Oficially a rest day but we felt like a ride anyhow. So after a bit of a sleep in we got out and a group of us went up Passo Pordoi. Wanted to take it all pretty easy but competitive juices started to flow. US guy Dave was very strong but half way up he changed gears and suddenly slowed – so I kept the pace and took the lead – over the next few km he slowly clawed his way back to my wheel, passing me with about 1 km to go. I still felt pretty good and thought I’d have another go as he clearly thought he had be beat. So I dropped a gear an lifted the pace from 12-13kms to 16-18kms and started to close the gap. I took the lead with about 200 meters to go and then Dave came again. So in a sprint finish I held on to win. that was a bit of fun – we even had applause from the tourists up the top. I guess they saw 15 odd Team CSC guys and thought we were the team. Beautiful sunshine, awsome mountains, good coffee, lots of photo opportunities on the way down – getting more & more confident with the down the hills
Then later today mountain picnic – walk of about 4 km up the hills, actually quite hard on the legs. Nice rolls, wine and a great pear – very pretty, sunny a little like “The Hills are Alive”. Walk back, great Gelato for 1 euro, dinner later on after we discover the hotel, pool, & sauna’s – niiiiice
