Cortina, and Bormio

Time flies when you're having fun!

I hadn't realised it was sooo long since my last but what with the rides, the heat, the dentist and wresting this computer away from Alex, time passed me by.

Passi Falzarego and Valparola

 after years of mispronouncing it, finally we learned that the stress in the word Falzarego is on the second letter "a"!

My next ride and 1thatbroke me completely was as above then around and riding the Giau from the far side...I hit the wall big time, stopped many times, walked a bit and ended up being pushed the final Km by Alex who had come to find where on earth I had got to!

Valley ride

this was my rest day ride and 10 days later there were landslides along this valley killing at least 3 people.  I return part of the way on the old railway line, now a popular walking and cycle track. Ex station building  have become play areas, museums etc

Our stay here was good and we love our apartment, but we all feel we have ridden all we want here and probably wont return for a while.

Bormio
 Last year our apartment was 10 km out on the road to Livigno...we weren't going to make that mistake again.!  This year we were about 2km out of the town on the road to the Gavia.

our original aim was to  do loops..eg the gavia both sides and also the Stelvio ditto, but in the end we were just too tired to contemplate that.  We drove over on the Saturday along with every other person in the entire world and at that point decided that we would leave Bormio a day early to avoid the lemmings.  The amount of cars and cyclists on the Stelvio ensured we would not be doing that ride on Sunday!

Herewith  a random selection of pix from our Bormio stay, during which I rode the Gavia a whole heap better than last year, but never got to ride the Stelvio  or Mortirolo due to dental issues...see below

the view from our apartment

dining/lounge area of  our apartment

 

and finally the reason I didn't achieve my Bormio goals.....during Monday's breakfast I realised that my muesli was NOT s'posed to be crunchy...I had lost a bit of tooth.  The remaining bit was mostly gold filling and was very sharp on the edge.  By afternoon I realised a dentist's appointment was a must as I already had damage to my tongue from that sharp edge.  4 appointments later..each of 90 minutes or worse, I had a root canal bizzo and a new tooth.  Before I got the bill, I shuddered to think how much I was going to have to fork out.  After I got it, I was more relaxed...500 euros..wow!

My rides that week  were the Gavia, Passo Foscagno, Bormio 2000 and a valley ride up towards the base of the Mortirolo

We drove over to Livigno  one afternoon, buying fuel at .88 euro cents a litre ...1.31.to 1.58 elsewhere.

As planned we left a day early, leaving at about 7am and given the early start opting to drive over the Gavia rather than around the base.  It was a good choice at that time of day..any later it would not, given the narrowness of the road on the far side.