Le Blaireau - Day 2

Whilst Bernard Hinault - the Badger - said 'as long as I breath I attack' today was a case of attacking on the climbs to make time up on the crazy descending Belgians...

Badger Man

After yesterday's thunderstorm, I awoke to beautiful sunshine - here's the view from the room

Today was the first proper day of riding: 110km with four categorised climbs:

Passo del Foscagno 2,291m

Passo Eira 2.208m

Passo dal Fuorn 2,149m

Passo Umbrail 2,509m

The Passo del Foscagno looked easy enough at 15.4km @ 6.1% but as it was 28 degrees the last 5kms were tough, but as with all climbs, the views at the top were worth it. Thanks to Mauritzio and Alexandra, two touring Sicilians for the photo at the top. 

Then, I met some new friends at the top, Johan and what sounded like Ivan. They worked for ING one of the sponsors of the event and were the the aforementioned mad decenders on the 15km decent into Livigno. I managed to catch them up when they stopped at a crossroads with no apparent signs. 

Ivan's descending was better than his map reading

Anyway, after putting in a 5km turn on the front it turned out that Ivan was feeling the pace which was handy as I certainly was. Still, the views of Lago di Livigno were superb and we were soon in Switzerland with an instant improvement in driver behaviour.

Next up was the Passo dal Fuorn which was not particularly hard but we soon got put in our places by the climbers of Italian pro team Area Zero D'Amico, still, we beat their sprinters to the top and then had a quick chat and the obligatory photo.

After a huge bowl of pasta at the restaurant at the sumit, there was more crazy descending to the foot of the main event of the day, the Passo Umbrail, 13.2km @ 8.5@ topping out at 2,503m. Johan and I showed some bad form dropping 'Ivan' after about 3km, then after some good Belgium cycling chat I managed to get away from Johan on an unpaved 500m section. After a few sections of >10% and what felt like 1,000 switchbacks I finally reached the top just before yet another Belgian, Christophe. Cue lots of pictures, including the view down the Stelvio which was our route back to Bormio.

Oh, and by clockwork, the thunderstorms started at 4pm which made the decent rather tricky.

Still, I made it in one piece and then met Jeroen, the guy that invited me to the event for a few beers and more pasta.

Tomorrow is the Gavia and Mortirolo...