May 19, 2013 (Valoire, France) – In this edition of Ted’s Giro d’Italia Challenge our hearty crew took on the daunting Stage 15 from Cesana Torinese to Col du Galibier, 149km. Our trio knew well in advance that the tough stage would be shortened due to conditions on the mountain… here is their account with videos of their amazing day previewing Stage 15 – as everyone welcomed tomorrow’s second rest day at the Giro.

“We descended from Mont Cenis only to find out from a France Television crew who were interviewing an official from Meterological Dept., who had just set up road blocks closing access to Mt. Cenis and the Galibier,” wrote Chris. “They explained that the Giro would no longer go up the Galibier but would come into Valoire after the Telegraphe climb and the new finish line would be in Les Verneys about 3km from Valoire near the Marco Pantani monument.”

“We must have been the last one’s to get over before the barricades went up. Check out this shot of Tim climbing before the white-out hit. We jumped into this inn to change as our bodies were close to shutting down. This is just before we climbed the Telegraphe,” he continued.

The crew finally made it… “We just made it over Mont Cenis before it was closed and the Galibier is out due to the extreme weather. It is not normal weather for this area for mid May. We have just settled down in a chalet in a French alpine town at the foot of les Aiguilles d’Arves. Tomorrow is a rest day. We can do some laundry and watch the finish tomorrow near Valloire.”

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.