Stage 2 - The Simplon Pass

Thanks to a super lite hypothermia inducing sleeping bag and a very noisy campsite I slept really badly after stage 1.  Myself and Outlaw Pete had watched Spain beating Chile in the World Cup group stage with a couple of beers but that failed to send me off to cloud cuckoo land. Tuesday was going to be the first real test of indurance with a 114km ride from Locarno to Visp via the Simplon Pass, at 2008m.

 Beers with Pete

Running late as per usual I set out with Rune the big Dane to catch the others who were already a good few kms up the road.  There was an early morning chill in the air but it was wonderfully sunny and the early climbs were overcome with ease.  We stopped a couple of times to take photos as the opportunity to do so seemed too tempting to let pass.

After around 25kms we hooked up with most of the others who were having a quick coffee in a small village near the Italian border. I couldn't resist necking a bottle of chilled Guinness that I discovered in the fridge, much to the amusement of my Antipodean friends.  It actually took the edge off the caffine buzz that I was on after one too many cups of coffee at breakfast.

 Guinness Time @ Stradon

The next few k's took us over a few hills and into some long valleys. The roads were really nice but there was a slight headwind which made progress slow. The headwind served a dual purpose, as it was getting very hot at that point. Lunch arrived in the nick of time and I would have cycled on passed it had it not been for Rune spotting the BikeDreams flag.

What lay ahead of us after lunch was a 38km climb to the top of the Simplon Pass, a historic pass built a few hundreds years previous to move big fuck off stuff between 2 countries. (citation needed)
And so the long, relentless, hot ascent began. Because it was early days on the trip I felt strong and moved up through the riders fairly comfortably. I've never cycled through so many tunnels in my life. Approaching HGVs sounded like 747s and made cycling quite unnerving at times.

At one stage a car drove past me, which was towing a boat, the arse of which neraly hit me.

The tunnels - which had been built as avalanch shelters for traffic - were a god send, shielding us from the early afternoon sun and providing some much needed cooling. Around 5kms for the top the headwind really picked up and I had to dig in hard to keep the pedals turning consistently and the cadence high.
I was cycling with Damian Crowe, a hardcore chap from Oz who had been on the road from Palermo to Nice the weeks previous. He had already found his mountain legs. Seeing snow for the first time was proof of how high we were getting. The air was getting tight and the quads were crying out when we spotted the little cafe at the top. Sweet!

First big climb overcome and a great sense of joy. I pulled on the arm covers, wind breaker and rain jacket and dropped like a stone to the town of Brig at the foot of the pass. The decent was absolutely massive, hitting close on 80kmph at points. The temperature went from around 8 degress to 30 degrees in roughly 10 mins on the decent.

We found our well equipped Swiss campsite in Visp and unpacked for our rest day the following day.
We would need all the rest we could get as the next mammoth climb on our itinerary would be the Col du Grand St. Bernard.

Stage 1 - The Lake District

After Many months of hard training June 21st and the first stage of Les Dix Alpes finally arrived. We all met for brekie at 7, followed by a group photo in Como town centre. The weather had picked up just in the nick of time and we all set out along Lake Como in all our yellow LDA jersey glory.

 Leaving from The Best Western in Como

Participants & Crew @ Lake Como

Stage 1 was a relatively flat stage to ease us into what was to come on day two's route through the Simplon Pass. Such was our eagerness that a group of us missed the right turn for Lago di Lugano (glacial lake in the SE of Switzerland on the Italian border) and went some 20kms out of the way ultimately adding an extra 40km for our days total. The Aussies "Maca", "The Big Unit" (due to his sheer size on the bike), Pete the Kiwi dentist, Chris the limey, Ruane the big Dane and myself were the brunt of a running joke that lasted 2 days. It was mainly I who was at fault but they were all stupid enough to follow! Our route took us along the shore of Lago di Lugano via the town of Lugano and on to Lago Maggiore, the 3rd of the prealpine lakes of Italy. We were moving a long at a nice pace, stopping occassionally to make sure we were headed in the right direction this time and to take a few snaps of the breathtaking scenery.

It was fairly clear early on that there were a few levels in terms of cycling ability. What was most evident was that there wasn't a bad cyclist in the group. Everyone was in great shape and excited about taking to the Alpes. Some of the crew had already cycled 3000kms from Palermo in Sicily to Como - hardcore!

With 150km on the clock we rolled up to our first of many campsites just outside the Swiss town of Locarno. The icy mountain stream water proved a very refreshing leg healer. Apparently the freezing water is a good way to stem the bleeding micro tears that appear on musle tissue after strenuous activity.

The campsite itself was nice and rustic but full of teenagers intent on wrecking our buzz! Very little sleep was had that night due those muppets and the fact that I was freezing my balls off inside the tent. What I don't know about camping is not worth knowing. I've since purchased a new sleeping bag and therma rest and am sleeping much better.

A little about our support crew. We have a mechanic called Richard, a couple of fine chefs called Japp and Astrid, Marcel the bag man and the boss himself Wilbert. All Dutch except for Astrid who hails from Denmark. They are all great characters and uber organised, unlike myself. Every morning I struggle to pack up all my shit, eat as much food as possible, fill my biddons, pump my tires and apply some sun cream before departure at 8am, SHARP. Not an Irish 8 O clock! I usually have to ride fast to catch the peloton for the first few kms.

Tuesday and Stage 2 was going to be the first big test, The Simplon Pass @ 2,008 m.