Stage 6 of the Tour Transalp 2023 finished. I’m lying in a large sports hall with perhaps 80 other cyclists. It’s hot outside and the wind is blowing but it’s cool inside. Someone is playing chilled out music and many people are lying on their mattresses, reading, sleeping, or tapping away at their phones. My cycling kit is blowing in the wind outside attached to the make shift washing line I strung between a big pine tree and the side of the athletics ring. We rolled down here after crossing the finish line, next to a small lake and beside vineyards, some hours ago. Today was a good stage.
They had promised us rain at the start line but as we crawled out of bed at the usual time of slightly before 6 am it was dry. We rolled over the start line at 9 am into a small 3km neutralised section before the first climb of the day started. It was 1000 m and my legs were not at all good for the first 15 minutes. Gabor headed up the road and I could only push 200 W and it all felt like hard work. After 15 minutes or so though they came alive. Quite nicely alive, and I began to pass people and I pushed hard to reach the top of the climb quickly. It was much cooler than the previous days and this helped.
As we began descending occasional drops of water began to fall from the sky. It rained very lightly, just enough to slightly wet the road. It took me quite a while to catch Gabor in the descent and then not long afterwards we were into the second climb. It was just 47 km of racing today plus a 9km “mountain sprint” near the end. I thought my legs would be able to handle 47 km of riding hard and since it’s near the end of the tour I was happy to push harder than normal. We decided to skip the refreshment stop at 41 km and continued pushing to the end of the timed section at 47 km. The rain had stopped and we began another long descent into the valley. It got warmer as we descended, rolling down the road and gliding around the bends. There was blue sky in the distance.
We had a sharp left hand turn at some point and were then onto a narrow bike path. At times we rode with a bunch and at times just the two of us with a big tail wind pushing us along. At kilometre 80 something we reached the next refreshment point which was still in the untimed section. We stuffed ourselves full of pineapple and watermelon before continuing for another 15km or so. A left hand turn onto a very narrow and steep path (20%) and we crossed the timing mats again. The race was back on. I struggled on such a steep gradient and Gabor rode away further up the road. At some point it flattened and the course took us onto a much wider main road. Little boys from Munich drove their big cars far too quickly up the road past us. My legs improved a little on the flatter ascent but both Gabor and I were riding at our limits. After 9km we crossed the next timing mat and the race was finished for the day.
We rolled down and found our way to the finish line, beginning the usual ritual of demolishing smoothies etc.
I was rewarded with 13 th place in the Masters category for my efforts.
Tour Transalp 2023 Stage 6 – Kaltern – Valle dei Laghi
Race Time (transponder): 2:10.12,2 Distance: 47km + 9km, Category Place (Single Masters): 13/36 Overall (Single): 54/159 Start Block: B