It was the last stage of the Tour Transalp 2023. The day began sunny and windy as we left the start line next to the little lake at Valle dei Laghi. My legs were definitely feeling tired and the rest of me too and I held back and let most of B block race ahead of me. Gabor was already in race mode and was off. I cruised along for a bit until slowly my legs woke up. The route had gone straight into a small climb and then descent and then into the first major climb, one of two. I kept up with the bunch until in typical fashion I dropped my chain while changing into an easier gear. This time no disasters occurred. It didn’t get stuck. I rolled back down the hill a bit to try and get it back on but ended up having to stop and manually put it back on. The bunch was up the road but I chased back up and caught them, and now that my legs were nicely awake, rode past them. Perhaps because I’d let many people roll by earlier, I continued hopping from bunch to bunch, riding off the front of one, catching the next, taking a break and then riding away again. The gradient was fairly low and it suited me well. At one point I got boxed in in a bunch with guys from the Belgium Granfondo Team and Amit, the Israeli girl in 3rd place on GC. I asked her to let me out and I was off in search of the next bunch. Finally I could see Gabor up ahead and I caught him just before the refreshments. I’d shed water earlier to save weight so I filled up quickly before continuing, losing some places despite this.
We rode together to the pass and then began a narrow winding descent on sometimes good roads. The Giro had come up this way and the road was covered in the names of cyclists and encouragement to ride a little faster. I rolled past a few cyclists that were descending slowly and was caught up to by others who were riding faster. At the end of the descent there was a sharp right hand bend leading directly into the next ascent. I started up it slowly, pushing 200W, holding back a bit, and waiting for Gabor. It wasn’t long until he came steaming up the hill and I picked up the pace again to match his. We continued up in passing mode. I’m not sure why our legs were better than the guys around us. At one point we had about 6 people following right behind us up the hill, including Amit who must have been climbing faster on the second hill but one by one they dropped back until we were riding alone again. At the second and last refreshment point, at the top of the climb, I stopped to fill up on liquid again and Gabor rode straight through. I jammed a couple of pieces of pineapple into my mouth and began to descend catching Gabor and passing him again. A sharp right turn and it was the final climb, a short 3km one with something like 300 m of ascent. I waited for Gabor and then we picked up the pace to the finish line, passing a few more cyclists for good merit. We crossed it together and that was the end of the Tour Transalp for 2023. There were cyclists milling around at the finish line. I spotted Max from the camp in the crowd. Amit arrived not long after. A guy Peter, who I follow on Strava from the TdK.
The racing had stopped at about 75km and we rolled down the last winding narrow descent into the heat of Arco. We had one more night in the Transalp camp and then everyone dispersed the next day. I headed off to a nearby campground for a week of hanging around.
A nice tour. I was quite surprised how well my legs went, given how far we cycled, how much we climbed, and how hot it was at times. In total we covered 826 km with 18 500 metres of ascent, and 19 passes! Yes, I’d probably do it again… I placed 15th in the single masters category for the stage and overall for the tour I was 23/35 for single masters, losing a couple of places due to the mechanical issues on Stage 2.
Above: It was hard to believe I’d managed seven days of racing and had got to the finish line feeling good.
Tour Transalp 2023 Stage 7 – Valle dei Laghi – Arco
Race Time (transponder): 3:38.30,6 Distance: 90km/2400 m (Racing for 75km) Category Place (Single Masters): 15/35 Overall (Single): 59/158 Start Block: B