The much dreaded day has come. All week I was riding parallel to the mountains, but today I had to cross the Alps like field marshal Souvorov and his troops did in 1799. Although I made the first 50 km in two and a half hours, it was just a warm up. It took four hours to make the other 40 km. During the last 10 km, I stopped every few hundred meters to rest, my legs just would not push anymore. To top it off, it was sunny and hot. But the surroundings were amazing: steep mountains on both sides, the Rhine finding its way through the valleys.
Right now, from my camping site, I can see mountaintops still covered in snow. That’s where I will be heading tomorrow. 20-25 km up towards the San Bernardino pass, and then downhill, or so I hope, towards lake Como.
Today in numbers:
96 km – distance covered
5h54m – riding time
6 L – of water consumed
1475 m – elevation at my camp site
