ITALY DIVIDE 2018

My second bikepacking race ever was the ITALY DIVIDE, a 935km self supported non-stop adventure with 15’000m difference in altitude. It follows fast rolling gravel roads with quite a few technical MTB trails (Via degli Dei/Monte Baldo).

I explored the wild and remote Italy with a nice mix of history along the trail. During this adventure starting at the historical centre of Rome, I cycled through Siena, Florence, Bologna, Verona, Mantova and finally arrived in Torbole on the shore of lake Garda after crossiing two big mountains. 

Highlight I

The countless nice places I passed.

Highlight II

The great Italian food -  in restaurants or on the bike ;-)

Highlight III

The contrast of remote, lonesome biking and then crossing the  nice historical cities.

Highlight IV

A lot of nice bkepacking collegues I met before, during and after the race.

Highlight IV

The hospitality of the Parparo Vecchio team cooking great food and offered dry place to sleep when I arrived late in the night. At 3 a. m. I was just ready to jump on the bike a storm passed and I had to wait 4 hours longer than planned. After checking the position of the ohter riders, I realized, that two Czech colleagues I met so many times before, were freezeing in front of the door. I let them in and we waited till the storm passed. 

Highlight V

Cycling in the night and early mornings is like being on drugs - absolutely addictive. 

Lowlight I

Navigating with my GARMIN Oregon 720 was a real nightmare.

1. Due to very similar color of the actual track and some roads I I got lost several times and had to make big detours. This is very frustrating and a real flow killer. 

2. I had to change batteries minimum every 4 hour.

I returned the device back to GARMIN, they did a warranty exchange, I paid some extra so I have a new Garmin Edge 1030 for the next tour :-)

Lowlight II

The side effect from extrem long riding is that I get numb fingers and tows. It is way better than after the NAVAD 1000 last year, but still, it takes months to be back in original condition.

Another health issue are the bloated feets/legs and the blisters on my ass, but furtunately this is healing pretty quickly.

Lowlight III

I had a head-on collision with a biking woman coming on the wrong side around a corner shortly before Bologna. Beside some minor scratches, a broken break lever and grip nothing serious. After a repair stop in a nice bike shop I was able to continue.

Lessons learned

1. Find my speed, listen to my inner voice instead of trying to follow others.

2. I hate power gels (aka robo food) but sometimes its better than to run out of energy.

3. Always take an extra litre of fresh water with you, running out of water is about the worst thing that can happen.

4. Enjoy the highs and overcome the lows.

Schwarzwald Bike Marathon

I like when things turn out better than expected…

It was raining like hell last Saturday afternoon, when I picked up Nello and his two kids. After dropping of the kids at his parents-in-laws place 45 minutes later Google maps still showed another 1.5 hours to Furtwangen (Black Forest, Germany) where we planned to participate in the bike marathon on Sunday morning.

OSPA at full trottle at the Black Forest Marathon

The rain kept on even worse and we somehow felt like squeezing our adventure into a anyway short weekend. So what, we said, but we were not really convinced this was going to be fun.

After finding a suitable parking for the motorhome we had just enough time to register and loading some carb at the pasta party. As it was still raining and seemed to get colder and colder we were unsure for which distance we should register for, 60km or 90km. After checking the weather with several Apps, we decided to trust the one with the best forecast – expecting the rain to stop just about for the start of the race. We finally decided to go for the longer one with 90km and 2300 m elevation gain.

I suffered from slight stomach pain and occasional sh… since a couple days, but I was hoping it wouldn’t really bother me during the competition. After two plates of pasta we went back and had a cup of tea, delicious cookies and a good talk – something we missed in the last months. Since we work together at andiron, we meet each other more often, but we rarely take the time to talk about the really important topics in our lives 😉

I love to sleep in the camper when its raining. Hearing the drops knocking on the roof is the best mantra I can imagine – except before a bike marathon. Good night!

Next morning

Ready, steady, GO!

Nello got up first (as always…) and announced dry conditions outside. When I opened the window I was positively surprised and I thought to spot a tiny little blue of the sky between the clouds what gave a optimistic mood. Bacon and eggs is not the recommended sports breakfast but we don’t care – on Sundays we deserve and enjoy it – white bread, orange-ginger jam and Italian coffee nicely round up our breakfast ceremony. A little massage, packing the bike and off we went to win the battle.

Seconds after take-off

In contradiction of yesterday evening Furtwangen turned from a quiet, deserted hicktown into a vibrant small city, so it was not easy to find our way to the start area.  With the first shafts of sunlight the start led us through the city center and shortly after we left the pavement and entered the beautiful countryside.While I could well keep the pace in the flat, many riders passed me at the first real uphill and also Nello passed me without noticing it, as I learned later.

The first hour / approx. 20 km I was unable to find my rhythm, my stomach was jammed and I could hardly breath and many of the riders passed me. Even though I was sure, that I would catch-up with most of them in the later phase of the race, it was difficult to keep calm and go my own speed. As I arrived at the first food station Nello was just about to take off. He was fairly surprised to see me and couldn’t believe I was behind him since almost the beginning of the race.

Riding together between kilometer 20 to approx. 35 was a real highlight - Yeaphiii...!!!

So we took of together and enjoyed the nice Black Forest and the beautiful track. The weather got better and better and it reminded me 5 years back, when rode together at the Transalp.

As I looked back after the next food stop I suddenly realized, that I had lost Nello. I tried to keep up my own pace and enjoyed some nice fights with other riders. As I passed one for the fifth time, he turned his head and said, “you have a very nice bike” – “thanks mate” I returned and kept on with pride.

The track mostly on wide forestry roads and some nice single tracks is a real pleasure to ride, but over time, I tended ride a bit to risky and had a moment of shock in a steep downhill when I suddenly had some big steps ahead of me. I had no chance to stop, so I just held to the handlebar and jumped over, as some smaller bumps followed I was lucky to not crash. With some more adrenalin I attacked the next uphill and thanked my guardian angel for taking care of me so well.

I saw no other rider with large tyres like mine, and generally get a lot of reactions from spectators but also competitors. 

The race is really well organized and with total 7 food stations on 90 km never to far, even if you lose your bottle as I did. The last kilometers, mostly flat I joined a nice bunch of riders, together we passed a lot of other riders, that probably started the race a bit to fast.

A nice sprint to end the race.

Nello arrived some minutes later and except a short crisis, he also enjoyed the race.

After a short, cold shower (sorry Nello, it will not happen again) in the camper, we left Furtwangen with a big smile on our face. After a short stop in a nice café to eat a big piece of Black Forest Cake we safely arrived home.

As we passed the Swiss border a SMS from Datasport informed that I finished the race on 5th place in my age group - what more could I want?