We think today was Race Day. Actually, we’re pretty sure despite the confusion and lukewarm interest. When it comes to Race Day, we know Markham wins. It’s likely an Eastie–Charles–will finish second. There are a number of candidates for third. Race Day has lost some of its suspense.

The Gavia is another epic mountain in Giro lore. It is here that Andy Hampsten crossed the summit in the snow and cemented his Giro win in 1988–our lead blog post in this series. It is the Stelvio’s little brother, 150 m. lower elevation, a couple km shorter, 2% less steep. That leaves plenty of mountain to test a bike rider, including 3 red sections (over 10%).

It was close to 40 degrees when we pedaled away from our hotel in Bormio at 9:15 this morning. The road went immediately up. Of course–every road goes up from these Dolomite ski base towns. 12 km later we came to the base of the Gavia climb. We had an informal and disorganized start, meaning the Westies took off up the road before we Easties were ready. Markham and Charles gave them a 100 yd. start, then pursued and caught them within the first km. I was left at the van fiddling with something or other, and by the time I got going, I was 150 yds behind, which was OK since I retired from Race Day after last year. Nonetheless, I pursued hard for the first mile, finally catching Todd P. only to be dropped 100 yds. later. The better to enjoy the day. Markham, Charles, Rick and Todd were up the road and out of sight.

The Gavia isn’t as scenic as the Stelvio. Not bad, of course–we’re tough to please by now. But the wonderful thing is that there’s very little traffic on the Gavia. About the only cars we saw were support vehicles for other cycling groups. A few motorcyclists showed up, but not many. It was wonderfu!

True to form, Markham and Charles broke away from the Westies and reached the summit with a couple minutes to spare. Todd and Rick came over the line together to share third place. The rest of us struggled in according to our inclination and abilities. The sun was shining, the wind blowing and a few snowflakes drifted about. It was 2 deg. C.

We huddled in the coffee shop for a half hour, then geared up and headed down the other side. The 12 mi. was technical and thrilling–again, a little something for everyone. The top half was single lane with broken pavement, few guardrails, blind tight hairpins and a dark tunnel. Luckily the only traffic we met was a couple motorcycles and other cyclists so it was a rodeo to our liking. The lower half was 2 lane, smooth pavement and lovely repeated hairpins, still technical but less so. We were elated with the speed and swoosh factor by the time we reached the Andiamo van.

We dropped our warm jackets and immediately began to climb again, this time over Passo del Tonale. Tonale was 6 mi., about 6.5% average, ending with a ski town at the top. We continued over and descended again, this time on wide smooth roads with sweeping curves for miles and miles. It was absolutely delightful.

Eventually, we turned onto a bike path that followed a river toward Trento, our destination for the night. 12 mi. on the bike path brought us to a busy highway, where we once again loaded up the vans and drove 1 hour into Trento.

Our days totals: 57 mi., 6800 ft. vert.