Airolo

Sunday, June 1, I rode from Lugano to Airolo and back. This is roughly the same route I took three weeks ago, but instead of turning around at Fiesso I continued on to Airolo, at the base of the San Gottardo pass. San Gottardo is also know as the Gothard pass. It divides German-speaking Switzerland from Italian-speaking Switzerland, and is also a continental divide with respect to rivers; to the north of San Gottardo they drain to the Atlantic, to the south they drain to the Mediterranean.







Gottardo is a prime example of the Swiss penchant for going through mountains instead of over them ... there is a 17km tunnel in operation, and the tunnel currently under construction will be 57km long, the world's longest. Meanwhile, the older highway snaking up and over the pass still exists. Across the valley on stilts is also an option for the freeway ... this bridge connects directly to a tunnel. I shot it from the older highway snaking along under it and then up and around the side of the mountain that the freeway pops through.

While planning this ride last week I briefly entertained the idea of trying to climb the pass, but when I looked at the altitude gain it became clear that I'd never make it up and back in a day, if I made it up at all. And by the time I got to Airolo, it was clear to me that there was no way I'd make it up. I was thoroughly cooked. I stopped for a coffee and an ice cream cone and started back.







There are a handful of older Swiss-style buildings along the way. Most building is in the modern Italian style, although there are still lots of older stone buildings as well.




I don't snap a lot of photos when I ride, because photos require stopping. Besides, there is really no way for static snapshots to convey what I see out on the road. Maybe in a few years when helmet-mounted video cams are cheap and high resolution, it could make sense to try to capture a ride that way, but I'm not sure even that would do it. Anyway, it was a fantastic ride.

Physically it was right at my limits. I made it home fine, but I was really crawling up Monte Ceneri (below 4mph at times). A knee was bothering me a bit, so I took some Advil as an anti-inflammatory (not so much for pain as to prevent injury) and was extra careful with it on the way home. Upper and lower back and neck pain got pretty bad at points, but were helped by stopping to stretch ... basically my body was telling me that I was not trained up for this length and intensity of ride, with just 50 miles the previous week and none the week before that. My back is fine today (the day after), my knee is a little tender but will be fine with a couple days of rest.

Stats: 200km (125 miles), from 8:19am to a little before 7pm, with 9 hours 34 minutes moving time (which means about an hour or so of time stopped to eat, stretch, etc). 6544 feet of climbing, with the lowest point being 708feet in the plain of Bellinzona (below my starting point of 970 feet in Lugano) and the highest point being 3877 feet near Airolo.