Transalp Stage 5 - St Vigilio to Alleghe

This morning was a test of mental fortitude. The promised sunshine never materialised and the rain battered off the roof of the van as Stevie and I forced our breakfast down. Normally porridge, followed by eggs, bacon and coffee wouldn't be a problem but the quantities of gels, energy bars and drinks during the day then all the lactic acid in our systems at night is just making us feel constantly sick. The hidden pleasures of endurance racing!

Down at the start we're all shivering under the canopy of a cafe. Inside the espresso machine is working overtime and there's a steady stream of people heading for the loo, the cafe owner is too busy to notice or is simply resigned to his fate for the next half hour.

I find Brian and Martina hiding in a corner. They're from Stratford on Avon, although Martina's Dutch. They are racing as a mixed pair and doing pretty well, 18th yesterday and only a few minutes behind us. Its a great excuse to hide in the warmth for a few minutes having a chat.

A few minutes before the start its announced that the weather conditions above 2000m are pretty bad, 2 degrees C and snow. The organsisers are considering finishing the race at the 2nd feed station at 50km to avoid going over the highest point of the route at 2400m.

Stevie's head has been down all morning, he's rather out of sorts at the minute, his left knee is hurting, but the daily battering is taking a greater toll. I'm bearing up ok, its a Scottish thing, never properly happy until there's a bit of misery involved!

Whilst I'm happy to push Steve along for as long as I can, its bloody hard going. Got to take my hat off to the guys in the mixed pairs you see pushing their partners along for most of the day. Not only is there a skill involved but its really difficult to gauge the amount of effort to put in. I usually have to give-up after a bit and go and recover on my own.

If your on Facebook, go and find "Craft BIKE Transalp" there's loads of info, links to results and photos of each stage.

At the 1st feed, we were told that the stage would finish at the 2nd feed station in 20km. Got to admit I wasn't even a little bit disappointed although we did still have to ride down to Alleghe, but hey, twisty alpine roads, on a bike with disc brakes, and cars to overtake and outbrake into the hairpin bends... Well you just would, wouldn't you!

Again we've finished 44th today, but have moved up in the overall standings to 39th.

Tomorrows a tough day with 3100m of ascent, I fear that Stevie is on the brink of abandoning. Hoping we can re-build him again tonight... The 6 million dollar postie!

Transalp Stage 4 - Brixen to St Vigil

We've finally established a bit of a routine but God its a busy day. Alarm at 5:45 and Gina gives me about 2 seconds to get out of bed, having complained about this she has relented a bit... Get nearly 5 seconds grace now.

Breakfast, pack-up and check-in at the start for 8:15, then have at least 5 nervous pee's before the start at 9. Straight after the finish its into recovery drinks and food, then bike washing and prep for the next day, massage, then food and by then its time to go to bed.

Anyway, todays stage started with another 20Km of climbing, after a decent start Steve was struggling again and we started slipping back, or so it seemed. I have my first proper experience of overheated brakes, pulling them on as hard as I could but I was no longer slowing down, was lucky to get away with that one!

Another hard stage with some really brutal climbing that eventually got to everyone with just about all getting off and walking.

Just when we thought we'd cracked it with only 8km to go the track crested in a tiny hamlet, I'd just changed to the big-ring ready for another screaming descent to the finish when the course turned hard left and up for another 500m of height to gain!

We did have a great section of technical wet singletrack descent that was great, as most things round here, it went on for ages leaving hands, arms and shoulders screaming.

A final couple of miles flying downhill on tarmac (70kph today) to another town centre finish.

In all today racked up 10000ft of climbing over 72km, and just as I was thinking we'd had another bad day, seemingly everyone else did too again finishing 44th in 5hrs 51mins.

Now somewhere in all of this Stevie found his turbo button (or his missing stash of EPO), he went flying past me and kept on going, and was still going at the end. He's been bouncing around like a demented Zebedee tonight... Hopefully this bodes well for tomorrow!

A quick note on today's winner...

Todays stage winner in the Masters category was Udo Bolts, remember him? Jan Ullrich's old team mate... He was only the 1 hour ahead of us!

Transalp Stage 3 - Mayerhofen to Brixen

It rained last night, then it rained a bit more and when the alarm went off at 5:45 it was still raining and just to make the day a bit more enticing it was cold too!

Today vee go up und then vee go down... 32km of up to be reasonably precise followed by 65km of down...ish!

As Stevie and I shivered on the start in full winter kit (God Bless Johnny Darroch for the loan of his waterproof jacket by-the-way)... "Arnie" the commentator announced that it was snowing above 2000m and the temperature was barely 2 degrees C... Ahh Scottish Weather we should do well, as long as " bird bones" could stay reasonably warm! Clearly feeling fine as he chatted-up the two girls that went on to win their class today.

This is such a fabulous event, the roads are closed for the all the starts and at every point you cross a road, pavement or whatever there's a marshall or policeman to stop the traffic! Everyone is just so into what we're doing, people out walking in the hills step out of the way and shout and clap as you go past... Don't get that in the Peak District!

The rain eventually turned to snow as we hit the point on the ascent of the Pfitscherjoch that we had to start the 30min carry over rocky sections... For those that have done the coast to coast, think Blacksail pass... In Winter!

We crossed the border into Italy right on the top and started to hurtle back down and on the wettest day ever... And we're clocking 80kph in places.

