed my former self. Thankfully it was over soon enough and just as I was looking forward to the reward of a long sweeping descent, the road turned into a bloody gravel track, gah! Luckily, after tip toeing down the descent for a couple of kms, I joined a major road once more and I got my long sweeping descent, nearly 14kms worth.

 

Once at the bottom I bumped into fellow racer Shu Pillinger just as I found my way onto the cycle path that would take me down towards Innsbruck along the river valley. We rode along for a while discussing Austria’s beauty and cursing the traffic on the Fern Pass. It was now early evening and Shu said she was going to book a hotel in Innsbruck for the night, I had yet to make my mind up what to do at this point. The flat cycle path into Innsbruck was a trouble free 30km that went quite quickly and it was a relief to be on some quiet car free infrastructure.

 

By the time I got to Innsbruck it was just about getting dark. I felt like I still had more miles left in me before calling it a night so I refuelled at a petrol station and decided I’d carry on. The route out of Innsbruck would be on another major Alpine pass, the Brenner Pass, which would eventually take me into Italy, so it was all going to be uphill. I also thought that doing it at this time of day might be preferable given the traffic encountered earlier.

 

The initial bit of road I took to get out of Innsbruck and onto the Brenner Pass was so steep at one point I had to get off and push for a bit, but once I joined it, it was a nice easy gradient most of the way to spin up. It also became apparent that this is probably a much quieter road anyway as the A13 motorway took most of the traffic away. At this time of night it was eerily quiet and I barely saw a vehicle. Whilst tired, I was in a good mood as I’d made good progress today and it felt good to be approaching the Italian border. A new country always lifts the spirits. After the steady climb, the road flattened out a bit and I entered what seemed like a few fair sized towns joined together along this particular road. It was getting late now so I had half an eye on potential bivvy spots. Eventually I spotted a builders yard, this’ll do I thought. I scooted round the back of a building and found a patch of grass, perfect. Not so perfect was the sound coming from some kind of air-conditioning unit on the wall above as well as a thundering mountain stream the on my other side, but I reasoned I probably wouldn’t have any trouble falling asleep (I didn’t) and set my alarm for four hours hence.

 

1 August

 

It was still dark and very early when I woke up, I needed little motivation to get up and going as I was aiming to get to CP2 by the days end. I had also promised myself I’d book a hotel room, as I hadn’t slept in a proper bed since before the start of the race! It was a chilly start as I was over 1000m up. I got away before anyone turned up for work thankfully and set off to complete the rest of the pass. Rather amusingly I spotted two fellow racers fast asleep in their bivvies in the first couple of kilometres. It wasn’t long before the road started to ramp up again. As it did so it was just starting to get light, well that strange kind of early dawn light you get in the mountains when you can see brighter skies but the sun has yet to reach the part of the valley you are in.  

 

Although not overly difficult, the road for this last part of the pass was noticeably steeper than the part I had traversed the previous night. Once at the top I dodged a couple of manoeuvring hgvs, crossed the border in to Italy and started what turned out to be a long long descent.  I love a good descent and enjoyed this one, especially as I knew this was really helping me to hit my CP2 target, time in hand I would need later. After what felt like an age I spotted a bakery so stopped for breakfast. This being the German speaking part of Italy led to some confusion whilst ordering, I also initially had trouble getting across that I wanted two pastries, must be unheard of usually!

 

My route down into the valley now followed a bike path for the most part, which I was glad of as the road alongside was getting increasingly busy as the mornings rush commenced. Once down near Bolzano, I bumped into a rider coming the other way, he was doing the North Cape 4000 race, which started in Florence and ended on the Northern most tip of Norway. He mentioned how unbelievably hot it had been the day before. I believed him, as although it was around 9am, it already felt like it would be a furnace like day.

 

Out the other side of Bolzano, the cycle path I was on became flatter as it followed the valley towards Trento. This really was a wonderful piece of cycling infrastructure; it was lovely to have a fast traffic free route at my disposal after the previous days heavily trafficked Fern Pass. By midday I had done 135km, a very satisfactory mornings work. On the downside though it really was starting to get quite hot, I veered off the path at one point to visit a roadside café where I had coffee, a cold drink and an ice cream.

 

I was on the outskirts of Trento by lunchtime and I stopped at a supermarket and had lunch sat on the kerb in the shade opposite with two other riders, one of whom was Mao Pong Hon, who called himself Steven, and he’d come all the way from Singapore to take part! He said he’d come into Italy over the Timmelsjoch pass which was over 1000m higher up than the Brenner, I was impressed but also thought he was mad!

 

It was nearly an hour before I got going again, far too long, as I knew I mustn’t become complacent after a good morning. Now within a built up area it was ferociously hot when compared to the just hot river valley I had spent most of the morning in.  This heat wave I was to learn had been given the very apt name ‘Lucifer’ and covered a large portion of southern and eastern Europe, which was unfortunate….

