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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.

Transalp is too easy; we decided to add bonus stages

Sonia decided that the Transalp was too easy and that we should add bonus stages! Today we went off course and left Arraba for Cortina d’Ampazzo, home of the 1956 winter Olympic. This is not part of the Transalp course and we will come back to Arraba tomorrow to continue the three remaining stages. We were in Cortina in 2004 and we really enjoyed our stay. We remembered the beautiful “refugios” in the mountain and promised ourselves that we should stay in one of them someday. In order to get there we took the asphalt route and climbed the Falzarego pass. This is a 17 “tonanti” climb that is used during some of the Giro d’Italia race. Sonia and I never climbed European passes like this in the past and were not knowing what to expect. The climb was not as steep as our everyday courses and I guess we were in shape that morning because we did it in a very good time..

We are now in a Refugio called Malga Ra Stua (www.malgarastua.com). We are considering this a rest day even if we did 55 km. We are now out of GPS route and we will need to get directions from the locals to get back to Arraba.

“No day off” Sonia has said

This morning I suggested Sonia for a day off in order to recover of the last two big stages. No way Sonia said. I felt a little weak of suggesting…

Today’s stage was supposed to be an easy one. There are no easy stage on the Transalp. There is a always a difficulty. If it is not the climbs, it is the km. Today it was the climbs. Not necessarily long ones but some steep. We did a few 16% (160 meters of elevation gain over 1 km).
We arrived in Arraba (another small ski village) around 5 pm. This place is not far from Cortina d’Ampezzo. This was the destination of one of a previous bike trip several year ago. This is where we first got the idea of doing a Transalp. At that time we met a few Germans that were doing it. We felt it was a good idea for a future vacation. It is now our second Transalp now…

We now have our rhythm. We completed the last three stages. It makes 5 stages in 6 days. If the weather was not as bad at the beginning we would probably been able to finish all our stages. Based on the profile of the 7th stages we will probably not complete it in one day.

We need some more support for Centraide/United Way for us to finish the Transalp. Please makes your contribution! Thank you very much for your help!

United Way: http://www.estrie.centraide.ca/read_document.cfm?id=4058

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA83F34C460B8C1C

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Pitch12345

MacGyver fixed the seat post bag

The first challenge of the day was to fix the seat post bag that got broken in yesterday’s climb. We stopped in small Italian bike shop. The mechanic was not speaking English or French but with sign language I managed to get the parts needed to repair the handle of the seat post bag. This is a relief.

Now that this was fixed our moral was pump up to face this tough stage. We forgot our difficult some of the climbs of the Transalp can be difficult. It is so depressing when you are you rushing on the small gear for a long time and you realize that you only did 0.5 km. It was a never ending climb. We were fearing the second climb since it was a similar shape to the first one in loose gravel and that we were already having the first one in the legs. At the start of the climb we were already tired and not knowing how we will able to make it. We did it and we were very proud of our accomplishment.

We will enjoy our short stay at the CONDOR hotel in St-Vigil! You see that I haven’t completely disconnect from the office. Okay, it is not true; I completely disconnected. A trip like this completely clear you mind as you focus on the effort.

Back on the road!

Seems like the day-off paid-up: 1) We are now out of the rain/snow weather 2) we finished the third stage of 97km including the biggest climb of the Transalp 1,600 meters. As you will see on the videos, we started the 30 km climb under heavy rain and fog. Our new rain gears make the difference. Cycling under rain is not the most enjoyable but with the proper equipment it is okay.

We got another stress when one of the seat post bag broke in the middle of the climb. The constant bumps broke the handle and even MacGiver was not able to fix it. I had the fit the bag on my back pack for the rest of the ride. The added weight is okay but this will have an impact on my rear…

We reached the top of the climb at the Pfitscherjoch (2200 meters). The scenic was similar to the Geiseljoch two days ago: snow and in the clouds. Still it was better than the other day with our new cloths.

The top of the climb was also the border of Austria and Italy. We started the descend in Italy and quickly the sky open up. That was the first time since several days that we were able to see the wonderful mountains that surrounds us.

Even if there was 67 km left when we reached the Pfitscherjoch, the rest of the ride went relatively well. Still 97 km on our mountain bike (not a road bike), climbing 30 km 1,600 meters loaded like donkeys makes us pretty proud.

We are now in Brixen, Italy, a fortified city. The old Brixen is very nice but it is a larger city than what we are used to. We will try to find a bike shop tomorrow in order to fix the seat post bag. After this it is a difficult fourth stage with two 1,400 meters elevation climbs. Not long (67 km) but with the elevation gain (3000 meters) we should be tired at the end.

Day off in Vorderlanersbash

The weather was not improving this morning. It is steady rain and cold. It is probably snowing on top of the Pfitscherjoch our next most important pass. We decided taking a day off. The hotel here is so nice that it was a good place to take a day off. Sonia and I are just back from shopping for rain gears. We bought for 200 euros of stuff (rain coat, shoe covers, waterproof gloves and socks). We are also refilling our Powerbar stash. This is basically all we are eating during a typical biking day. It means we will have more weight to carry... We estimated that we are carrying about 45 pounds each on our back and seat post bag. It really makes a difference in the climbs. I broke a spoke on my rear wheel and my chain in the first day while climbing. Our bikes are new but suffers from the extra weight.

