Around Monte Peller - Video

On Sunday, after a few days of hard training, I was unsure whether the legs would be up for the adventure I had been eyeing all week. Dirk, Sam and I had done 2 days of hard interval work, battling each other in each rep. So I was expecting the legs to be ready for an easier day, fortunately though they felt good and it was mission on. Sam Thompson, NZXC Team Manager, and I headed off with the other boys opting for a shorter day in the saddle.

The first part of the ride was on a flat gradient, riding around to the town Cles', giving us a good chance to warm up for the climb ahead. After a bit of map checking we made our way up the road climb towards Monte Peller. The gradient wasn't too steep and that combined with the spectacular views of the towns and orchards below, and mountains all around, the 1700m of climbing went relatively quickly. At the top we rode along a plateau towards Monte Peller, then around. Here we saw a Mountain Ibex and Marmot. This is also where we found the snow, and for the first 10 minutes it was exciting hiking knee deep, making our way to the decent back home. But after an hour of this my feet were no longer feeling like feet, frozen cold. Unfortunately (thanks to the snow) the road we were following had now disappeared. So we were left with the map to guide us the rest of the way around and down. Sadly, my map skills are well below par and we made a few miss tuens. At one point we were staring down a cliff thinking that was our way home, when our backs were facing our true path back. But after some consultation with the Garmin, we righted our course and were on our way to collect the last of the reward for our efforts, a steep, fast and rocky decent down to Male' - Home.  



Wild flowers near the top of the mountain

I now have 2 weeks before the World Cup here in Italy, so a little more time to pick up some speed. We have a great base here and are working hard with each other to get faster and race ready. So should be well prepared by race day.

Will update again after the race.