The Italian Job 2013!: Lazy Sunday Afternoon...Sunday 8th September 2013.

Such a tremendous band.

So it's billed as a 'rest day' in sunny Jochberg, which is about 5 miles south of Kitzbuhel. This means a slight lie-in and a search for a full Irish/English. Yeah, right. Coffee and a couple of rolls with jam and that's yer lot. Disgrace!

The good news was that some other riders and support crew had arrived and were soon busy assembling bikes...

Skilled technicians, accomplished cyclists. Where can we find some?

After the 'how do you do's' etc., it was time to saddle up and head north to find the trail up to the unofficial warm-up climb of the Kitzbuheler Horn. Strangely enough only three of us elected to take on this short nightmare: me, Nick and Il Tractore who had this brainwave in the first place.

So what? Doesn't look all that, right?

Great big lump in the distance. Not Il Tractore but the Kitzbuheler Horn...

The only way is up!

Nick is already out of sight and Andy is dropping me too. Gits.

You gain altitude so rapidly and the compensation for the pain is a bike with a view!

The gradients ramped up as you went up...11%, 14%, 17% and then a savage 22%!

It was excruciatingly awful yet so rewarding: what makes the mountains so er, enjoyable and genuinely worthwhile. By the time Andy and I had struggled up the last section to the finish line (you get a ticket from an automated machine at the start line too) Nick was already 10 minutes cold! My time was 55 minutes which was alright as it goes...