Great Scott!

After the first couple of days Oskar was having some brake issues. We stopped by the SRAM tent and they were not helpful at all...Apparently they are much better in the US! By chance we stopped at the Scott tent and Oskar asked if they could fix it. They said yes and that it would be ready later in the evening (even though they had 100+ bikes that they were working on). He went back and they had it done, they only charged him 10 Euro and they had replaced the rear brake pads as well! Today we found out that as long as you have a Scott they will clean it up and check it over for free every night! That is some seriously awesome service! It looks like on top of having great products they have great service. Yet another reason to consider buying bikes from them. We are on our way now to pick our bikes up. I can't believe how awesome they are.

This was the climb that was supposedly warmish, it was not snowing there when we started the stage. Thankfully they decided to end the stage early, before the second climb. It's really hard when the only way to know that you are braking is because the bike is slowing down, not because you can feel the brake levers! However, we persevered and we are now in Alleghe, Italy. It's pretty here, hopefully the weather will be pleasant so that we can enjoy it!

The dinner last night was a pleasant surprise! A decent change from the usual pasta with sauce.

Pics from today and Garmin Data

Stage 4 Garmin Data:

And now the mountains show up!

Today was a very difficult day. I would be lying if I said it was lots of fun! It was actually somewhat miserable, not something that I ever want to do again. The feeling of this stage is somewhat similar to the feeling that I had after the Ore2Shore a few years back...

It wasn't all bad though. It was our best daily placing so far with 63rd in the mens category so that was promising. I definitely found my limit mentally. After the "final" climb there was still lots of climbing and that got to me. Especially after many kilometers throughout the day of 20+ percent grades that would go on and on.

Here is a picture of the food that they were serving at the finish. It was a pretty simple seeming pasta salad, but it was delicious!

Sleeping is easy now, there is no problem with that...the eating is becoming more difficult. It's hard to eat enough, I'm not sure how the riders in 3 week long tours deal with it!

Garmin Data

Stage 1:

Stage2:

Stage3:

From sunburn to frostbite!

It was a great day to be a yooper! As we were on the start line the temperature at the pass was 2C! It was raining hard and everyone was worried about being too cold. In the back of our minds we knew the descent would be the coldest. As we neared the top there was fresh snow on the ground. Luckily it has only been since April that we had snow so it wasn't such a big deal. That and it must have been 5C by the time we reached the top. We were relieved to be over the top but that was only the first 30km of a 95km stage! It wasn't long and there was a group of 20-30 riders flying down the valley. Kind of like a road race on mountain bikes which many would argue is not fun at all, but there is a certain amount of adrenaline when you are going nearly 50 mph into switchbacks. It's kind of scary!

It was a good day though. We were 81st today which should have us somewhere around 90th after three stages.

A teaser...More to come