Epic-Race across the Alps from Bill

What: Race across the alps in 7 days, 880 km, 18,000 meters of climbing.

Who: Bill Birrell, Matt Miller (Crashed)

When: June 28th to July 4th 2009

Result: Bill: 36:18:02. 16th in solo riders out of 32.

Brief report as 7 days is a long time and I did not find the time to
do daily logs this year.

My teammate crashed at 40 mph on a rainy descent on stage 2 and we
spent the evening in an emergency room 50 miles from the stage finish.
Fortunately he landed in a cow pasture, as opposed to a off a cliff,
but unfortunately for Matt he somehow landed on top of his bike.

The bike is ok, but the kidney that landed on it was bruised. Enough
people's teammates crash out, that the race organizers created a
singles category, but you are relegated to start at the very back
which makes it challenging to reach the pack you want to ride with.
Moving up through approx. 500 riders without blowing yourself up
before you hit the big climbs is an interesting skill.

Course was epic this year, with stage 5 bringing the Stelvio (14 km at
9.1%) followed by two other passes. THis was the warmup to what the
German's called the King stage: 5 passes in 181 km including the
legendary Gavia. Fortunately we had better weather than Andy Hampsten,
but it was not in the road book that the last 5 km. on the Gavia are
mostly at 10%!

Scenery was beautiful and my darling wife drove from one town to the
other. I was one of the most pampered in the bunch.

Learned a great deal from my powermeter this year. I had been
undergearing on the long climbs - resorting to the easiest gear to
save myself way too soon. Turned out all I really needed was a 34X25.
Figured this out on day 3, and suddenly I found myself climbing in the
front half of the field. With the range of abilities that is not as
amazing a statement as it might seem. But I was pleased because it
meant that I stayed in the closed roads for nearly all of the final
stages, coming in 1 to 2 hours behind the leaders.

Still I remain pure packfill: my average speed: 24.4 kph. The winners:
32.6 kph!

The last descent on Stage 5 was rainy and cold, but somehow I didn't
feel it. That night my wife said a seemed really hot (normally a great
thing). On the hot climbs on the last day, I was not sweating at all.
I finished, but didn't really feel that great. By 3 days after the
race, I had a lung infection. It is hard not laugh when an Italian
doctor tells you in broken english, "You lungs, you should not get let
so bad." Oh, well.

Will be doing a slide show sometime soon, so if you want to know more
about a great cycling event, watch your inbox!

Cheers!

Bill