First casualty was Flynn who had a big night carb [beer]-loading the night before and missed the train that got him to Gatwick in time to get his bike bag on the plane. You'd think an hour before check-in closes would be enough but not for the baggage handlers in Gatwick. On arrival at Verona airport things were looking bleak...
The comedy moment came when the Italian female version of Hitler appeared briefly to announce:
"MR FLYNN?? MR FLYNN?? NO BAG [waggling her finger as if telling him off]"
At which point she turned around and disappeared into the office booth she'd come out of with no further explanation.
3 hours to Alta Badia, the longest espresso stop ever and a couple of hairy overtaking efforts later, we arrived at our pretty smart looking hotel.
We warmed up that evening with a quick 1 hr 45 climb and descent of the Passo Valparola. Which in fact was quite steep and the altitude, having just arrived, made it quite punishing on both lungs and legs.
Up bright and early the next morning, TGS on Tour was looking sharp. Flynn was still in bed reliant on BA's Italian courier service delivering his bike. L-R Paddy 'Thin', WJD, Gibson, The Tank, The Fish, Beard [still looking fresh....not for long] and Pugh [having realised the benefit of wearing cycle attire as opposed to his school rugby kit].
Day 2, first climb, half way up the Passo Campolongo surrounded by plenty of cows complete with bells and the stunning Dolomites in the background. Beard still looking surprisingly happy.
From the Passo Campolongo we enjoyed the long descent towards Digonera and Caprile.
Averaging circa 45kph and riding out in 'the train' made it a bit dodgy taking photos...
Heading towards the top of the Passo Duran, which we descended from and went straight up the Passo Staulanza. As I cycled past this sign and thought, wow / I'm feeling pretty shattered right now / that is steep, I heard Mark shout out 'what the f*ck!!!'. The climb had been pretty savage up to that point and we didn't need this further encouragement from the Italian authorities.
The top of the Staulanza provided the opportunity to enjoy an epic spaghetti bolognaise which they whipped up after we arrived: just 5 minutes before the kitchen closed. It had been a long morning / early afternoon and I hate to think what would have happened if we'd all stayed with Beard to tow him up the hill and missed lunch. There would certainly have been tears. Once we'd had the first round of spaghetti we realised quite how broken Beard and his 'dominators' [no more it would appear] really were. We had to send the waitress back twice to keep the pasta warm for our late arrival.
Some of the boys proceeded to tuck into their second portion
And finally - to our relief by now - he appeared on the horizon. A broken man.
By this point most of the staff had lost interest in any further customers arriving. Some had moved on to their afternoon siesta already.
And this set the scene for the rest of the afternoon. Quite a bit of waiting. Although this gave Flynn the chance to catch up with us having received his bike at the hotel that afternoon.
And we found him a few moments later tucking into his very late lunch, complete with bike [although no sign of the big red nasty quite yet].
And then onto the final climb up the Compolongo (coming up the other side that we'd descended down that morning) which gave me the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that the girls didn't always bring up the rear of the group. Here we see The Tank dragging Beard up the final drag.
Best photo from the first day: on our way up the Compolongo first thing. The geography of the Dolomites makes them both imposing and incredibly beautiful.
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