Larch Mountain; 39 degrees with snow

And this is June??  A group of us from PV rode up to Larch Mountain today.  The forecast called for clear skies and 65 degrees.  Most definitely, that prediction was WAY OFF.  We started in 60 degree temps and someone said, "it should be warm and dry by the time we descend".  Well, that didn't happen!   The weather only got worse and the last mile up, the roads were slushy.  

VA at the top of Larch

Craig's Garmin shows a wide array of temps, but the low is slightly higher than I expected - 39.2, and of course, that was on the way down.  Wind chill factor?  Must have been below 30 degrees.  


Thanks to VA I made it down safely. I had to stop numerous times to warm my hands up, and faithful VA stayed with me.  Had it not been for her, I may have sat under a bush and waited for a ride.  Gary had fingerless gloves on and was quite cold descending.  We were debating about what to do; wait for him or go down and get a car.  In the meantime, some good samaritans, a nice couple, stopped to see if he was ok.  They put his bike into their car and took him down!  On the way they stopped to ask if VA and I were ok.  They started taking off their coats, offering them to us.  The driver actually gave me his oversized jacket!  Put it on me, zipped me up and put the hood over my helmet!  I wish I had a picture, but I do remember VA and Craig trying to stifle a laugh when I finally caught up to them.  I didn't care what I looked like, it was heaven having that thing on.  They delivered Gary to his car and drove back up to see if we were still ok!  In addition, Gary also drove back up to check in on us.  Craig had reached the car in the meantime and came back.  He found us at the bridge to Troutdale.  I happily accepted a ride, feeling just a little guilty leaving VA to ride the rest of the way to her car at Edgefield McMenamins.  I finally stopped shaking when we got home and get this - -  I actually got too warm while cleaning my bike off in the sunshine.  Man, what a day.  I think us Velo peeps are pretty good at looking out for one another.  


One scary thought is next week at this time we will be biking in the Alps.  Isn't that terrain known for snow??  Yikes.  

Trans Lombardy Challenge

Next Thursday Craig and I leave for the Lombardy region of Italy and another Thompson Tours bike trip.  We ride several climbs that were featured in the recent Giro d'Italia and the course is the setting for the Giro de Lombardy.  We start in Ponte di Legno in the Italian Alps and end down by Lake Como.  430 miles, 53k of climb.  Day 1 we have a short warm up ride to Passo Tonale.  Day two starts the main ride and is a scary 10k loop over Passo Gaia and.....sigh.....Mortirolo.

Subsequent days take us to Passo Vivione to Borno, to the shores of Lake Iseo, including Passo Croce Domini (13 miles, 5k climb) and finally, to the Passo Ghisallo (the cycling museum the Madonna del Ghisallo is there) followed by the Muro di Sormano ("the wall", a nice little 2k climb, 15% grade).

Watch this guy riding only the back wheel;

DAY 1 Warm-up ride around Ponte di Legno 15 miles 2,150 ft 

DAY 2 Ponte di Legno 

 Passo Gavia 

 Passo Mortirolo 

Ponte di Legno 

71 miles 10,000 ft 

DAY 3 Ponte di Legno 

 Passo Vivione 

Borno 

53 miles 5,750 ft 

DAY 4 Borno 

 Passo Croce Domini 

 Passo Maniva 

 Passo Tre Termini 

Sale Marasino 

76 miles 9,500 ft 

DAY 5 Sale Marasino 

 Colle di San Fermo 

 Colle del Gallo 

 Passo di Ganda 

 Dossena 

San Pellegrino Terme 

65 miles 8,400 ft 

DAY 6 San Pellegrino Terme 

 Passo San Marco 

 Premana 

 Passo Agueglio 

Varenna (then ferry to Como) 

91 miles 11,150 ft 

DAY 7 Cernobbio (Lake Como) 

 Civiglio 

 Passo Ghisallo 

 Muro di Sormano 

Cernobbio (Lake Como) 

60 miles 6,500 ft

The next few days we will ride easy in comparison; the PV signature ride up to Larch Mt. Saturday and Sunday, the Tour de Hood.  A week off with swimming and strengthening and then we are off.

Oregon Gran Fondo

Portland Velo team at the start
Craig, VA, KRhea, Mark, Steve and Phil

Our team of 7 from Portland Velo rode the Oregon Gran Fondo.  117 miles, 5700 or so feet of gain.  We were the only mixed team.  Mark, KRhea, Steve and I crossed the finish line first, so we 'finished'; there has to be at least 3 men and one woman finishing to place.  Got 1st place of course.  Results show a pretty slow ride, although we averaged 16 mph per Craig's Garmin.  We stayed too long at the rest stops.