Tour Italy’s Lake Garda: Day 2
Day 2: Tignale – Pieve di Ledro
51.1km / 1 844m / Riding Time 4:09.50
Looking at the profile of a planned gravel ride – unlike that of a road ride – can be misleading.
On the face of it, our second day had only one real climb. But what a climb it was! The Hors Categorie (‘HC’ for short, ‘Uncategorised’ for good reason) Eremo San Michele to Top of Monte Tunnel – as it’s described on Strava – measures a monstrous 15km, at an <itals>average of 8%. It includes a section of 5km, at the start, that averages 12.4%. And it’s all on gravel…
Nothing quite prepared us for the slog that lay ahead. The full climb took us just over three hours; we all had to find our own rhythm, on a loose surface that made standing impossible. Our pace was glacial, and stops were frequent – but the changing terrain from forest to sparse Alpine mountainside made for some sensational views.
About 3km from the top we regrouped at a remote coffee stop, guzzling down cans of Lemon Soda for sugar and espressos for caffeine to get us to the top. But as we rode through a tunnel towards the descent, it became clear that this downhill would be a challenge of its own: loose, rocky gravel, steep drops and switchbacks made negotiating the 8km to our lunch a fine balance between nerves and white-knuckle bravado, on our heavy and rigid bikes.
So admittedly it was a relief when we finally rolled into our lunch stop at the Rifugio Alpini Fratelli Pedercini, rumoured to serve up generous portions of every kind of pasta there is. These rumours were confirmed; our table was served a huge salad bowl of spaghetti carbonara that – despite our heroic efforts – could not be finished.
With our stomachs bloated, it was (thankfully) a relatively short ride to our overnight stop on the banks of Lake Ledro, where our evening meal was followed by more gelato (did I mention the gelato?) and a peaceful walk along the lake shore, while a thunderstorm brewed over the mountains.
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