Stage 18
We road the uphill time trial today from Mori. It was a beautiful climb full of cyclists from many countries trying their hand at the climb. We have since arrived in Ponte di Legno in preparation for our assault on the Gavia and the Stelvio tomorrow.
Stage 19
Well, just as was the case with Sestriere, it seems that being a day ahead of the race is getting us over some climbs that the pros will not do. It appears official at 10:30pm here in Italy, that due to incoming weather, the Gavia and Stelvio will not be on the menu tomorrow for the Giro.
Ted was really steely today. When we bailed on him after doing the Gavia and Stelvio together, he forged on to complete the very nasty final climb of Val Martello to the finish of the stage in close to 9 hours total riding time. Tomorrow promises changes and bad weather but we will get out there and finish what appears to be the last tough day.
We decided to get out of the South Tirol region after the stage was canceled. It seems like we had the ideal day to get over the climbs of stage 19 but the pros had no such luck. But as Tim said, “Are you kidding, those guys are doing cartwheels in their hotel rooms right now !”
Stage 20 has also been drastically changed and since Ted has now done more climbs than the pros, we have headed into Brescia earlier than planned to await the arrival of the Maglia Rosa.
Ted’s Giro d’Italia Challenge features London, Ontario’s Velikonja, a First Vice President at CIBC Wood Gundy, who is continuing his goal to ride all of the Grand Tours.
Velikonja has already completed the Tour de France and is now back on track to tackle the Giro with his two domestiques Pedal‘s Tim Lefebvre and Christopher Balogh.