Alps 2024 — Day 10: Villabassa to Vipiteno

Last night we woke up in a small B&B that we’d booked the afternoon prior.  This has been our normal process — put together a rough plan for the day and then during a break in the afternoon when we’re more confident in our ultimate mileage (kilometerage?) we book something using our phones. Today it’s a different approach. We’ve got a place in Vipiteno booked already because it’s the perfect launching point for our last day to Merano.

The direct route to Vipiteno is about 80km and largely follows a well-marked cycle route along the Rienz known as EuroVelo 7. Of course, the entire route is much longer extending all the way from Norway to Malta in it’s entirety. So yeah, great, convenient, but where are the hills at?? We couldn’t leave well enough alone so we altered the route to include a tough climb of Passo Furcia (Italian) or Furkelpass (German).

So we started out, loaded up the bikes and I immediately noticed that my rear tire was pretty squishy. I’d been watching it for several days and every morning I’d need to add about forty pumps of air, but then I was mostly good for the day. Yesterday, though, my tire started feeling squishy in the early afternoon so now you have my attention. Anyway, went to eat breakfast, got back to the bike thirty minutes later and already the tire was squishy. 💩

I use tubeless tires with sealant inside, which is usually nice because I can run lower pressures than with a tube (no worries about pinch flats) and also the tubeless setup can automatically seal small punctures while you ride. Unfortunately, with all the hot riding and lots of miles, my sealant dried up and there was no longer a good seal so it started to leak more and more.

This is no big deal though: at home I would just add sealant, but here I have no extra sealant or a good way to get it into the tire, so the easiest thing to do is just put a tube in the tire (I carry two spares just in case), which is what we did. So fifteen minutes later we were on the road headed to our first climb and a nice tubed tire.

Right when we were about to leave the EV7, we passed through a town that had a bike shop open so I popped in to get another spare tube. All topped up and ready for anything!

The morning was beautiful but already feeling warm. There was haze in the sky as we headed towards the base of the switchback-laden climb. The first ten minutes felt more difficult than usual (we were nicely warmed up, unlike the day before) until I realized that I still had one easier gear to use 😣. It didn’t make a huge difference though, the climb was tough; probably subjectively the hardest climb of the entire trip.

Of course, I’m feeling the cumulative fatigue of ten days of hard riding. It’s sort of a miracle that we’ve made it this far!

Shortly after we made it to the top, a couple who’d biked past us on the way up (e-bikes) commented (in German) that it was an impressive ride with those shoes, referring to my cycling sandals. 😂 I’ll take that as a compliment!

It was a quick descent and about halfway down we stopped for espresso and a very tasty pistachio-filled croissant. Yum.

The rest of the day unfolded in fairly typical ways. We made it back to the EV7 and followed that to another route that heads north known as the Munich-Venice long distance route. Of course, in all that time we had lunch, found water, and enjoyed a route that was nearly all separated bike trail.

At one point we felt a few drops of rain so we stopped and made sure we had our rain gear handy. This, of course, ensured that it didn’t really rain at all. Just a refreshing sprinkle that cooled us nicely.

We pulled into Vipiteno with about 96km and 1500m of climbing. Our place was a vacation rental with a kitchenette, so we were excited to head to the grocery store and get food to make. Gnochi and jars of red pasta sauce formed the base of our meal. For the first time since Day 1, it rained for a long time and we enjoyed listening to it, knowing we weren’t out in it on our bikes!