Veneto

There will always be fantastic scenery here in Italy but there are also somewhat different things to see which is what usually catches my eye.

So here is the landscape pix...this was  from yesterdays' ride in Prosecco country with vineyards as far as the eye could see.

Rides so far...we are in a house part way up to the Passo Croce D'Aune , so it figured that we would do that ride fairly early on ...which we did and were hooning down the other side when I had a font wheel blow out...the explosive sort.  Luckily I was on a straight stretch of road..but that was the end of the luck as 2 more tubes later and I started my walk back.  The problem lay with the rim tape which had moved ......

Our next ride was to conquer the Passo San Boldo ...check it out on Google..if you dont know the history it is somewhat special.  As you ride up the valley you see this incredible vertical cliff ahead and know that is where the tunnels start.  Worst gradient is 12% and it was hot and humid for the latter part of the ride...100km +

Today's ride was to be easier..and turned out to be 70+km with less climbing...Cesiomaggiore, Sospirolo and Valle del Mis.  QOTD was..after a bit of a steep heave " these flat bits still have a bit of a bite in the legs, dont they?  Me:  you mean this bit that is 7.3% flat?"

Tomorrow it's to be even easier as I'm starting to get REALLY tired

Italy...Veneto

Italy!

And for the next few days..until july 11 we are at Pedavena..or rather in a house 3.5km up from Pedavena on the road  to Passo Croce d’aune.  At max this heave is 12% .mostly 6-8%.   I did an early ride down to get some fresh rolls for brekky and had no issues, but later in the day, with fatigue ,jet lag and the heat needed to stop if only to pour water over myself!

The house is supposed to be ok for 8, but we discovered only has 2 bedrooms…we think a lot was left unsaid on the website!  It is half of a house with the other half occupied by a couple who only occasionally live there at the weekend.   

 The entrance hall is tiny with 3 doors all opening into it so you have to be very careful when opening them.  Up above it’s the same with the 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom door ALL opening outwards into a tiny landing. 

The beds are ok, the kitchen is well stocked with gear, there is a BBQ and an outside eating area  and there are no mosquitoes!  Tabatha likes cooking which makes me the expert at washing up and cleaning…ie the scullery maid.

So far the drams have been limited to losing things….to the point that the saying for the holiday up til now has been “where the f%^k is/did I put…….” But now we’re settled down in 1 place, that issues is diminishing.  It all started when I got out of the car at Tullamarine airport, loaded the trolley, said good bye to , my chauffeur Alex and shot off to check in only to discover I’d left the bag with all my clothes in the car squashed down behind the driver’s seat.  It took me a panic filled while to find the phone, put in the password and phone Alex…who luckily did what I hoped he would..(and shouldn’t have) and answered the phone.  A quick u turn later and I was re-united with my clothes!  

The journey was fine with an upgrade to business via my freq flyer points on the final hop from Dubai to Munich.  Being able to use the Emirates lounge in Dubai is also a life saviour.

Tabatha was waiting for me at Munich airport and so was my car..a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso.  I had thought that with 3 people, 3 bike boxes and 5 cases we would need to get a taxi for the overflow to get the car depot..but nope..it all fitted in…incredible. 

The drive to Sankt Johann was uneventful and we picked up my gear and motored on to our overnight stay.  This is also the place where Alex and I will spend our final 2 nights and the lady of the house has allowed me to dump my 2 bike boxes for the intervening 10 weeks.

Getting very close...no more sleeps

Foreman material!

my packing supervisor fell asleep on the job!

Last year's cloud,  when my bike was 2 days late  arriving in Europe, has turned into this year's silver gold  lining as Emirates gave me  a gold frequent flyer  card for 2015 as an apology. This allows me a whopping 46kgs of checked luggage.  Luxury!

So since it's a year for taking 2 bikes with me, instead of sending 1 bike freight via Jetta, I can avoid  all the fuss that goes with finding the freight section of an airport etc etc and can take all my gear  with me.

32kilos

10kilos

too easy and  with 4 kilos to spare there is no need to cripple myself with an extra  heavy carry on burden.

5 days and counting

With nothing left to do before I fly out except have coffee/lunch with friends, get out on the bike, get my hair cut and the cat groomed, race a TT and pack, it's time to start being a bit more specific about where we're going on this year's epic adventure. Hmm...almost nowhere new! So any adventures will be situational rather locational...and according to Google spell check both those words are made up! 

 So, after I've cleared customs, met up with Tabatha, got the car, driven down to Sankt Johann in Tirol to pick up stuff, stayed a night and then driven down south into Italy...we arrive at Pedavena for an 11 day stay.

We're staying at Casera al Capitel on the road to Passo Croce d'Aune

where we stayed last year was beyond Le Fiere which is bottom left of the map and the climb to that house defeated me.....never did manage it without putting my foot down to get the  BP down to manageable levels!

I know I can ride this year's road 'cos I've done it already, but even so it's a bit of a heave at the end of every ride/shopping/laundromat trip!

To get better idea of where Pedavena is:

Pedavena..just north of Feltre which is almost dead centre in this pix


  

and this is our house...sleeps 8..there are just 2 of us!

It's a ~ 3 hour drive to get there but we can't get in until 1800 so we may go for a ride in Sankt Johann first or perhaps visit the Oetzi museum at Bolzano

Pre holiday tasks.....