The final run-in to Brixen was on cycle paths and old ladies sat on benches enjoying the sun clapping and cheering as we charge past. Entering the centre of town at max effort, the course barriered-off from packed cafes and loads of spectators, a couple of tight bends and we burst into the town square and the finish. 40th and we've move back up the overall classification to 44th.

Glad to have my old Stevie back today, well 75% of him anyway! We've been force feeding him tonight so hopefully see a bit more of the old Tigger tomorrow.

The girls are doing a awesome job looking after us, driving from A-B, finding campsites and still getting to the finish line in time for us to arrive... Sometimes only just!

Transalp Stage 2 - Team Zipvit Sport - Report

Climbing way to hell and back! On todays menu, a shorter day at 69km, the highest point of the race at 2296m and a mere 2900m of climbing over 3 big hills.

It was properly hot this morning and the 1st of the hills was right from the off and a steady hour and a bit to the top.

The longest climb of the day was next, just over 10km long and 1000m of up up up and more up!

Stevie was having a bad day, struggling with the pace from the start this 2nd climb really got to him, perhaps it was a bit of altitude, perhaps (probably) a bit of dehydration from yesterday, but he was suffering. Now I've noticed that one of the first signs that Stevie is starting to suffer, is when he stops shouting "Alright are ya" to any girl that happens to be near... He'd gone quite pretty quick today!

The climb was a killer and I was wishing for a triple chainset, the 2x10 whilst ok, was just that bit too long to push Steve although I did try a bit.

The descent was mental, more 45mph gravel with hairpin bends... More of Harry's braking technique coming to the fore!

A brief stop at the feed station before the last climb and I'd been taking this one a bit less seriously, its not that big... Err but yes it was as it zigzaged up and up and up.

The reward for all of the hard work was 20km of the most awesome screaming downhill. Some really steep gravel to begin with, then onto narrow twisty tarmac and speeds hitting 50mph, overtaking cars and motorbikes all the way down to the valley floor.

The last 5km was flat but into a headwind, Steve glued to my back wheel I tried to bang this out as hard as I could. To finish in 5hrs 01min and 47th for the stage. We're now lying 47th overall.

I broke a front spoke today, and typically my super new Easton wheel has a type of nipple that's different to everyone else... And of course as nothing is ever simple... I'm going to have to ride my spare bike, whilst I do love the S-Works hardtail, I can't help thinking that it'll be fab on the 35km of up, but not so good on the 65km of down!

Its going to be cold and wet tomorrow... A scotsmans speciality, need to make sure "Bird Bones" is properly dressed! ;-)

Transalp Stage 1

Darn cold this morning when the alarm went off at 6am, misty, but by 8 the sun was burning it off quickly and it promised to be a nice day.

With it being so cold over the last few days we had a real clothing dilemma, it could do anything. I opted for a bit of Deep Heat on the legs. I'd bought some German stuff that didn't really seem to do very much.

The published start line procedure of placing you in a box according to your number, 343 we weren't looking forward to starting 2/3rds of the way back. Fortunately it didn't work out like that, there was a grid for all the international licence holders then everyone else and managed to get reasonably close to the front of the B Grid.

Everyone had been saying the start was mental and usually lots of big crashes. In reality it wasn't that bad, no worse than an XC Race.

We bashed it out pretty hard to begin with to get as far up the field as we could before the start of the 1st real climb, tomorrows grid is determined by where we finish today.

The 1st climb went ok 7km long, the Euro-machines making it look all too easy, Legs burning now... With a screaming fast descent, 45mph on loose gravel, even me passing slow Euros who can't descent for toffee! Harry if you get to read this, I did remember your lessons of the other week! The lesson in braking now making perfect sense!!! The 2nd big hill came at 45k and 10k long, and the heat of the day building... Legs burning madly!

From the top it was steep loose and technical down to the road then a 30k generally downhill or flat before kicking hard up for a very hot steep 5k climb to finish in Weerberg.
We got in with a good group moving fast and working well when the bike started handling like a pig. Back tyre had gone soft, not punctured, must have burped it on the last bit of rough descent. Then the cramp hit home, both legs! Desperate... Steve having to push me along for a while until it subsided. We hooked up with a couple of Americans and worked well together to the last climb. That's where Steve cracked, his turn for cramping legs!

So we finished in 4hrs 51mins and 44th place. Happy with that, hope we haven't gone off too fast, with 2300m of ascent,that was the easy day!

We're sat in the campsite at Weer, had a lovely long shower, shaved the legs... And they are still feckin, burning... Don't buy German Deep Heat!!!

A very long journey!

Its the little things that you always forget or underestimate... Like just how long will it take to get there! Err 885 miles and 25hrs of relentless travelling.

Finally got to Mittenwald at 8:30 last night with the need for sleep completely over riding everything! We headed straight for Registration which was of course closed and really couldn't be bothered to go and find a campsite so we parked in the school carpark along with a few other vans and slept for 11hrs solid!!!

This morning we've moved to a campsite... showers, toilets etc... Feeling a bit more human now... And the Sun is starting to make an appearance.

So there are only a handful of UK competitors here, and we've parked next to a guy from Stratford upon Avon... Who had even heard that there were a couple of guys from Lichfield competing!

Have to say... There are some exceptionally fit looking people here... Feeling nervous now!

JB