Passo Giau & The Mouse

We woke up this morning at 7am and today was my birthday and we had a beautiful sunrise that made the mountains turn golden. I’d had a great nights sleep thanks to the sleeping pill I took an hour before bed but last night we realised we had acquired a stowaway in the form of a little mouse living on top of the fridge.
We’d heard it moving the last few nights and when we’ve been in Wanda just chilling in silence, and I initially we thought it was something to do with the flow rate of gas for the fridge but since we had refilled with LPG yesterday and still heard it we had another look at bedtime and spotted him climbing back onto the fridge top. Ellie made a trap out of bottle and baited it with cheese but he didn’t go in there, so today’s priority is finding a mouse trap.
I had plans today and it wasn’t that today was my birthday, that is just how this trip has worked out and my plan today was to climb the Passo Giau. One of the toughest Italian climbs in this region and featured almost every year in the giro de Italia. This is one of my bucket list climbs, and you can climb from 2 directions and I would be attempting it from the village of Pocol.
At 8am I was pretty much ready in my shorts, t-shirt and arm warmers and then I moved Wanda a mile down the road to a car park in Pocol and then I took the bike off the back and started preparing myself for the climb.
At 8:50am I set off, now wearing my leg warmers under my shorts and my windproof jacket aswell, it was a chilly 8°c but the clouds were still high and I had good visibility.
This climb was 11.5km long at an average gradient of 7%. 2 years ago I defiantly couldn’t have done it, last year I climbed bigger but the climb wasn’t famous and I’ve been preparing since January to climb this at a decent rate.
I stopped at the bottom to take a photo of the sign and then I started the climb proper. The first kilometre is either flat or downhill which I was pleased with but then the gradients start with the lowest being 7% and my speed slowed and I started the climb.
I had beautiful views and as I rounded a corner I just kept telling myself to get to the next one.
It was switchback after switchback and the gradient got steeper and steeper ramping up to 12% but it wasn’t the climb that got to me, it was the altitude and at 7km in I had to stop and get my breathing under control. My heart rate was 174bpm, and I knew I couldn’t sustain that.
I stopped for about 3 minutes, just long enough for my heart rate to get down to around 130bpm and take a few photos and then I set off again. I steadied my cadence average 70rpm which I knew I could sustain happily if I could keep my heart rate down.
At 7.5km in I told myself it’s just another 2500 meters and at the 2km to go mark I knew I was going to make it with no more stops.
With 1.5km to go I hard the hardest 500 meters to do at a whopping 14% but my legs felt good and I felt strong in myself and just had to keep a good breathing rhythm going and breath from my diaphragm not my lungs.
Finally I rounded the last bend and I could see the summit, I was going to make it and already felt the sense of accomplishment getting closer and then I came to the top.
I stopped at the summit with the Passo Giau sign to take a selfie of my achievement and then I was approached by a group of polish lads that wanted me to take a picture of them with there Motorhome.
Pictures out of the way it was time to head back to Wanda and as I put my helmet and gloves back in the polish lads started going down in there Motorhome waving at me.
I let them get out of sight first, I knew I would be going faster than them and then I pulled my buff around my neck, zipped my coat up and started.
The first 500 meters were pretty normal and then I came to the 14% section and I stepped in the pedals got into the highest gear and got onto the drop bars tucking my head down and arms in to be as aero as possible as I picked up speed. By the time I got to the next bend I was already doing 55kph and I was hard on the brakes and leaning into the corner at 45kph. As the bends kept coming I was pretty much like this most of the way down, and the great thing about having so many hairpin bends is that I could see there was no traffic and took the dry racing line.
I was rapidly approaching the polish lads in the Motorhome with 5km left to decend and thought I was going to have to poodle behind them, but they looked up at a bend and saw me coming and pulled over and I shot past them at 60kph and as I rounded the next bend I had a straight run downhill. I powered on tucked in and now I was flying down at 70kph. The next bend was just a kink in the road and it was clear and I didn’t even touch the brakes as I carried in flying down, the wind whooshing past was almost deafening and unbelievable cold and I could feel the top of my head freezing.
At the bottom there was a slight climb of 1 km and the poles caught me back up honking and waving as they passed, it took me 1hr and 10 mins to climb the 750m and just 18 minutes to descend all the way back to Wanda. It had been a great ride.
Back at Wanda I loaded my bike back on the back and then Ellie made me coffee and I got changed back into normal clothes.
Once dressed we then drove Wanda up the Passo Giau the same way I had just been and Ellie thought I was mad.
Back at the top I took the drone out and got some photos and then we walked to the Rui Gisla pond reflection which is basically a puddle but if you stand at it right you can get perfect reflections of the Giau mountain.
Back at Wanda it was now 1pm and we still needed a mouse trap of some kind and set off through the ski town of Cortina and out the other side to find a hardware shop.
The first one we found didn’t have one but luckily the second one had a humane trap so the mouse can fall in to a baited trap and we open a sliding door and let him out.
This hardware store was in the town of Valle di Cadore and funnily enough it has the only free aire that we could find in all of Italy so far and that’s where we would be spending the night.
It took us less than 5 minutes to drive from the hardware store to our park up and we were amazed at how beautiful it is. It’s in a nature area with a huge dolomite mountain overlooking us and green fields. It has a place for 5 motorhomes with a free dump station for grey and black water and free water.
Our first port of call was the dump station where Ellie emptied our black and grey waste while I filled up the fresh water then we parked up.
By 7pm we were still the only ones here and it’s fairly quiet except for cars going to the football pitch nearby. It’s a great spot for free and so far we still haven’t paid to sleep anywhere.Read more