On to Kaltern

Today's stage, with 141km and 300+0m elevation gain, was the second toughest of the Transalp. Due to the length I started the climb to the Passo Tonale (600m up) very motivated but cautiously. David was some minutes ahead, then we had a huge blast downhill for 40km. Just the right steepness and nice curves. I jumped from one group to the next and felt like Jens Voigt. Then another rather steep climb followed by a very long climb to the Gaupenjoch where David and me worked together to make it to the top.

After another long and beautiful descent we worked together on the slopes of the Kaltern valley and put the hammer down at the last stretch where we overtook quite some riders. This was an excellent team performance, even better than our team time trial attempts in Saiko. We also achieved our best stage result yet and got the evening special price for least hours raced for combined body weight.

Our meat dinner was well deserved. We also detected evidence of Nagai-san's previous activities here on behalf of Fassa Bortolo (see photo). Tomorrow is the last day at we hope to finish with a good showing.