Stage 5 Torre Pellice to Pragelato

La Scala Reale (The Royal Stair Case)


We roll out of Torre Pellice on cobbles to start the huge 20km first climb to the colle de Vaccera, then we have a nice technical downhill to follow.






Sometime later I find myself on a long steep busy road, when I hear shouting. I look across and on the other side of the river I see three IB riders, somehow I've missed a sign so turn back and find a bridge a km or so down the road. The trail now wanders along the river, occasionally crossing bridges for forays into small hamlets and then back to the river. I pass Jurgen the friendly Austrian fixing a flat and wailing in despair"It voz a nail" he says. "A nail, a nail on ze road, how can zis be?" and as I ride up the road I can still hear "A nail, a nail on ze road.....how?"


A little further on I meet Paul, he's in a bad way, so I decide to ride with him. we ride past huge beautiful lakes and gradually the huge fort of Fenestrelle comes into view. Rising up the side of the valley and perched on the top of a pinnacle is a fairy tale style castle. We cross the road, enter the walls and zig zag our way up a steep ramp to the gate. And shoulder the bikes for a wide set of stone steps to the court yard. This is the start of a special stage and has a CP stacked with food, Paul tells me to try the bread and tomato and...........

......today was the day I discovered bruschetta (pron.brooshkettah locally) At home we might call it tomato sandwiches. In Italy it is a devine feast! Ingredients: A hunk of bread, some chopped tomato, some basil, some sunshine, lots of laughing and loads of loud talking! Ridiculously tasty, it made me bend double in delight :-)

We decided to get moving and rolled down to the start of the special stage, as we got there Paul stopped to fiddle with his bike and I set off. Paul came through the start a minute or so later and called up to me. I stopped and waited for him and we hiked and carried the bikes the 4 km or so of steep spiral track that wound it's way around the peak to the top.

Now is the bit we've been waiting for, the Scala Reale 900 steps back down to where we started the climb. Initially the steps are rideable and then we move into the fort and so pitch blackness, now the height of the steps starts to vary and some are missing altogether. In the darkest parts volunteers are shining torches. I try to bail out on one of these sections and hit the wall with my shoulder, leaving a lovely manly graze on my right deltoid. Once outside again we ride bits and walk bits, quite disappointed at how much we have to walk. At the bottom Paul nips past to the stage finish.



Meanwhile at the front of the race sometime earlier:

from the IB site-

Many of them make all steps on the saddle (unbelivable) others, instead, come down with the bike on the shoulder. It’s exactly on one of those external starways that the brazilian rider does not succeed to brake properly. He falls down, careless of the safety protections. He raises immediately after, under the eyes of emergency personnel that was there to take care of him. He starts again and continues with a scratched arm, while the Cezck Sibl Radoslav and his fried Miroslav were behind him, fighting with the steps of the covered stairway.
The fall, gives the brasilian a new force, never seen. He assults the steps with increased determination and comes down until he reaches the square at the feet of the fortress. He detaches Sibl of 6 minutes by because of coefficient 2, minutes become 12. Therefor, in the general classement Hugo Prado Neto is always 2nd but with just 25 points of distance from Sibl.

Now it's just a steady 12 km to Pragelato. It's very hot and the steady ride turns out to be a roller coaster of short sharp climbs each higher than the next, followed by cruel sharp descents that steal any height gained. Paul is seriously flagging now and getting slower and slower, I ease back to wait several times. Eventually we reach the outskirts of the town and are joined by a group of Belgian guys, one them of does a bit of a jokey sprint as we approach the finish and because I'm feeling a bit fresh from riding slowly with Paul, I have a bit of a dig too. Great fun.

Tonight's camp is in a pine wood at the edge of town, and we pitch between the trees.

I go down to tea, and see Paul and he says I've checked the results and we're still in the race and under 50,000 points. We managed to get some potatoes which is unusual and delicious.






I decide to go back to get my gps that I've left charging in the massage room. While I'm there I have look at the results. It's true we are still in the race, but I notice that Paul is now above me in the standings. I assume that they've made a mistake and reversed our finishing times, but can't understand why Paul didn't mention it earlier when he checked the points. At this point Paul and Claus appear and I say 'I think they've mixed us up when we came in today. Paul then explains that it's not only where you come overall but also how fast you do the special stages and today's special stage was double points.


I feel that this is crazy , because it feels like I been penalised by the race for helping a mate when he wasn't going to well.
I could have ridden back by myself and saved time, in fact I could have pressed on at the fort when he held back at the beginning of the special stage and called up to me, when I waited. Or when I helped with his rotor and he jumped past at the end of the special stage.............er hold on a minute. And the day after the rotor incident when he suddenly jumped ahead over the special stage finish line, which I mentioned at the time and he said "It doesn't make any difference, you started after me". ............mmmm.

As I lay in my tent I started laughing to myself when I realised what could have been happening :-)


Did he know all along? As I write this I hear a loud and definite shout in reply from those who know Paul....." Of course he did! It's soooooo Paul" ................ But, I'm not sure.

Tomorrow is the day I'm looking forward to, we go to Mount Chaberton!


90km

I took 9.26 Paul 9.29