In no particular order

1.  Stock up on the cats' fave food!

 and make sure they are in good health with

 http://www.justforcats.com.au/

2.  Raid the library and download a zillion audio books to my ipod classic...so sad Apple have stopped producing this "classic" ;-).  One book I downloaded  has 29 discs and plays for 35 hours which should see see me through more than one long haul flight.

these are only a fraction of my electronic library

3.  Start gathering/packing/weighing/culling/re-weighing...repeat and add at least some cold weather gear for the Dolomiti

 4.  TRY to buy extra cash only to find euros are in short supply, except  for 5 euro notes

5. Curb excitement by thinking of what's ahead..24 hrs long haul economy agony

pix acknowledgement...Trek..maker of my TT bike

6. Re-check weather forecast..now that's more like it!  

11 weeks of training in the mountains then racing on the flat

Resurrection of my travel blog....again!

I’m about to go on another cycling adventure in Europe and my blog will go live once again.....no point in keeping it going when I’m back home as I lead a very boring life.

28/6  fly out to Munich then Sankt Johann in Tirol, Austria for a night

30/6-11/7..Pedavena..a hamlet at the base of Monte Avena and our house is on the road to  Passo Croce d’Aune..a bit of a climb to get home each day but nowhere near as bad as last year’s grovel. Climbs will be Passo San Boldo, Croce d’Aune,  Monte Grappa . 

11/7-18/7  Canazei..to ride in particular Passo Pordoi /the Selle Ronde group  and the Fedaia

18/7-25/7  Cortina D’Ampezzo for the Giau, Falzarego, Valparola, Tre Cime, Tre Croce, etc etc

25/7- 1/8  Bormio for the best of the best ...Stelvio, Mortirolo and Gavia (hopefully better than last 

year)

 1/8-8/8  Feltre for the Palio and to break out the TT bike. 

8/8-12/8 Treviso..for a change of scenery and  more flat land training

12/8-22/8 Hartberg, Austria for 7 races  Prologue, crit, TT, HC and 3 x RR (Alex gets 1 extra race)

22/8-29/8 Sankt Johann in Tirol for 2 races ..TT and RR

29/8 to Denmark  for the World Masters Road Championships..TT at Hobro on Wed 3/9^h and RR at Aarlborg on Sunday 6^th

Then back St J to dump my stuff and back to Munich to fly out. 

11/9  back home

One day when we're  in Austria we plan on going to see this beauty which I last visited in 1968!:

There ‘ll be regular updates on FB with pretty pix. ..pls feel free to “friend” me the more detailed stuff will be on this blog.

Post holiday analysis..what I learned this time

This is normally a task I would do when  in the throes of jet lag, however here I am still in Austria but with such crap weather I am frustratingly confined to be indoors with little to do.

Overall plan
Foiled on day 1 when my bike failed to arrive on the plane with me...or indeed  the day after.  Apparently it never left Melbourne on my plane .  It arrived 2days late and I had to go to Venice airport to get it.  NOT impressed seeing as I am a Silver Frequent flyer card holder with Emirates. A letter of complaint will be sent on my arrival back home.  However lesson learned...don't skimp on time...if I'd been locked into water tight plans I'd have been doomed.

Too much unnecessary to-ing and fro-ing was a lowlight of my first week or so..next year I wont go so far south at the beginning.  I love Feltre and the cycling in that area and knowing the place facilitates training, but there are other options further north and too much driving is exhausting.

The 2 weeks in the mountains was brilliant for my climbing ability and general fitness...next year it's going to be 3 weeks.

Arriving in Hartberg on the day of the first race is not ideal..next year I'll be there earlier.  The accommodation was good, friendly and although there was far too much cream, the food fantastic.  The distance (10km away) is an issue but given the above plus the tranquility and the low cost, I'll  go there again next year.  Hartberg police are a tad keen on parking fines, so I now have the requisite piece of cardboard to display and am 20 euros poorer for the lesson.

Money
Not having too tight a budget is a must.  Both my sunglasses and my prescription glasses died on me as did my HRM chest strap...a total of 89+270+70 euros respectively of unplanned expenses (prob about $A700-800 all up).

I bought quite a few clothes(cycling tops, T shirts, shorts, groovy long sleeved tops) and bike bottles...too good to go past (!) and all will be used.  Also 2 jigsaws to keep us amused when not training and 1 major indulgence a panoramic photo of Feltre.  What with the latter  and the  2 jerseys I won, our local picture framer is going to make a mint!

 Staying on after the races.
A good idea if the weather is ok!  however as tedious as all get out if it's not.

 Monday is a ruhetag around St Johann...some shops don't open and since  I had a lot of trouble getting my pedals off  I spent all day, well not quite, trying to find a bike shop that was not only open but that had a mechanic working.  I tried 2 shops in Kirchdorf, 2 in Going, 1 in Kitzbuehel, 1 in Kirchberg and finally found one in Klausen.  Memo to self remember to tell mechanics NOT to tighten my pedals up so damn much...they seem to think that if they are not super tight they'll fall off...they dont!

That's all she wrote...and as the sun sets slowly in the west we say farewell to Italy, Austria and all my OS cycling friends old and new.