Raid Dolomites - Conclusion

Having a blog can be a bit of a bind when you fall behind...

So I will keep things a bit shorter and try to stay up to date with events.

So just to wrap up the Dolomites raid. When last blogged I was at the end of day 7 in Selle Gardena.

We had a good night there, best meal of the trip.

Day 8 was biggest day. The standard route involved 4 climbs over 2000m, the last being the evil Gaiu (10km at 9%). I thought I would make it a bit more interesting by adding an excursion to the Marmalade. Ended up being a hell of a long day, with me doing over 4000m for the first time. Only just made it into Cortina in time to beat the rain (some others didnt make it). Cortina notable for first sighting of R8 (not keen, too clinical for my taste).

Day 9 was other end of scale. Woke up to torrential downpour so first thing I had to do was buy some waterproofs. Buying in Cortina proved expensive but the Gore stuff I got lived up to its claim of keeping me dry. Day involved a climb up to Tri Cime, which is daft for a Raid as it is not on the road to anywhere, just straight up a mountain. Its very steep and this combined with the appalling weather meant I was only one of 4 from our party who got to the top. I was luckiest as the sun shone while I was there. Others had rain or snow.

Day 10 was the day I had been looking forward too since realising Zoncolan was an option on the route. Set off in cold weather and after descent from the first climb of the day (Ciampigotto, pretty big in itself at 17km/6%) I had to spend an hour or so in a cafe warming up.

However sun started to shine by the time I got to Ovaro and the Zonc.

Climb was the highlight of the trip. Had great weather, sun had come out but it was not too hot. No traffic up the road and once I got started and into a rhythm I found I could make it up by mashing my 30x23. Road was quiet and still had the graffiti from the Giro. Its quite a different climb from the more established "greats", being mostly in forest on a narrow winding road with few hairpins until the very top. Just before the top the forest opens out and the road flattens for a bit until you pass through a couple of tunnels to take a final few hairpins to the top.

Only spectators to my effort were a herd of cows. No refreshments at the top, but great views which you can savour as the descent starts quite flat before becoming very steep.

After Zonc its downhill all the way to Udine.

Day 11. Bit of an anti-climax. Only have 90km to do, all flat. Started as a group and stopped for a coffee after only 500m. Eventually headed off down a long straight main road. Dawdled along until joined by New Zealanders, things just getting interesting when I punctured for first time in 4000km. After fixing I headed off in search of more interesting scenary and came across a hill that had been a frontier in the first world war. It gave great views onto the mountains in Slovenia. Then headed down to Trieste and the end of the trip proper. As chance would have it as I came into the town I met up with some of the others. Celebrated at a pub which I only later found out was called "Martin", so somewhat fitting....