Day 6 The Stelvio Ride

For me this was a slow meander up the mountain with strong wind gusts smacking the side of the van but the lads have more to tell so I’ll pass the baton on –

 The start -

I have been delegated by the boys to give an account of our ride up the Passo dello Stelvio the 2^nd highest Alpine pass……in the Alps, 2758m for those who go to pub quizzes. The best adjective to describe the climb was attritional at the bottom we all kitted up and set off in a degree of warmth and hoped to get to the top in similar conditions to the Tourmalet - how wrong we were the clouds rolled in and the rain began and soon the high winds, sleet and very fine hail. 

View down valley -

Geoff was blown off, Vince and I were shunted from one side to the other and forced of once each and I was almost blown into a ditch for a second lesson in Nature v us Humans. Sadly Geoff succumbed to the elements rather than his cycling legs and retired to the Van with 6k to go having heroically climbed the most difficult parts, from those of us who rode it agree it was a valiant effort. Eventually with only 21/2 K to go Vince and I went into the Van to change clothing put on warm kit and try to warm up, the pain in my fingers from the cold is hard to describe for those of you tempted to Vote for Mo Farah in the sports personality award think on-professional bike riders are the hardest boys on the planet to climb the peaks and then descend down at the speeds they do is exceptional. We eventually arrived at the 500m to go and what a long 500 it was before we rounded the last bend to cross the line remembering to look over the other side this time.

We then had photos by the Fasto Coppi memorial before we managed to dive into the souvenir shop 5 mins before the guy closed for the day to purchase some hard earned cycling jerseys. The trip down was an eye opener as you can’t believe you have just ascended the climb.  All in all a very hard earned summit but what an experience- Smith

Thanks Andy but now for the actual detail………………………..