Don't be shy posting comments on our blog or Twitter. Don't send emails; we are not looking at them. After today we might not have Internet connection for a while.

Day 3 - Short but difficult

We were thinking that we would finish stage 2 and may be able to do stage 3 (+ 94 km). Forget about it... We ended up only doing 23 km! See the videos and you will understand.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA83F34C460B8C1C

There was no way we would continue longer. We were freezing and trying to find any piece of cloth to warm us on the way down. The next cycling store we are going to buy the proper gears since the weather doesn't seem to improve. It was raining, it is still raining and forecast predicts rain...

Now we stopped in a 4-star hotel in Vorderlanersbach (this means small ski town in German). Internet is free and we are taking advantage of it to upload videos and posts.

We will see tomorrow how is the weather. We might take a day off and wait for better weather.

Summary of Stage 2 (part of it anyway!)

We left Reith around 9:30 after a good Austrian breakfast. The weather is still cloudy but not rainy. The day started with a 8-km climb pretty easy. The second climb had a steeper beginning but we were still doing ok til the rain started for about 30 minutes. We were soaking wet and it was obvious that we didn't bring the appropriate clothing for that weather. We'll be looking for a sport shop to buy shoe covers and rain coats.

At least it wasn't too cold and we manage to change in a ski resort where we had lunch as well. After a spag and couple coffees we were ready to go again. The rain started at the top and when were going downhill, of course we were frozing. We knew that we were not to get to the finish. It was already 4:15 and we had still 40 km to go. We then decided to stop to a small town, at 1/3 of the third climb, where we were supposed to find lodging. Finally there was none but a local restaurant referred us to a person who rents her house. Back to the basics, no central heating, had to start the water heater for the shower, no fridge, but it was a roof over our head, a real tyrolian experience and a place to dry our clothes.

For dinner we had to go to THE restaurant of the place, the only one: two tables, three smokers and a dimension of 7 x 8. Anyhow the food and beer were good. Tomorrow should be a longer day.

Summary of Stage 1

First stage is done! What we were thinking would be easy an stage turned into a difficult one. For the first time in a Transalp stage we were not having to fight with the warm and humid temperature. Today was humid and freezing cold and our arm and leg warmers were appreciated! 85 km with only two good climbs of 900 and 600 elevation meters but on the way down from the first one it started to rain heavily. It was not warm rain, it was almost snowing. Sonia and I were having difficulty to shift gears as our fingers were so frozen. It was so cold going down that we were looking forward to go back up. At the bottom of the hill we stopped and changed cloths. There was not place to go inside to do this since we were in a very remote area; no restaurant and no hotel for at least 15 km. Hopefully the rain stopped after this we warmed up as we were climbing the second one. After this climb it was almost over since it was all downhill for 30 km.

We are now in Reith; a beautiful small Austrian village. We are planning having a nice meal. No more sauerkraut! Sonia got two yesterday! It is difficult to guess the German menu. We should add 5 pounds to my official weight for the “Biggest Looser” sponsorship. I was weighting 190 pounds when I left Montreal but now with yesterday’s German meals I gained 5 pounds before starting the Transalp…

Tomorrow should be difficult. It is a rollercoaster profile: A first climb of 600 meters, than one of 900 meters and finally a last one of 1,400 meters. It is also 87 km. If it is not too warm, rainy or too cold, we should be able to make it.

United Way: http://www.estrie.centraide.ca/read_document.cfm?id=4058

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA83F34C460B8C1C

Twitter:

Transalp 2009 for United Way

This summer again we are going to cross the Alps on Mountain Bikes. I know it is difficult to understand that after doing it once in 2008 we decided to do it again... for vacation... I guess we are looking for challenges and the Transalp is a good one.

The Transalp Challenge is an annual mountain bike race. Some say it is the toughest race in the world. It is 8 days covering more than 600 km. 600 km is not so much but it is a lot when you have to climb more than 20,000 meters! Imagine a Tour de France on dirt road and singletrack trails.

Sonia and I are not going to do the race. We are going to do the course of the 2007 Transalp course. Last year we crossed the Alps in 11 days doing between 50 km and 80 km.

New this year we decided to use this event to collect funds for United Way. Three plans are available:

- The “Lance Armstrong” – 1 penny per metre of elevation gain ($208)
- The “Keep going” – 10 cents per kilometre ($62)
- The “Biggest loser” – $1 per pound that Philippe loses during the trip ($15)

All those funds are given to United Way and you will be receiving a donation receipt. Card Payment is accepted. All you have to do is click http://www.estrie.centraide.ca/read_document.cfm?id=4058 to enter the amount of the donation corresponding to your sponsorship plan. (Please indicate "CCH" in the comment box.)

Thanks for encouraging us by supporting United Way.