September 5, 2022
Stelvioooooofff: Gomagoi to Valchava
The good news: today was going to be a super-short one -- not even 40km! The bad news: there was a certain amount of uphill on the horizon.: 48 hairpins' worth, to be precise. In fact, the reason I'd planned such a short day was so that, if the worst came to the worst, I could probably push most of the way to the top and still make it to my destination before nightfall.
I fuelled up at the very good breakfast (most of the other people staying seemed to be walkers or climbers, also very focussed on Carb Loading...), released my bike from the hotel owner's garage (resisting the temptation to upgrade to their temptingly-unlocked ebike...), and pointed it uphill.
The weather was fine -- cooler, but sunny -- and the road was much quieter this morning: there were still a fair few cars and motorbikes, but they were mostly quite patient. (If I'd planned this better, though, I should have come this way two days ago, which -- left-over signs revealed -- was the bike-only day...).
And the road? It was, in its way, a lot of fun. Hairpin after hairpin after hairpin, but with great, and always changing, views.
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There were lots of other cyclists out: mostly roadies, and of course all going significantly quicker than me, but often offering some cheerful encouragement as they went by.
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After a couple of hours of grinding away, the top came into view. Still quite a long way up, though...
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Then, at last, the hairpin numbers were into single figures -- and then: the top!
The real Genius Part of my 'cycle extremely slowly up the Stelvio' plan was that I'd arrived bang on time for lunch. Slightly to my surprise, the cafe at the top produced something which was very tasty, and not insanely overpriced, so I didn't have to raid my vending machine snack stash (though perhaps it would have been slightly more sensible not to haul it over the mountain...).
After a leisurely lunch, I spent a bit of time browsing the dizzying range of souvenir stands, one of which kindly offered to post a postcard for me (since I wouldn't pass a postbox before crossing the border...), put on almost every item of clothing I possessed, and set off down the other side. After about 500m I stopped to put on all my remaining items of clothing, and got going again: the clouds had rolled in while I was eating, and it was really quite chilly.
Most of the other cyclists turned left after the pass, to head to Bormio, but I turned right, for a very slight climb to the Umbrailpass, and then into Switzerland.
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This wasn't my favourite descent, really: the hairpins were tight and steep, and my brakes -- which hadn't been completely happy since their soaking on the first day -- were making increasingly agonised noises. So I crept my way back down to the valley floor, happy to make it in one piece.
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From there it was an easy ride along the valley to the little village of Valchava: again, chosen fairly at random by virtue of being in a convenient place, but it turned out to be a really nice spot. The hotel ('Central') was great too: extremely welcoming (even by the high standards of this trip), very bike friendly (they even had some cleaning equipment, so I could at last scrape off some of the residual Tauernradweg Gunge), and serving up some delicious food (including 'organic wild boar' -- I'm not sure how that works, but it tasted good...).
Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 564 km (350 miles)
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