118 km

6:01

1340 m

We had a great breakfast in a beautiful garden in brentonico. Important to ensure that you fuel your body to have enough energy to survive the ride! Some days it feels like I’m just surviving but it’s such a wonderful feeling when you go outside your comfort zone and make it took the top of the climb. For me it’s not only a physical challenge but the requirement to be strong mentally and push out all the negative thoughts that are sometimes screaming at me to stop! And it was a challenging day right from the start. The first climb started 200 meters from the hotel – the 14 km with an average gradient of 7.5. I screamed out loud at the bottom on why am I doing this. I quickly realized I needed to take it km by km if I wanted to get to the top!

The amazing scenery on the ascent certainly helped . One image stands out of going though a tunnel carved out of the side of the mountain! I encountered a closed road – not a good sign. There was still snow on the side of road and on the descent parts of the road was completely covered. Peter as he was going down a section with snow took a small spill. A message to all of us that we need to walk this section which was around 100 meters until we found clear pavement.

So happy to make it to the top where a restaurant awaited me with hot tea! Peter and Sarah had been waiting for a while. So long that Sarah was doing some sketching! Making good use of her time!

A highlight was a warm wall with a tiny fireplace inside! I was able to hug the wall to warm up!

We had a great 30 km descent with a few rolling hills in between. We ran into a guy with a flat and not the right tube. Peter was his guardian angel. Always good to help people as you would hope people would do the same if you were in trouble.

After the descent we had a long flat ride along a bike path. No pictures were taken as I was too tired!

We went through a busy town with a lot of people and had to be careful as we navigated the bike paths!

Towards the end of the ride I was counting down the kms until we got to our end destination! It was a long day and I was ready for it to end!

We arrived at a beautiful palazzo b and b – it was from around the 1400’s!

We were starving and tired when we arrived – at least I was! What usually happens when you’re starving and tired you end up eating at the place close to you! Unfortunately wasn’t a great choice but we did find excellent ice cream which was great way to end the day!