All men dream, but not equally.

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their minds, awake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerouus men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it reality. And so it was that he awoke to his dream.

"After a 3.5 hour drive in a fiat panda and a quick scooby snack I start my ascent at 4000ft from Bormio. The road surface is perfect top to bottom and the climb to just over 9000ft takes me 1hr40m, it was gorgeous as expected. Quick double espresso and a coke then I descend to Prato on the other side, I reckon it won't get dark until 8.


The ritchey cross has mtb brakes. I tug the levers until they hit the bars and pray. They are avid juicy pish mk1, mental note to swap to trp when I get back.


I descend in a line of Harley Davidson bikes and make it to third in line until I have to turn and climb again, this time it's steeper, harder, colder and wetter. I top out again on 1:50 and have more coke and chocolate croissant (wanted hot dog but stall had closed). It's 1900 when I start to descend and it's misty on other side.  Suffice to say it was the scariest, coldest, brake free descent of my life but I made it.

I rode rapha Italian and had rapha giro cd in my ears, bellisamo xxx

Ciao, gman, g3r capitano x"

The Stelvio Pass is one of the highest Alpine Passes of Europe with its 2758 m. There are 48 hairpin turns on the northern side of the pass. The original road was built in 1820-1825 by the Austrian Empire to connect the former Austrian province of Lombardia with the rest of Austria, covering a climb of 1871 m. Since then, the route has changed very little. The 60 hairpin bends, 48 of them on the northern side numbered with stones, are a challenge to anyone who  cares to dream.