Saturday, June 18, 2011

A Sunny Day! June 14 2011





This morning we awoke to a bright blue sky. There were a few clouds hanging on to the cliffs of the Dolomite mountains. It was the nicest day we have seen in a good long time. So we checked out of the Panda Hotel which was a gorgeous place. The linens on the beds and the down duvets were great. It was definely the nicest hotel on the tour.

There were two options for today’s ride. You could choose a 77 kms ride which had two passes and one smaller climb, or you could choose a 58 kms route which had the two passes without the smaller hill in the middle. Being nobodies fool I choose the shorter route. The first climb right out of Cortina d’Ampezzo took you from 1100 meters to over 2117 meters in 17.5 kms. The second pass took you from 1600 meters to over 2300 meters, over 10 kms. The first climb was though a thick forest so you couldn’t see all the switch backs. I lost count but there were a lot. The second climb of the day was in the wide open as most of it was above the tree line. It was kind of daunting when you looked up and could see eight or nine switch backs in front of you.

I was first in at lunch and was snoozing on a park bench in the sun waiting for lunch when Richard you does lunch as well as rolled up. He saw me and grabbed me and started to pretend to give me CPR, but was really tickling me. I am laughing and trying to get up but he is on top of me. Everyone who was there thought it was pretty funny.

It was a pretty fun day and having a sunny day was a real treat, even though it was cold at the summits.

Tomorrow is a 106 kms ride with only 1212 meters climb. It is mostly down hill so it should be a fun day.

Terry

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