July 23, 2010 (Ponte Di Legno, Italy) – The toughest day in the Alps -107km, 3,100 meters of climbing and 4,000 meters of descending. The cut off on Wednesday’s stage 5 from Livigno to Ponte Di Legno was 9 hours and at that point 100 teams were still out there so they extended the cut off to 10 hours. A total of 50 Teams still missed the cut off. I saw one team cross the line at 12.5 hours and in the dark. What a challenging day.

Chris Bryce and Ross Mckegney (VeloEpic.com) – the only Canadian team left as we pulled out – came across at 8.5 hours and said the day was crazy. Steep climbs right from the start and they said it took them four hours to reach the first feed station. The huge climb came in the latter part of the race when they had to climb a switchback road used in the Giro d’Italia but as Ross pointed out, the MTB bikes climbed another 500 meters on top of the tour guys on a gravel trail.

Today had the toughest single track of the event and the boys were laughing at how crazy the long downhill loose boulder rock garden was. They said to add insult to injury they had to finish off climbing a small ski hill to get into town. Everyone we spoke with was exhausted. Tomorrow they will cut back over the mountain to Male which by car is a 1-hour drive on the craziest cliff edge roads you can imagine. I hope the riders stay inland a bit – but you never can be to sure.

Full results from Stage 5 here.
Read more on the Craft Bike Transalp here.