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Key Figures

Now that it is over and we took a few days to relax, it is time to debrief. You might already know that I really like statistics. As Sonia is saying; it is always good to put numbers on our pain!

Here are the key figures:

Days: 12 days
Rolling time: 64:45 hours
Kilometers: 752.52 km
Elevation gains: 24,263 meters
Average rolling time per day: 5:24 hours
Average distance per day: 62.71 km
Average elevation gains per day: 2,022 meters
Maximum rolling time per day: 7:07 hours (stage 3)
Maximum distance per day: 105.13 km (stage 3)
Maximum elevation gains per day: 3,012 meters (stage 4)
Total pounds I lost: 12 pounds…
Amount raised for United Way/Centraide: $3,292.63 (51 donors)

Thanks to all who supported us!

We finished the Transalp!

We are now in Riva del Garda. This is the end of our journey.

The last stage was not a rest. The last pass of 1,000 meters was very steep. Most of it was at 12% and some sections at 18%. To add to the degree of difficulty, tons of stinging flies were following us. Knowing that this was the last challenge we were taking our last energies to move us out of this hell.

We are very proud of the accomplishment and today we feel weird of not having to get our things together for another stages. It has been 12 days we have the same routine every morning. It was important for us to start early to finish not too late.

Our daily routine was:
-Wake-up at 7:15
-Breakfast when it opens at 7:30
-Putting on cycling gears and packing
-Leaving for the stage at 8:45
-Eating energy bar every hour
-Stopping for lunch in small restaurant along the way
-Struggling to finish the stage before 6 pm
-Taking recovery drinks
-Washing clothes
-Having dinner around 7 - 7:30
-Studying the next stage %grades
-Going to sleep @ 9 pm or so

Now we are in Riva and having nothing to do... We will find things. We need to start thinking packing our bikes. We have two connections on the way back (London and Halifax)and we know that every connection is a challenge for the cardboard boxes. Last year the boxes arrived in Montreal very damaged. We packed them in a rush in Milan without having much padding and tape. This time we will try to pack them in advance in Riva.

The Austrians are following us

This is almost the end of the Transalp. We completed stage 7 today. It was only 40 km. Sonia and I were in good shape and climbed very comfortably the 900 meters pass. Tomorrow we will arrive in Riva del Garda the final destination. We will have took 10 days to do the 8 stages. We also added two bonus stages for a total of 12 cycling days.

As we are finishing our trip, many of you are probably asking why we like doing something this? It is not the typical vacation and for some this is the opposite from a vacation. I will try to explain.

1) It is an adventure - We are all by our self and we try to go from point A to point B. The GPS is guiding but we are discovering remote areas that we would never discovered without this.
2) We like the outdoors - We like spending our vacation outside. The Alps is a wonderful décor.
3) We like the challenge - The Transalp is not easy. Every stage is difficult and we get a feel of proud completing each climb.
4) It is a a complete cleanup - In our regular life we don’t have much time to train. This two-week training is a complete reset. I don’t know how much pounds I will loose but there is no two-week training more efficient than this.
5) We like good food - Everywhere we stop, food is delicious. Even small village bistro serves good food. This year we discovered more Tyrolean local food.
6) None of us are reasonable - No one is stopping and trying to resonate each other. When I’m tired; Sonia is pushing me and when she is I’m the one doing it.

Last night we were surprised to see the Austrians that we have met earlier this week arriving at the same hotel. They are not doing the same course as we are doing but the ended up in the same small village. I’m sure that when they saw Sonia this reminds them bad souvenirs (being passed by a girl). They speak little English and were impressed to hear about our trip (km and elevation gain). Respect… They are ending up in Riva too. One big advantage they have is that two of their parents are carrying their luggage in a van! So we carry at least 45 pounds more.

What went wrong with Stage 7 GPS info?

I believe we start being tired. Yesterday I was telling you that my average heart rate was 110 bpm. Today after a 1,200 meters elevation gain climb my average heart rate was 100 bpm and I haven‘t been over 139 bpm! In normal days it would be an average of 145 bpm and a max of 170 bpm. Anyway, this is boring stuff but it is just to say that we feel the last 10 epic days.

