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.