Ass Whoopin’. Today, the “Road to Venice” gave me a complete and utter ass whoopin’. It beat me up, chewed me up and spit me out the other side; a quivering mass of jelly, shaking my head in wonderment and muttering “What the heck was that?!”.
Okay, I knew it would be hard, made even more difficult by the fact that we are carrying gear. I was expecting a very, very, long gradual climb with small sections of very, steep terrain. It turned out to be an almost continuous grade of 13% and more for 33 km. Usually, I can climb a 13% grade with the aid of only moderate amounts of swearing, but 33 km of it?! With panniers?!! That’s just brutal! As I predicted, I did start randomly tossing things out my panniers. Unfortunately, Spiros kept picking them up and putting them into his. Nice guy, huh?! Yeah, I think so too.
After much hacking, grunting and some pushing for me, we did manage to get up and over the pass as we had planned. Such effort doesn’t usually go without great reward, and this was no exception. The views are absolutely stunning. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are few thousand words to describe the area and the climb. Undeniably impressive mountain ranges.
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Very early into the ride, coughing up a lung and thinking “Uh-oh, heart finished”. Note the lack of pasticerrias, pizzerias, gentle canals or virtuosos serenading me. 
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At the top; heart still pounding, legs still quivering. Should my legs feel like they are bleeding internally?
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August 27th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Hey, I just missed to check your site for a few days and now there’s so much to catch up with … I was wondering why the two of you were so silent for so long - preparing all these reports to make the rest of the world envy you for both guts and glory. Great stuff you did! And the pictures are awesome. I only took a quick glance at the gallery but I’m sure I’ll spend hours.
In the meantime I feel like rusting here with a few brief intermissions. I rode a bike for 4 days and that was awesome. Nothing comparable to what you’re doing, though.
Keep doing and enjoying it! Diana