Road Trip

Here we are, finally, in the beautiful Dolomites, in Northern Italy, right next to the border with Austria. It's taken us 20 hours of driving (plus two hours on the Dover ferry) to get here, but at least we now have two full weeks to enjoy it.

We left Manchester yesterday lunchtime, and caught the evening ferry across to Dunkerque, then drove until midnight and slept in the back of the car at a rest stop somewhere in Holland, near the German border. It's not as uncivilised as is sounds - our Chrysler Grand Voyager has enough room in the back for a dinner party, it's just a matter of shifting the bikes out onto the rack and shuffling bags around. We finally arrived here in Toblach / Dobbiaco last night about 6pm, in time for our dinner here at Hotel Rosengarten, then to bed for a full 12 hours of sleep!

We're here for the 2008 World Mountain Bike Marathon Champs, where I'll be representing New Zealand. The race is on Saturday (tomorrow), then on Sunday is the annual Dolomiti Superbike marathon race, which is run as a separate event. Andy is entered in the shorter 56km distance on Sunday, which means we both get to race and can support each other in our own events. Unfortunately Andy knocked his knee on a log while we were up in Whinlatter forest for the Altura launch a couple of weeks ago and it is still niggling him, so he is not sure whether or not he will be able to race. Luckily his event is not until Sunday, so he still has another two days to decide.
As for me, I am finally race fit again and really looking forward to this event. The little VP-4 JENN has had a full refit of SRAM shifters, cables and drive system since Mayhem, as well as new shock bushings (Mayhem is a bugger for wrecking that stuff), and is running sweet as chocolate. Rider registration starts today at 2pm, and Andy and I will go out together and pre-ride parts of the course for an hour or so, sign on, then spend the afternoon with our feet up. There is a Team Manager briefing this evening at 6pm, and as we are self-supported, the NZ National Team Manager part will be played by Andy.

My race starts tomorrow at 11.30am, with the men setting off at 12 noon. Our course is only 89km, while the men will do 120km. We'll meet up with Brit Liz Scalia and her husband Mauro later today, and Andy and Mauro and sort out between them how to cover the feed zones for myself and Liz. Mauro and Liz have become our good friends over the years, and we have worked with them to cover feed zones for this event the past two World Marathon Champs. Their company is one of the pleasures of this race, and we always look forward to spending time with them. Liz will be especially tough to beat this time around, as she is a climbing specialist and trains here in the Dolomites every year.

Pic 1. Andy has been doing mostly driving for two days straight!

Pic 2. Jagged Dolomiti mountains mean the end is in sight.

Pic 3. The view from our room at Hotel Rosengarten in Toblach.

We'll post up again tomorrow with some results and more pics.