A cycling related trip to the Italian Dolomites to see Ness compete in the UCI Mountain Biking World Cup.

Flew from Bristol to Brussels with Brussels Airlines / British Midland Embraer. We  left late – the co pilot got stuck in traffic – so arrived in Brussels with 35 minutes to get our connection to Milan Linates –  I had to walk very fast!! Got the flight just in time and arrived Milan at 22:15 local. Spent a hour collecting a Fiat 500 hire car – not easy if you haven’t got a credit card… Drove to a lovely Milan Hotel just before midnight,  had the car parked and so, wearily, to bed.

Awoke later that day… ate a leisurely breakfast, had the car delivered and commenced our drive into the mountains with the aid of “Thomasina”. Not much to report. Lovely weather. Left the motorway at Brescia and headed up through  tunnels and spectacular winding roads into the mountains. Kate was a little perturbed by the drop on her side of the car… didn’t bother me… Stopped for lunch where I had a lovely glass of hot milk — an error in translation methinks. We did suddenly find ourselves in Daolasa which was extremely busy and crowded as this was where the World Cup was being held. Eventually got through this and arrived at our Hotel Caminetto in Folgarida about 4:30 and booked in. I slept for a while and then we went down for posh evening dinner – we really didn’t need the lunch – and retired after a beer in the bar.

Awoke to another nice day, had breakfast and drove to Daosala as this was the day of the Ladies final. Dropped Kate off at the Blow Up arch entrance having failed to park. I drove away from town and eventually parked in what seemed to be an official car park although it was just a field. I then had a 15 minute walk to get back to where I dropped Kate off… Surprisingly my timing was good as Kate and Ness(Vanessa) were waiting for me when I arrived. Pleasantries and various official passes exchanged Ness led us to the main stand and the pits. It was agreed I would watch from the stand as I would only be in the way in the pits. Kate became the official pit crew… for Ness and her friend Kerry. I watched some mens races in the gloriously sun drenched stand although I became a bit thirsty. Luckily Kate joined me and very kindly fetched a me a bottle of water. She then had to return as the ladies race started to form up. There was large field so the start took quite a while with Ness, with her high number, starting quite late down the order. She was very easy to spot though – she definitely gets the prize for biggest hair!! So – I saw Ness and Kerry go round a couple of times and the leader board changing regularly, but both she and Kerry were pulled out, on the the 80% rule, after 2.5 laps. Ness wasn’t last though as Kerry had had a mechanical (a puncture fixed with the assistance of her pit crew…), but she lost a lot of ground which she didn’t have time to make up. We met Ness after and had ice cream and a surprising amount of autograph signing and photoshoots. I think Ness enjoyed the whole experience… We left Ness at about 4 o’clock and strolled back to the car, eventually retrieved the keys from a stuck zipper pocket and returned to the hotel to settle back to a few drinks in the bar, another nice meal and general chill out in the bar area before eventual retirement.

The next two days were spent using the bubble cable car lifts that were operating – one where we were staying and one in Daosala – followed by shopping, limited to the small number of shops in the area, and general sunning before the afternoon wet (regular cloud build up in the late afternoon) plus evening bar and meals. The pictures below tell the story.

The last day started very early (no breakfast) as we had to be in Milan for an early afternoon flight. Good drive down in more pleasant weather – although dark and bendy until past Tonale (scene of my first Continental ski experience more than 30 years ago…). Arrived at Linates in good time, so we thought,  to drop off the car only to discover the shuttle bus to Malpensa only ran once an hour and we’d just missed one. We had to get a taxi – 120 Euros!  Caught the Lufthansa flight after annoying Italian security checks. Pleasant flight with free drinks and biscuits. Good to get to Munich after all the morning hassle, had a longish wait for final flight to Bristol so had leisurely late lunch and generally chilled for a while. Finally got back to cool, rainy Bristol 6 o’clock local followed by pleasant taxi ride home.