Our camp was at 1000m so it wasn’t too hot as we started. We rolled over the start line and straight into a climb, the last three kilometres of the descent from yesterday. My legs didn’t feel fresh, unsurprisingly. Despite this Gabor and I climbed at an ok pace until the top of the climb, not sliding back too much through the bunch. Then it was into a descent and some rolling hills. I dropped Gabor on the descent but not long later he magically appeared in front of me having used some sort of voodoo magic. From Kaiserjaegerweg we dropped into another 800 m descent. The road was narrow and the descent was technical. There was at least one unhappy cyclist sitting on the side of the road in the descent having taken a corner not so well. In some parts there were big drops with serious consequences if you’d left the road. I took care descending carefully passing a few slow guys. At the bottom of the climb we had around 20 km of rolling hills and I found myself in a good bunch and we made good progress. Gabor didn’t work his voodoo magic this time as technical descents are not his favourite.
The climbing began at 45 km followed by another descent and then more climbing. I felt good to start with but less good after not much time. A quick stop at the refreshments and then I continued up the road that leads to Manghenpass. Again, I felt good to begin with and a small bunch formed behind me and I paced them up the hill. One German guy blew up and his Canadian friend said, let him go. I didn’t go so far though and my legs started to slow down soon after. The climb was 20km long and went on and on and on. I was pushing 200+ W for the first half but started dipping under in the second half. The road was narrow and there were occasionally cows on the side with their bells clanging. It seemed to be the route of an upcoming rally too and there was a steady flow of cars coming up or down the pass with race numbers on their windscreens. This didn’t make the cycling easier. The road wound back and fourth in switchbacks. I thought we were about to reach the top and was disappointed when what I thought was the top turned out to be a wide hanging valley and I could see the road snaking it’s way up into the sky.
Finally at the top, I stuffed myself full of pineapple at the refreshments and then it was into the descent. Unfortunately the traffic hadn’t reduced and I also found myself stuck behind the race ambulance. After some time I snuck by when it came to a halt due to oncoming traffic. The descent continued, now faster, and I clung to the right of the right hand side of the road in the bends to avoid any more rally cars. It got warmer and warmer. The course went directly into a short climb before, unusually, we reached the end of the timed section at 88km. I continued slowly until the next pass (San Lugano) where I stopped at a small cafe, got an icecream, a large bottle of water, and waited for Gabor. There were other cyclists from the race with the same idea.
Gabor came steaming past and I continued with him. The descent was very long and the road very smooth and at some point I realised I’d ridden it before in the Giro delle Dolomiti with Leonie in 2019. It felt very similar to that time, in that it also felt like we were descending into an oven, probably a pizza oven. The road was well sealed and the descent continued for a long time. The heat was pretty unbearable at the bottom but we still had about 15km left. We slogged our way along and crawled up the last 300m climb. The heat radiated back up from the tarmac and it was stifling. Finally we rolled across the finish line and it was time for the usual delicious smoothie, or smoothies to be precise.
The camp was in a big tent-like-hall-thing with a tennis court and my bag had been positioned by the net, perhaps in preparation for a game of doubles. It was a nice camp as we had a grassy area to chill nearby with a small restaurant on the other side that Gabor and I ate at in the evening.
TOUR Transalp 2023 – #5 Folgaria – Kaltern – single overall
TOUR Transalp 2023 – #5 Folgaria – Kaltern – single masters
Tour Transalp 2023 Stage 5 – Folgaria – Kaltern am See
Race Time (transponder): 4:16.56,7 Distance: 88km racing, 120km/3200m total, Category Place (Single Masters): 18/37 Overall (Single): 67/161 Start Block: B