Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Paranoia goes on

I think it's pure paranoia when you ask a question you don't want to hear the answer. And when you get the answer you didn't want to hear, you just go asking somebody else trying to get an answer that pleases you.

Well:

Paranoia kicks in.

Ofcourse weather is KEY FACTOR on this ride.

And how couldn't we get caught by the pre-ride forecast paranoia?

Well, I don't believe in long term forecast (where long is bigger than one day), but this is what's going to be, apparently:

Maps for Umbrail & Rombo

Here the maps of the two new Passes mentioned on previous post:
Umbrail:



and Rombo:

What about 29 or 30 passes?

I was talking with my buddy about the route.

What came out, after a more details map evaluation is the following:
The road on section 32 (from Misurina to Carbonin) steps by a place called Col S.Angelo ... that is, on some maps, referred as a PASS!!
Not enough: The following section (33) goes through a place called Cimabanche: another pass (see wiki in Italian, or in German).

What about this then:
On section 22 when we reach town San Leonardo Passiria, we could, before leading north-east toward Monte Giovo Pass, turning north-west and reach the Rombo Pass (almost 2500 mt), stop on top, turn back ward and get back down to San Leonardo Passiria and continue with our scheduled route.

Same idea could be for Umbrail Pass, right on the Stelvio ramp (section 13).
Moreover on our return from Switzerland, after Fuorn Pass (section 19) we can arrive to St Maria in Mustair, turn south on Umbrail, join AGAIN Stelvio, continue back down to Spondigna (section 20) and then going on. Amount of KM would be the same, but we'd add ANOTHER pass, without counting that we'd repeat half of the Stelvio.

This is becoming a monster!
Suggestion welcome ;-)

5 days to go...

I am training in these days. Yesterday 8 passes, 350km.
The more I ride around, the more I think the limit isn't time, but our strength.
In the beginning I thought we cannot make it, just impossible to do it from 0500am to say 11pm. But after having ridden hard in these days, I see WE CAN DO IT. I can do 350km of mountain in 5 hours easily. Multiply 3 and we're about in the figures, with still 3hs left.

What puzzles me is WILL WE BE ABLE TO RIDE STOPLESS SO LONG?

That's the real challenge.

Bikes are being checked. Today I check carburettors as over 2200mt height it gets too rough. Also I wanna balance carburettors. My buddy is servicing it and have MOT done too.

Today I'll just test ride the bike after what I've to do, and probably won't ride it till monday (the day). I'll just quickly ride it to nearby gas station on sat, to fill it up to the very top.