{"id":13021,"date":"2016-06-19T23:33:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T21:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cris.lovell-smith.com\/trips\/?p=13021"},"modified":"2016-08-29T16:45:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T14:45:03","slug":"alpe-adria-giro-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cris.lovell-smith.com\/trips\/2016\/06\/alpe-adria-giro-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpe-Adria Giro 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

I rode the Alpe-Adria Giro today. Officially it\u2019s 165 km with 2400 m of climbing but maybe it\u2019s a bit shorter with a little less climbing. It starts in Villach and heads across the Italian border to Tarvisio. It then takes a left over Passo del Predil<\/a> into Slovenia. There\u2019s an awesome descent down to Bovec before the route follows the So\u010da river<\/a> back up the valley towards Trenta. There\u2019s a steep climb over Vr\u0161i\u010d pass<\/a> and then it\u2019s down to Kransjka Gora before heading back on a cycle path to Tarvisio in Italy and then back to Villach in Austria. They closed the roads for the 2016 race, and we had a police escort as we left Villach and rode along the larger regional road heading to Italy. The first few km were neutralised.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the race. I couldn\u2019t keep up with the first bunch and saw them riding off on the climb to the first pass. I really enjoyed the descent and made up a few places there. I chased a bunch with another guy into Bovec and then sat on all the way to Trenta. I expected everyone to ride away on the climb to Vr\u0161i\u010d<\/a> and my legs to quietly give up entirely, and although most people rode away my legs didn\u2019t entirely break. The climb to the pass is quite steep at around 11% for a lot of it and 14% at the end. I passed a few people who were suffering my normal fate and with the combination of much grunting and using one arm to assist my legs I made it to the top.<\/p>\n

I put on my arm warmers, grabbed some Red Bull that was on offer then descended a little bit before the rain hit. After stopping to put on my jacket I continued very slowly down the pass trying not to slide out on the cobble stones on every corner. It was very cold now. I passed a few other cyclists who seemed to be not enjoying the descent but there weren\u2019t so many people around now. I rode through Kranjska Gora alone and cycled a few km on the cycle path before a bunch caught up. The rain had eased a little and we powered along the cycle path with water spraying up from our tyres.<\/p>\n

At Tarvisio we turned right into a head wind and our pace dropped but once we joined the road again and started heading down we were going a good pace and working well. We caught up to another bunch and unfortunately this reduced our speed. I worked at the front for a bit to try and speed things up again as I wanted to get in under 5.5 hours. <\/p>\n

Near the finish I eased off a bit not wanting to put in too much effort and hung around further back in the bunch. At the 1 km mark a guy in red who I was sure would sprint at the finish looked back to see where I was and I moved back up the bunch. I wasn\u2019t placed too badly on the last corner before the ascent up the cobble stones to the finish line but was a bit too far back. Sure enough Mr Red sprinted and a couple of others did too. I got past the others with some manoeuvring and was gaining on the red guy but he crossed the line a split second before me at which point my quads decided to cramp up. <\/p>\n

A nice sprint, and a nice race. Very nice scenery and worth doing again. It\u2019s a long way to drive though for the race.<\/p>\n

Alpe Adria Giro \u201c165km\/2400m\u201d 5:33:53.22<\/strong><\/p>\n