Today was a difficult start. First because we were tired (yes we are) we took a long time to activate. Second we got to change Sonia’s disk brake pads. The last descend yesterday was very steep. The brakes melted in the 10 km. Last, we started to follow the GPS track to realize we were doing the same route as yesterday backward. For some reason the stage 7 GPS info were the same as for Stage 6. We got stressed for a moment since without GPS info we cannot do what we are doing. We are not following roads and each stage contains hundreds of direction changes. We cannot rely on the road book for the directions; we would be watching them every 5 minutes. Hopefully I was having a backup of the GPS information on the Netbook (I‘m glad I bring it). We stopped in a park and connected the GPS watch to upload the real Stage 7 track. Voila!

Stage 7 was 102 km. Right from the start we were knowing that we would not be able to make it. We started too late and we were not having the stamina to do a long stage like this. Also we don’t want to arrive too early in Riva del Garda. Riva is beautiful, may be too beautiful. It is a tourist magnet. The crowd is a mix of windsurfers, mountain bikers and people just enjoying the beach. In the last two weeks we are used to remote areas where only mountain bikers, hikers and cows were able to get there.

We could have done the 60 km we did on road bikes. There was not a single section of off-road. On the 60 km, the only effort was a 15 km climb of 1,200 meters of elevation gain (between 6% and 9% grade). We did much tougher in the past days but still we were very happy to see the top. 15 km is long when you are climbing with no break.

On another note, Italians are really into cycling. Especially the retirees. There are groups of 70 years-old everywhere climbing the road passes of the Dolomites. This is very impressive.

Just two more stages left

Today was our 9th day cycling between 5 and 7 hours per day. This doesn't includes breaks. It is surprising that we are still able to continue. We are tired in the evening (i will keep this blog short since I want to go to sleep) but in the morning we are okay. Our average heart rate frequency is indicating that we are in over training. The average in the first stage was 140 bpm and it is now under 110 bpm. We never go over 160 bpm anymore.

With last year Transalp, the Dolomites trip in 2004 and the two bonus stages we did earlier this week we covered most of the North East part of Italy (Dolomites). We now feel we know the area. There are even trails we did twice. It is a very beautiful region.

It is surprising to see how much we are able to cover on our bicycles. Today we did 76km and we are in a completely different area. Tomorrow we hope doing 102km. Those number of KM are okay when you ride regular landscape. The Transalp course is always trying to find the hardest way to go from one point to another. Today we crossed a pass of 26%. 26% = 26 meters of elevation gain for every 100 meters! It is not cycling; it is climbing! Even the downhill are challenging. The way down to the final in Predazzo was very steep and scary at some point. I might have to change my new brake pads before the end of the trip. They were new. I also broke another spoke yesterday while climbing.

We just have two more stages before arriving in Riva del Garda. We will have done 11 cycling days.

If you haven't contributed to our United Way/Centraide fund raising, please do so. I will not bog you once the trip is over.

www.estrie.centraide.ca/read_document.cfm?id=4058

Leaving Cortina

Last night we had again a very good dinner. Italians know the art of dining. With all the good food we enjoyed since the beginning, I’m not sure we lost weight!

Oh well, now it’s time to go back to Arraba. With our map from the info center and the owner’s we found a route back through the mountains and had it validated by the Refugio’s owner. We were good to go by this very sunny day.

The first part was pretty steep and we had to push the bike for a bit. But after that part, it was an amazing ride on ridge and valleys. My moment of glory was when I (Sonia) passed on my bike a bunch of Austrian guys who were pushing their bikes on a rocky climb. I gave all I could to make it, but it was worth it. I honored the Leader jersey from Alyson Sydor that I was wearing.

At km 24, the mountain part of that ride was done and the Austrians way behind. It was time to climb back the same pass as yesterday but from another side and from a higher starting point. I can tell that once up there we were tired but luckily, once the 17 km downhill done only 10 km were separating us from Arraba.

In a nutshell - we had a great day and we’re now ready to complete the next stage.