At the Race Across The Alps, the toughest one-day race in the world, Henri Lesewitz reached deep into his bag of tricks for motivation. The BIKE editor, who got a starting place for the second RATA event in 2002, had probably heard from a study that men are at their athletic best when attractive women are watching them. In any case, he organised two go-go girls, lightly clad in angel and devil outfits, to cheer him on up the 2,757-metre-high Stelvio Pass, the first major climb of the race. "The girls were great," recalls Lesewitz, who finished the race in 24th place after 29 hours and 42 minutes. "I was still fit on the Stelvio Pass and was able to enjoy the sublime landscape. After that, however, everything moves away from the eye. You look inwards, into yourself. Everyone rides like they're in a tunnel. I think that 80 per cent of people who ride the RATA have no memory of the landscape."
Lesewitz is probably right about that. Paul Fischer, the 2007 winner, was in a trance at the finish line and answered: "Beautiful, brutal - but I didn't realise the last four hours." The extreme cyclists miss out on much of the beauty of the border triangle of Austria, Switzerland and Italy - a region that is one of the best road cycling areas in the Alps due to its many mountain passes. Several climbs await in almost every valley. Passes for many days within a radius of 50 kilometres.
You can find these routes in the PDF download:
Scoul - Nauders - Santa Maria - Livigno - Scoul
A - Easy tour:
Day 1 (65 kilometres, 1,238 vertical metres)
Day 2 (62 kilometres, 905 vertical metres)
Day 3 (39 kilometres, 870 vertical metres)
Day 4 (98 kilometres, 990 vertical metres)
B - Medium difficulty tour:
Day 1 (107 kilometres, 1,705 vertical metres)
Day 2 (78 kilometres, 2,038 vertical metres)
Day 3 (123 kilometres, 2,991 vertical metres)
Day 4 (141 kilometres, 2,372 vertical metres)
C - Difficult tour:
Day 1 (151 kilometres, 2,410 vertical metres)
Day 2 (101 kilometres, 2,679 vertical metres)
Day 3 (122 kilometres, 3,789 vertical metres)
Day 4 (158 kilometres, 2,898 vertical metres)
Downloads:
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