Rando Imperator 2021: The four countries in one day brevet

Описание: Tracks:
Flutter by Bonobo
The Crystal Lake by Grandaddy
Untitled by Me

After the literally painful decision to deregister from the Tour de Friends (deadline for deregistration was the end of July), and since then a slight improvement in health I decided there would be nothing to lose by doing a last minute registration for the Rando Imperator, a series of official Brevets organised by Witoor and recognised officially by Audax Randonneur Italia.

I've wanted to ride this event for years, and actually had a spot in 2019, but got ill shortly after the Mallorca312 event. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the weather was so awful in 2019 that only 30 completed from 300 registrations. There are numerous route options available (340km Munich to Bolzano stacked with altitude, 310km Bolzano to Ferrara which is very flat and perfect for getting started in Brevets, and 650km for the entire route). I settled on the full fat 650km both utterly disregarding the current state of my body and the gravel component of the ride.

Ah gravel. I've been sniffing around gravel bikes for a while now, but have never been 100% convinced what I would use it for. Well now I know the answer, I would use it for something like this. My weapon of choice was a racing bike running 25 mm tyres at 100psi. Not the ideal setup.

Getting to the start line also required some concentration, broken bottles and drunks being the main threat. At the start were around 200 people, cheerfully awaiting the signal to go. The weather was cool, the forecast looked decent (with a decent chance of rain), so I was loaded up with wet weather gear.

From the start some people shot off never to be seen again. I had a different game plan which involved getting to Bolzano whichever way possible as I had handed in a rucksack to be transported and wasn't too excited about losing it.

The first couple of hours were pretty much pitch black, fortunately my lighting system runs very nicely. We were rewarded with a beautiful dawn, a mix of sun and low lying fog. Before I knew it I had reached Garmisch where the first checkpoint was and took on some supplies (very delicious and brilliantly organised). As the weather was warming up that meant reducing layers and piling that stuff into my bags. I looked at other riders travelling light with a deep feeling of envy. The sky was blue, zero chance of rain.

After stunning views on roads that I know very well we passed Ehrwald to take on the Fern Pass. There are two main ways over this pass. One on tarmac which is a traffic hell, and a gravelly path which at some points get incredibly bony. I had ridden the gravel route in 2009 as part of a transalp on a MTB, so I decided to attempt that, on my road bike. As a nice piece of motivation a friendly bunch of MTBs told in no uncertain terms (I was riding with two Italians at this point) that it would be impossible on tyres such as mine and that we should take the road. I didn't take the road.

Actually riding uphill was ok, as long as there was a part of the track that was almost clear. If the stones were too large or sandy then you were stuffed. After not too long we reached the top. I decided to descend on the road as I was already getting rattled around.

From then on it was rolling through valleys in the sun, lugging my gear up the hills cursing it all, as the main pass of the day was still to come, the Reschenpass.

However, then the sky started to darken, the valley I was entering into had tell tale rain shadows on the mountains in the distance. Within 10 minutes spots of rain could be felt and soon after it turned into a steady rain. Joy! Unpacked all my rain gear, and felt the relief of a lighter load.

The rain I didn't mind ,but at some point near the Swiss border I followed the bike path instead of the road (the GPS beeping at me in distress), and ended up riding down to a river. I had descended around 100m and had to walk back out costing a lot of time. Deep point reached.

I was happy to see some other riders at the base of the main climb. Climbs are always better when you can suffer together. I attempted to open a gap on someone but swiftly fell to pieces with around 200km already in the legs. Checkpoint two reached. Ordered some pasta, drank a coke. I was hoping to reach Bolzano by 2200. It was already after 1800. Soon it would be getting dark and things are rarely faster at night.

The group I was with decided to descend on the road, I decided on the bike path knowing that most of it was very smooth tarmac. Soon it was dark and my Wahoo decided to crash. After rebooting there was looooong sections of bike paths with nothing but your heightened sense of hearing (who knew that industrial water sprinklers are terrifying at night?). After a couple of brief pauses to top up the GPS and rear light batteries I reached Bolzano. Success, and immediately deregistered from the 310km to Ferrara. That will have to wait for another day when my fitness has improved.