A proud group conquered the Stelvio today, the highest mountain pass in all of Italy. This mountain is situated just outside Bormio, in the Italian Alps and rises to 9,000 feet. 48 switchbacks took us to the top.
For the time being we finished our “Dolomiti” climbs till later next week. We added another Giro favorite by passing the Pordoi climb.On top of trhis mountain they have a statue of Fausto Coppi,possibly the most decorated rider of all time in Italy.Our day finished on a sour note, when Ken took a spill and had to be taken to the hospital for some facial cuts. We spent about 7 hours in an emergency room that was packed full and unbearable hot.
A beautiful ride over 6 mountain tops in the heart of the Dolomites, started with 2 Giro favorites, the Giau and Fedaia passes. The scenery in this area can be summed up in one word, spectacular.
Every ride out of Cortina starts uphill, which makes the first couple miles of the ride very hard . Yesterday we had a short day on the schedule with a ride up the Tre Cime climb. Under a beautiful sunny sky, we left after lunch for a 35 mile ride with 5,000 ft. of climbing. It was enough.The upper part of the climb was just relentless with pitches hovering around the 15% mark.Today we will ride a loop with 6 mountain tops.I hope there will be time to inform you. Thanks for all your responses.
A very long day started early in Udine, where we had some problems getting out of the city. After some adjusting we got on track towards Sutrio where we would start the climb of Monte Zoncolan. The first 6 miles were not real bad, but the final 2 miles are so steep that we had trouble keeping the front wheel on the ground. The downhill was just as steep and gave us a true sense why this climb is rated the hardest from that side up. Two more very long climbs were on our route and we we finished with 123 miles and over 15,000 feet of climbing. It was a warm day with just a little rain late in the afternoon. There is nothing more exhilarating than getting to the top the the mountain peaks and seeing the magnificent view!
We safely arrived in Venice on Sunday. Today our first bike ride took us to Udine on flat roads before we head into the mountains tomorrow. The first one on tap is the famous Zoncolan, by many considered the hardest mountain of all. We hope to get to Cortina d”Ampezzo in time to post again tomorrow and a bring you some more pictures. For now go to this link below to see Helmut’s pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hdoll/sets/72157630726246144/
After packing our bicycles last night we set out to Amsterdam by train. The day was spent by visiting museums, the Anne Frank House and the flower market. Another wonderful trip had come to an end.
Plans are underway for a trip to the Italian Alps and Dolomites for the summer of 2012 and a trip to Ireland in 2013.
To the cheese market we went. Thousands of other people did as well. That’s right, the cheese market in Alkmaar is that popular. Big wheels of cheese, weighing about 20 lbs. are brought in and auctioned off among the buyers. Lots of pictures were taken!!! Our ride set out to Volendam, a picturesque village along the IJselmeer. Meer means lake; the water level in the lake was well above the land on the inside of the dike. Without the dike, the lake would be much bigger! After a short visit we finished back in Badhoevedorp, where we had started a week ago.
The day started with a visit to the Porcelijne Fles, the factory that produces the world famous Delft Blue Pottery. With the wind pushing out of the north, we set out in that direction towards Alkmaar. Most of the day was spent on beautiful bicycle paths through the dunes along the North Sea. Even a broken chain could not stop us from reaching our destination.
Today we cycled across the isles of Zeeland and got a close look at the Delta works. After the flood of 1953 the Dutch started in their fight against the ocean and started by raising the dikes along the sea arms. Eventually they decided to go a step further to close off some of these arms, without losing the fishing industry and in such started the Delta works. We got a close look at this marvelous engineering work of pillars and gates with which they can control the forces of the ocean. We finished our ride in Delft.