 

I then stopped at a shopping mall to, ahem, use the facilities, which was another 20 minutes. Now to get out of Trento I thought. Alas this turned out to be easier said than done. I had half hoped it would be an easy run down to the foot of Monte Grappa, a thought emboldened by the easy kilometres pedalled this morning, but this wasn’t to be. In the middle of Trento the gradient suddenly skyrocketed upwards.  I was faced with what looked like a wall in front of me. It was by now the hottest part of the day and the combination of this and the steep hill quickly made life extremely unpleasant. The gradient didn’t seem to let up and it wasn’t long before I was starting to seriously overheat. Pedalling up this in this heat became impossible so I got off and walked, even this became really hard work. I had to stop and find some shade to recover at one point; my water bottles didn’t offer much refreshment as they had become broiled too. It was a tortuous bit of road at the best of times let alone in these conditions.

 

I gained 300m in altitude before finally reaching the top, it had taken nearly 40 minutes to cover 5km. Thankfully I saw another shopping centre on the short descent so I quickly diverted in to buy cold drinks and recover. I must’ve looked a right state plus of course I hadn’t had a shower since before the race start! Just after getting going again I realised that I was just about to turn onto a banned road, thankfully I was able to reroute myself quicker than I had done in Germany, unfortunately though, my new route took me on another steep climb, this afternoon was murderous.

 

Since stopping for lunch, the next 30km had taken me 3 hours 45 minutes, the mornings good progress seemed like a distant memory now. Eventually I found my way onto the next valley cycle path and was able to eventually escape the conurbation. The afternoons heat had really taken it out of me, I had never experienced heat like that before let alone tried cycling through it. Although I was now going down a valley again, I found maintaining any kind of pace to be hard work and was overtaken by the classic ‘bronzed old man in bright lycra on a mountain bike’ at one point. They seem to proliferate in Southern Europe.

 

It was late afternoon, energy levels were low and my morale had taken a big hit. I knew it was still a fair way to go until I got to CP2 so had to dig deep. My girlfriend and my Mum were both messaging me about how well I was doing, which was great to receive after the afternoon’s toil. These and the thought of a hotel bedroom with a shower acted as a big motivation to me now. After a further three hours or so of uneventful pedalling down the valley I came to the end of the Alps, it’s quite stark the difference in geography as the mountains come to an abrupt halt and a Norfolk type flatness suddenly pervades.

 

I was on the outskirts of Bassano del Grappa now. I’d pre-booked a hotel on the way down the last valley that was as close to CP2 as I could possibly get. On the short drag up to CP2 I passed the hotel I had booked. Rather worryingly it looked closed! It was about 8pm by now and it had been a really trying day so reaching CP2 was a total relief. It was at a campsite and as at CP1 there were a lot of riders congregated around, the adjacent shower block was seeing a lot of action. I bumped into some riders I’d already met on the road but my worries about my accommodation prevented me from hanging around and chatting so I went straight back down the hill. Approaching the hotel there was still no sign of life. Out of hope more than anything I rang the doorbell and to my relief, the proprietor opened the door and let me in.  

 

I was gestured to put my bike in what seemed like the owners private quarters of the building and shown to my room where I had my first shower in days and was able to wash all my kit too, such sweet relief! I went down to dinner in just a pair of running shorts and a down gilet; everything else had just been washed! It became apparent I was the only guest in this place, just as well considering my attire. I thought it might have been full of TCR racers but no. I was the only one in quite a large dining area apart from one old Italian guy who only came in for a drink. I ordered a salad and a pizza, the owner spent some time trying to tell me that the salad was a main as well as the pizza, after persevering with saying I still wanted both I was granted my wish (the food wasn’t great but quantity mattered more than quality at this point), all washed down with a much needed beer or two (thinking of the calorie replacement of course). As I was now in pampering mode I then gave myself the luxury of six hours sleep. Especially so as I knew I would have to haul myself up the next mandatory parcours section, which went up Monte Grappa, first thing in the morning.

 

2 August

 

I’d had breakfast kindly laid on for me (after incredulity was the owners reaction at my stated preferred time the previous evening) despite the fact I was up at half 5 (no sign of the owner at this hour though). It wasn’t much (Italians don’t seem to do breakfast) but welcome all the same. I’d also spied I now wasn’t alone as two more bikes were present in the owners lounge now. I was up and out before I saw them and almost immediately started climbing the mighty Monte Grappa. Despite it being not yet 7am, the temperature was already heading upwards and it wasn’t long before I got a sweat on.

 

The first half of the climb wasn’t too bad as I was able to get myself into a good rhythm, I was counting down the hairpins, which were numbered, and they were going down quite quickly.  I didn’t know at the time that the vast majority of the hairpins were in the first half of the climb! After an hour or so the climb abruptly changed character. The steady gradients of the first part gave way to a much more challenging and undulating climb with some really steep sections. These were really hard work and I was now sweating profusely. I thanked my lucky stars that I had the luxury of taking this on first thing in the morning, others wouldn’t so fortunate. The climb seemed never ending, it was one of those where you can’t see the summit until quite near the end so I was constantly filled with the false hope that I may be somewhere near the top.

