{"id":20665,"date":"2019-07-22T22:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T20:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cris.lovell-smith.com\/trips\/?p=20665"},"modified":"2021-01-08T21:18:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T20:18:13","slug":"giro-delle-dolomiti-2019-stage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cris.lovell-smith.com\/trips\/2019\/07\/giro-delle-dolomiti-2019-stage-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Giro delle Dolomiti 2019–Stage 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leonie and I headed to registration at 7 am. I had arrived in Bozen yesterday by train. Leonie had ridden the first stage but due to the trickiness of life, I was not there. Looking back from 2020, this was the last nice trip we did together.<\/p>\n

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The Giro delle Dolomiti is a strange event. This was the first year doing it \u2013 and probably the last. I\u2019d looked at it before but had been put off by the fact that most of the \u201crace\u201d is a bunch ride and only small sections are timed. Still it\u2019s quite a long tour. It\u2019s six days and each stage has quite a lot of climbing in it. All-in-all it was a memorable experience.<\/p>\n

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The race started each day from a big hall. We lined up amongst the many many people at the start line. The stage took us up Wurzjoch. Leonie and I have done this a couple of times in the past but we never got right to the top due to snow as we\u2019re usually in Bolzano in March for some early season cycling. There was no issue with snow today, it being mid summer. Instead the issue was more the extreme heat. There was a timed section near the top that was perhaps 20 minutes long. Leonie and I helped ourselves to the huge amount of race food at the end and then to the complimentary gelato ice cream from a little ice cream truck. There was a grassy field at the finish and a view back to dolomites behind.<\/p>\n

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The descent was slow and annoying as we were required to ride behind the race car that drove at a very slow neutralised pace. We stopped along the way to wait for the last riders and then crawled off again.<\/p>\n

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It was meltingly hot at our camp site on the outskirts of Bolzano. Actually I don\u2019t remember which day was the hottest. It was like this for the whole week. The little camp shop was air conditioned and I headed in there to discover chilled fruit juice which I bought and which became the daily ritual.<\/p>\n

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\"Us<\/a>\"Riding<\/a>\"Cris<\/a><\/p>\n

1) We started each stage at a large hall in Bolzano.<\/p>\n

2) There were many many riders entered. The pace was slow as we had to ride behind the race car neutralised until the timed sections.<\/p>\n

3) Me cycling.<\/p>\n

\"Cris<\/a>\"Leonie<\/a>\"Leonie<\/a><\/p>\n

1) Halfway up the ascent the entire peloton stopped and we had food and drinks.<\/p>\n

2) We continued climbing up the pass.<\/p>\n

3) Leonie crosses the timing mat at the finish line.<\/p>\n

\"Cyclists<\/a>\"Us<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bikes<\/a>\"Leonie<\/a>\"Cris<\/a><\/p>\n

1) A nice touch – a little ice cream truck was at the finish line with gelati ice cream.<\/p>\n

2) There was plenty of food at the finish line including a little ice cream truck serving us all ice cream. We cycled back to the start in one group veeery slowly.<\/p>\n

3) Where to put ones bike?<\/p>\n

4) The stage ended at W\u00fcrzjoch.<\/p>\n

5) Posing at the pass sign.<\/p>\n

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