Transalp - day 5

We were told today shouldn`t be too hard. Ha ha. Still 2800 m of climbing and 94 km for todays distance.

We started hard out of the first town, trying to stay with the fast guys during the first 300 m (vertical) climb, since it was followed by a long 20 km with a slight incline. We hoped to find a lot of good people to draft through this section. The plan worked, but it was strenuous. Later we got back into our old climbing mode, riding side by side for 1 hour.

Some fast easy downhill followed the climb, partly on roads and also great singletrail.

At km 65 we hit another big hill and started climbing in the heat. It had some really steep sections in it, but we rode hard and stayed on the bike the whole time. We had mixed feelings today, my legs were strong, but I didn`t feel as good as during the other days. Once again it was a climb that never wanted to end, especially since we expected the highest point to be 2000 m, but it actually was 2200 m. But well, what`s another 200 m after all the climbing we did so far...

Fast downhill (some people got 91 kph on the paved section) into beautiful St. Vigil, and the day was over after 5 hours.

Todays position is 80, moving us up in the overall classification to position 87. Only 3 days left.

Alex (and Frank)


The finish in St. Vigil, Italy in the Dolomites.