So the original plan that I was going to ride this mountain quickly turned sour to torrential rain (I don’t have any rain gear for riding, or really casual stuff either).

 

In the town at the bottom of the mountain, Jacquie and I bought some garbage bags to cover ourselves! We got lots of looks from the jealous Italians who didn’t have the fashion sense to do the same!!!!!

 

We headed out to climb until the asphalt ended to take pictures on the gravel section...

 

Well, that never happened because they have paved the whole road. So when we arrived at the finish we were very surprised (and amazed that we had climbed almost 14 km on foot).

 

So I know I have been going on about the steepness of these climbs - but this is stupid. If you look at my pictures of today, and the one close up of Mori’s crank, he is running a 36 tooth from ring (and a 27 on the back, but I couldn’t get a photo of the number).

 

It is ludicrous how steep this was...

 

Any how, Jacquie and I climbed for 2 hours in the pouring rain with our garbage bags on to see the riders come through, then proceeded to march down the mountain as the sun began to come out!!

 

Have a look at the pictures, the scenery was breathtaking...

 

We headed back through Bolzano for dinner on our way to Palù (pizza of course).

 

We didn’t get back until after 11 pm, and were exhausted after walking over 27 km, so quickly turned in (I have a day of big climbs tomorrow).

 

Ciao!