Check out: www.maratona.it/en/ for lots of very useful info.
Anyone know of any others to match the views and climbs, please let us know!
We were told about the Maratona Dles Dolomites by Marcello (an Italian friend who has not been on a bicycle for years but who was in awe of the mountains) and started investigating... Now we tell anyone who cycles; put it on your bucket list!
How to get an entry
We searched online for entry only to find that getting an entry spot is like finding hens teeth (very difficult/nigh impossible) We tried online from Sydney but every time the entries were open, they sold out within minutes. Luckily after a lot of searching around one cycle company after another offering expensive holidays, we were referred to Cycling Weekly (a v good online magazine for cyclists) Check out: www.cyclingweekly.co.uk
By this time (early May) we were holding our breath for two cancellation entries. Luckily we both got in for a very reasonable cost of GBP150.00 (thank you very much Ian Parr from Cycling Weekly) and started training.
Training
We decided to follow a Brevet training plan. Brevet also offer full package tours to the Dolomites area. As we had already booked a BnB in La Villa and were travelling to Italy with a car anyway, we passed on the package tour but decided to use their free sportive training plan. You will need to sign up but they send you a free plan: Check out: www.brevet.cc/sportive-training-plan/
This 12 week plan seemed reasonable and whilst we were in the Blue Mountains of NSW, Australia and then spending time in NW Scotland, it was quite achievable. Little did we know that the northern part of Germany is quite flat.
The last part of our training was along the Danube in Austria (also incredibly flat as it is a river path; the best bit is between Melk and Krems about 1hr drive west of Vienna)
Sarah managed to find some 500-600m hills to traverse amongst the vineyard visits.
Nutrition
All of our training rides included Kaffee und Kuchen (normally apfelstrudel or something else mit schlagsgobber..otherwise known as cream) a hearty lunch and maybe a gelato to finish :)
Evenings included steak and weiss beer or red wine. Probably not the best diet; but it works for us.
We eat well most of the time but for the race a special diet is required. I am not sure we can face eating all those bars and gels recommended by the manager of the one of the tour de france teams.
See: http://www.enervitsport.com/en/video/maratona-dles-dolomites-strategies
His video is interesting but we may have to substitute some of the products recommended.
We were supposed to be training with Enervit (a company sponsoring the race) but could not get any on the way to Italy.
Today we tried the Enervit competitive (during the race) lemon concentrate but 3 gulps later it was gone!
For the ride itself we have settled on Torq lemon & lime energy drink; chocolate Endura bars (from Oz) maybe a few dried mango bits and nuts and raisins.
Actually we think that anything goes! Today we stopped for a coffee (much better expresso than in Austria) and were chatting to a couple of Italians at the top of Passo Sella
One of the Italians in the group swore that eating a breakfast size pot of marmalade (nothing else) at the top of each hill was the best (we gave him the name Signor Marmalada) and then we should also try spaghetti (it is v good for the bike he said.. in Italian.. or perhaps he said it was very good for me on the bike; nevertheless we gave both a miss!). What we were not expecting in Italy in July was the freezing cold! It really is freezing here. You get very very hot cycling uphill towards the snow and then descending means icicles hang off your nose and chin!
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