Rose Pedals . . .: Italy-Switzerland-Italy

Day 5 - Tuesday, June 12
Grande St. Bernard Loop
45 miles
6,250 feet of climbing

A dramatic and exceptional day of biking. Our route would take us to the top of Grande St. Bernard, a 20-mile climb that is often part of professional cycling races. The summit of the climb is on the Italy-Switzerland border (a few days ago, we climbed Petit St. Bernard, the summit of which is on the Italy-France border.) I had my heart set on doing the climb, even though the weather forecast was iffy in terms of rain. So, despite a few lingering clouds, off we went toward Grande St. Bernard. In the parking lot of our hotel we met an Italian cycling club or team of about eight guys who were also going up to Grande St. Bernard. They had a support van that followed them up the climb, and they all had the same jersey and shorts, which makes me think they were a team rather than a club. Despite the language barrier, we chit chatted with the guys and even posed for a group photo. The climb started immediately as we rode out of town, but it was a gentler climb than the climbs we did in the previous days of our tour. Grades ranged from 4% to 8% with maybe a 9% or 10 % grade here and there. It was a long climb on a nice road with some very pleasant stretches. We held on to the sunshine for about half of the climb; for the second half, the sky became gradually more cloudy and it began to sprinkle rain on and off - nothing too bad . . . at first. I didn’t want to stop and put on any of my rain gear because (1) I was sweating my butt off, and (2) I hate stopping on a climb. But as I got higher in elevation, the light rain turned into freezing rain, at which point, I reluctantly stopped to put on my rain jacket. As I climbed higher, the freezing rain turned into snow. Not long thereafter, it became a full -fledged blizzard - snowing sideways, bitter cold and a chilling wind that penetrated my wimpy rain jacket. I must add that this climb contained a few of what I call “false summits” - you look up and you think you see the top (the end of the climb), but when you get there, it is not the top. Because of the false summits, I kept resisting stopping to put on more rain gear, thinking that, “I think the end is just around this corner.” But it wasn’t. It just kept snowing and the wind kept blowing. There were huge snow banks on the side of the road. Finally, I came to the conclusion that the end wasn’t “just around the corner,” so when I came to a tunnel, I used the shelter of the tunnel to put on my rain hat, leg warmers, arm warmers, shoe covers and vest - every article of clothing I had with me. This helped somewhat, but my head was already wet and I was already cold. Finally, I turned the corner and there was the end of the climb! I was thrilled to have made it. I crossed the border into Switzerland. The support van for the Italian team/club was there at the top, and some of the guys were taking shelter under an overhang of a building there. They were wonderful to me. One man took my bike for me and another helped me up the snow-covered steps to the overhang. They offered me a cup of hot coffee. I was shivering, so they invited me into their van to get warm, all the while congratulating me for making the climb. After warming up in their van for about 15 minutes, I thanked them and headed down the decent. I had to use my fingers to get the snow out of my cleats so I could clip into my pedals. It was a treacherous descent, mainly because of the snow and wet road, but also because my hands were so cold, I had a difficult time holding in the break levers. But, I quickly made my way through the blizzard one last time. I retained a chill that caused me to shiver for the next eight or so miles until I stopped at a café in a small town on the route and had a hot tea. At that point, I was nicely warmed, hopped back on the bike and had a very pleasant ride for the rest of the descent. I still had all my rain gear on as I arrived back in Aosta, where the sun was shining and the temperature was about 80 degrees. I guess you could say the weather at the top of the climb was the "polar"opposite of the weather in town (pun intended). Anyway, I was so happy to have made it to the summit of this famous climb and, despite the chilly reception, I was equally glad to have visited Switzerland, even if only for a brief visit. But that’s mountain weather - it’s like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get. : )