Day 6

Start:     Chur (Switzerland)

Finish:    Campodolcino (Italy)

Distance:  80 miles cycled (564 miles total)

Weather:  Sunshine all day (but some headwinds) 

Today was always going to be hard.

There are only two routes from Chur to Italy, both of which involve crossing the Alps via monstrous climbs.

The chosen route headed directly south, towards the resort town of St Moritz, before heading to the border crossing at Castasegna, looping out of Italy via Montespluga and then back to Chur. 

The intention had been to bank additional miles on the ‘simple’ flat stages in Holland and Belgium to allow for the harder terrain in Austria, Switzerland and Italy.  However with the bad weather and collection of injuries from the first few days, the going had not been as effective as hoped, and on the morning of day six the team were 16 miles down on the target rather than having a safety cushion to fall back on.  The Italian border was 65 miles from the start line, and the cyclists had been hoping to be able to reach the border by last light and call it a day, but now rather than focus solely on getting over the mountains they had to get as far as possible as quick as possible in order to maintain the 1000 mile target.

After a quick stop to wash yesterday’s bad weather out of the bikes it was time to get going.  Less than half a mile into the day, the Alps made themselves felt as the first hill began almost from the centre of Chur: leading the team on a winding 9 mile climb (on an average gradient of 10%) and followed by a hair-raising descent into Tiefencastel. Surrounded by stunning scenery it was from here that the riders began the big climb of the day, the 23 mile assault on the Julier Pass.  Within a few miles of climbing the group had been slowly dragged apart, as each man dealt with the mountain on his own terms.



'Prix de la Julier'

After a brief reunion at the lunchtime checkpoint at Mulegns (1538m) it was onwards and upwards, each rider grinding non-stop through the villages that dotted the ascent.   The mountain continued to rise steadily, prior to a series of eye-watering switchbacks to the summit at 2284m. Danny Clifford crossed the peak firmly in front before reaching speeds of over 50 mph on the five mile drop into Silvaplana nearly 500m below!

Battling the headwinds along the Silvaplana and Sils lakes, everyone regrouped for the final push to the Italian border.  With a short climb into Maloggia the cyclists rounded a bend to see the valley dropping sharply away in front of them, with the road alternating between tight bends and sweeping drops the next twenty miles were done in 40 minutes.

Aware of the deficit mileage and still with a few hours of light left the consensus was to press on and try to get at least ten Italian miles on the clock.  However, Dan Smart had been in visible pain since the border, with the double impacts on the same knee on days 2 and 4 even turning the peddles on the flat was agony; after another couple of miles of trying to push through Dan opted to drop back and end his day early rather than slow the team down in its quest to maximise mileage.

The road continued to drop deeper into Italy, before starting to climb back up towards the Spluga Pass, and while the final climb sapped at exhausted muscles by the time the light began to fade the team had racked up a satisfying 80 miles.

 

10th country!