 

Approaching the end, I came across (or rather he came up to me) the same Irish rider I had ridden up Schloss Lichtenstein with a couple of days earlier, Turloch O’Siochain. Both of us were utterly drenched in sweat and we exchanged a brief conversation relating our suffering on this infernal part of the mountain.

 

Eventually, 2h 40m and 21 kms after starting off this morning, I reached the top. Thankfully there was a substantial café in operation up here and pretty much all the customers were cyclists. Along with the other TCR riders there I proceeded to order many items, as breakfast was now a distant memory. I remember seeing Turloch hanging out all his sweat drenched items as I took my seat on what was a glorious terrace with fantastic views. Leaving my usual inhibitions behind again I gatecrashed the table Emily Chappell was sat at alongside some other racers and enjoyed good conversation for the next 40 mins or so in between the refuelling.

 

Rested and refreshed after that huge morning effort it was now time to go. It was around about 1000km until the next checkpoint, which was in the High Tatras mountains in Slovakia. Conversation at the cafe terrace had revolved around what routes people where to take to get there. Generally there were two options, through Austria, or through Slovenia and Hungary, I had chosen the latter.

 

My route off the mountain was to take me along a ridge, which was downhill apart from one nasty kicker before 15km of winding downhill road back into the Po valley. This descent was one of my race highlights, I had a blast just using gravity and brakes and the views were utterly superb. In what seemed like no time at all I was back on the flat and after a quick supermarket sweep for some supplies it was time to plug on.

 

It was now around 11am and it was roasting hot back down on the flat. I knew I had a long run to do along the Po Valley now and given the terrain there wouldn’t be much shade to be had. Pretty much every TCR riders blog I’d read complained about the Po Valley and the traffic in this area so my previously great mood was starting to dissipate fast. There was nothing else to do but suck it up and get on with it; after all I was aiming to be in Slovenia before the day was out.

 

Thanks to slogging up Monte Grappa I was behind on my now usual target of getting 100km under the belt before midday but ticked that off by about half twelve. One annoyance in Italy is that most of their petrol stations don’t sell any food or drink. I found a vending machine outside one and at lunchtime, I found a much needed water tap around the back of another one (which seemed closed) to replace the practically boiling hot water in my bottles.

 

Not long after lunch, during the hottest part of the day, the heat was really affecting me. I spied a conifer hedge down a farm track off the main road I was on which offered some much needed shade so I unhesitatingly made a beeline for it and had a lie down for half an hour or so. Checking Twitter at this point I could see that the heat was getting to others too, my Mum was also saying that everyone seemed to be struggling and loads had pulled out due to the conditions. I was so relieved to not have to go up Monte Grappa in this; I can’t imagine how tortuous that must’ve been for the poor souls who had to do that after my Trento experience the previous day.  A further 30km or so later on I sought relief in a bar for ice cream and cola, well I thought it was a bar but it also seemed to operate as a betting shop.

 

The roads were pretty busy all day and there was never any sense of being out of town along most of this flat landscape, I couldn’t wait for a change of scenery (and temperature). By about 5pm I reached the outskirts of Udine and immediately spotted an ice cream parlour. I didn’t need to think twice about stopping here! Small things like this improve the mood no end on a day like this; to be able to sit down in the shade eating delicious Italian ice cream and drinking ice cold drinks felt like a real luxury. Again, like yesterday, progress had been slow and laborious in the stifling heat of the afternoon, and I was still 90km short of my 250km a day target.

 

It took me a while to get out of the other side of Udine, including another replenishing stop at a Lidl and whilst I did, the weather thankfully became more overcast and it started to look like a storm was brewing. As like the previous day, I again found that I was feeling lethargic due to the earlier heat but I also knew that Slovenia was near now, which was a motivation. The landscape thankfully was starting to look a lot more interesting as I headed away from Udine, with forested hills appearing as I made my way up a gently ascending wooded valley.

 

An hour and a half or so after leaving Udine I made it to the border. This felt to me like part one of the race was over now. It was goodbye to the familiarity of Western Europe and I was excited about what Eastern Europe would bring. Fittingly there was a bar/restaurant right on the border which also coincided with me hitting 200km for the day so I was able to mark this moment with both a large beer and a large cola.

 

By the time I got underway again it was nearly dark. Ideally I wanted to get another 50km done but due to the Monte Grappa ascent and the heat, I was feeling pretty fatigued so I wasn’t going to beat myself up if I didn’t make it.  Despite the darkening light Slovenia seemed very pleasant and I passed through a number of picturesque looking small towns and villages.

 

30km after crossing the border I was about to pass under an old brick made arch viaduct. The arches were quite high but I thought they’d offer enough shelter should the heavens open so I darted down the adjacent track to call it a night here. Whilst setting up camp a car then drove up this track, I was pretty sure the occupants must’ve seen me but they carried on and I was too tired to consider finding another spot now. Despite being 20km less than my hoped for daily average, I was pretty pleased with 230km given how hard a day it had been and I was sure I could make it up on another day.