Italy 2011 – D-Day

Giro d’Italia 2011 – D-Day

Toerbeest and Cyclopaat are leaving for Italy later today for their own version of the Giro d’Italia 2011.

For first time (foreign) visitors: the latter is Robert, the former is Paula, who will support C. during his bicycling trips.

She will follow him by car, take pictures, shoot movies and provide him with supplies (varying form food to dry clothes).

All-in-all she’s probably delivering a bigger effort than our self declared cycling hero…

Anyway, first stop will be the Albergo Bräuhaus in San Pietro (Lajen, Bolzano) – from there, C. will conquer some high altitude passes and on Sunday he will enjoy a (car and motor bike free) Sella Ronda Bike Day with 4 mountain passes.

On their way to Mestre for the Open European Mahjong Championship (OEMC 2011, July 7 ~ 10), they will stop in Ovaro so C. can climb the fearsome Monte Zoncolan.

After the OEMC, they will head back to Nothern Italy, to the Alpen Hotel Chalet in Valdidentro. On their way there, they will stop in Mazzo di Valtellina, so C. can climb the Mortirolo.

Other passes on the menu are the Gavia, Stelvio and Umbrail.

On a – sort of – regular basis, depending on just how worn out C. will be at the end of each day, you will find new blog posts here, so be sure to check these pages on an equally (ir)regular basis 🙂

Grossglockner 2009

*** Information page on the Grossglockner here ***

On our way to the OEMC 2009 in Baden, I planned on climbing the Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße a.k.a. Grossglockner High Alpine Road.

This is one of the more famous alpine high roads (in Austria) and with 11 kilometers over 10%, it’s ranked 5th in Europe on that list.

As a reference: the Stelvio only has 6.2 kilometers over 10% on the Prato side.

The profiles I found were are a bit confusing, as there are two extra or separate ‘forks’ you can take: the Edelweissspitze and the Kaiser Franz-Josef-höhe.

I was planning on the climb from Fusch, get up to the Fuscher Törl first, then take the extra loop to the Edelweissspitze and after that get up to the Franz Josephs-höhe…

The profile of the climb from Fusch to the Edelweissspitze, is the second profile card on the info page. The start of that, is just before the last 150 meters to the Fusher Törl, at the parking to the left.

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Stelvio Pass 2008 (Prato)

Gerlitzen-TschoranDuring the Austrian Open of 2007 in Feldkirchen, we had a trip to a nearby “Blumenalm”, the Gerlitzen.

From a distance, it doesn’t look like much of a mountain, but much to my dismay, it turned out to be an impressive climb.

Since I did not have my bike with me, I was forced to get up by car (or by foot, but I was lazy) and since the car had difficulties getting there, I figured it must be steep.

I looked up the profile and indeed, it was: about 12 kilometers at an average of over 10%.

I made a vow I would be back with my bike the next year.

During the course of the year, I extended the trip with a prelude in the Bavarian Alps (Bad Wiessee, Tegernsee) and even the Gerlitzen was eventually demoted to an appetizer, as we would ride on to Prad, Italy, to “storm” the Stelvio Pass too…

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