TOUR reader Ines Brückle is driven by a very special passion: This year she rode up the Stelvio Pass for the 36th time.
Text: Ines Brückle
We stand at 2800 metres above sea level behind the Tibet hut and look towards the Ortler massif. A little baffled, a little stunned at having achieved the inconceivable, at least for people like you and me, yet again, for the 36th time. Just the top 22 of the 48 hairpin bends that we can see from our vantage point seem so infinite, so unreal.
We both woke up at 6 a.m. in our holiday flat in Prad. Muesli breakfast and fried eggs are our start to a day that will be a tough one. We, Bernhard (71) and Ines (65), who want to give it another go. Take your time. Take a break. Take photos. Enjoy the view. That's the plan to get us to the Stelvio Pass.
The first espresso beckons
The stretch to Stilfserbrücke is nice to cycle since there is a cycle path over the Suldenbach. After leaving Prad, we pass the "bone sculptures" in Lorenz Kuntner's open-air museum, as we do every year. A colourful diversion and topic of conversation for the next quarter of an hour. Nevertheless, the seven kilometres to Gomagoi drag on, the prospect of an espresso acts like a magnet. Then off to Trafoi to the Bella Vista. This is where you can take the best photos of the first half of the col. A bit of showy pedalling is part of it.
In the serpentine forest above, we know every bend. The national park sign with the fox is just around the corner, and two hairpin bends higher up there are still grooves in the tarmac that remind us of an overlong caravan that once scraped along here and blocked the access road for four-wheeled vehicles for at least an hour. Stories that pass the time as we fight our way steadily uphill. The 14 per cent gradient on the "Weißer Knott" is about to demand a few extra grains. It's better to put in a bar three or four hairpin bends beforehand!
A matter of the head - but not only
At least I ride the Stelvio Pass with my head. I want to get up there, so I hop up there. I like the idea of doing something unusual under my own steam. Maybe for the last time today? The thought has been with me for about five years. How much longer can I go? At what age should we no longer demand this kind of effort from our bodies?
My son Martin comes to mind, he runs ultramarathons and sometimes pushes himself beyond his limits. Then he has to take a break, no matter how much it annoys him. He would say: "Of course you can do it, mum" - and with the last word he would wink at me.
All right, so let's move on - or not for now? Sometimes it makes no sense to go against your body. You can't do it with your head alone. You need it to believe in your goal again after the enforced break.
Just before the Franzenhöhe (2188 metres), I can feel the air getting thinner - my heart is beating like crazy and my legs don't feel as good as they should - so I descend and take a longer break. It's better to sit down at the edge of a bend and let my pulse slow down. Drink, force myself to eat.
Personal photo project on the Stelvio Pass
Bernhard, on the other hand, seems to have his breathing difficulties under control. At the bottom, after just two kilometres, he said he couldn't talk now and needed the air to ride. Yesterday on the test ride with only 400 metres of ascent, he wasn't doing so well, but it was also 10 degrees warmer. He just takes it really slow and only looks at his heart rate, not the speedometer. Now he seems fitter than me, riding trallala to the next item on his to-do list on the Stelvio Pass.
To explain: my husband loves projects. Only the yoke is not enough for him. This year he has around 20 old photos from 1979 and 1980 with him and wants to take a picture in exactly the same places. 1979 was the first time he was alone on the Stelvio Pass. 1980 was the first time with me.
I can't stop thinking about how it all began ... And it's going well again, the recovery has done me good and maybe the bar that I didn't fancy at all. They are already in front of me, the top 22 hairpin bends. They spiral skywards like corkscrews. Each one has a giggling, sniggering devil and a motivating, waving angel. My method is to stick my tongue out at the former and thank the latter.
Oh, marvellous, finally bend 19, so under 20. The long cross ramp goes surprisingly well. Bernhard thinks I'm going fast. Well, if he thinks so! At bend 16, he sits on the kerb with a grin and plays paparazzo. Click, click, click - at least 16 pictures of me. I have to laugh and it looks really nice in the photos.
Up, up and up we go, towards the sky. The hairpin bends 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. Somehow they get steeper and steeper. But others notice that too. A more ambitious racing cyclist in a team jersey passes me, swaying. He's panting more than Bernhard or me. But still shouts an appreciative "Brava" (brave one).
In fact, almost every overtaking cyclist first looks at my bottom bracket, then at my face and has something nice to say in some language or other. Some people also ask if you can really drink the water from the fountains along the route or only become aware of a worthwhile photo opportunity when I'm puttering around. Little exchanges of words really spice up the ascent.
The dreaded bends 4 and 3 are really steep. And then, to the sound of Elton John, we climb the last two tight bends side by side and have made it. Once again. And no, it never gets boring. And yes, it's the greatest thing ever to share such a passion.
Strenuous, but very satisfying. Of course, we give ourselves the additional 43 metres of altitude to the Tibet hut. But first a souvenir photo at the Wärschtlamo on the Joch. There is also a picture from 1980.
Defying the rain
We are proud of each other. Pride sustains, pride motivates. Bussi, souvenir photo like in the old and young days. Done, in a double sense. We didn't turn round during a short rainy stretch down near Trafoi. If things had turned out really badly, we could have spent the night at Weißer Knott or Franzenshöhe. Of course, we fled, I was already thinking about buying new dry clothes at the top of the Joch and pulling it off somehow, as long as the rain stayed light and the temperatures didn't drop too much. But then it cleared up. Weather in the mountains is always an elementary factor.
Behind the Tibet hut, we put on everything we've brought up with us. It's 9 degrees and it will feel even colder on the descent. Now we have to focus all our concentration once again. But we manage that too. We descend over the Umbrail Pass into the Müstair Valley and continue along the Etsch back to Prad. It's like a dream to remember that just two hours and 46 kilometres ago we were around 1900 metres higher. We have completed the tour of our lives for the 36th time.
Presumptuousness, craziness, passion, love - I have no idea what it is that keeps drawing us back to "our" yoke. We see ourselves as normal people, we are not ambitious athletes. We just do what we enjoy. Cycling is an elixir of life for us. Our shared passion for almost 50 years.
Preparation is important
Every year, we train, test rides and build up our fitness on familiar laps with metres in altitude and long distances around our home town of Rehau, in the neighbouring Fichtelgebirge mountains, in Franconian Switzerland and in the Main valley.
For our tour to the Joch, we deliberately travelled two days in advance and did some short laps. "Acclimatisation" is the magic word. You can only tell whether I or my husband, or ideally both of us, have "good legs" today, as they say in Giro and Tour jargon.
So far, we've made it every time. Most of the time we arrived at the Passo di Stelvio with euphoria, in the flow, holding hands or with a sense of victory, with music from Bernhard's mobile phone, and immediately pedalled on towards the Tibet hut to celebrate our triumph at 2800 instead of just 2757 metres. A triumph over concerns, doubts and limitations. Sometimes I think that it was the last time, and then I cycle up again the same year or at least the next. Just to savour once again that uplifting feeling of having made it up the dream pass of many cyclists under my own steam.
The pass road over the Stelvio Pass has been in existence for 200 years. To mark this occasion, this year a series of events instead.
