Raid Corsica – Stage Three

Tonight’s blog will be brief and please excuse even more mistakes in grammar, spelling, sentence structure, the Queen’s English. It’s been a day of extremes.

We woke to bright, sunny skies, but it was a bit cool. Right from the start, we had a 15+ km decent straight down a magnificent gorge. A little sketchy with the tour buses, but we maintained our line and survived. Ahead of us lay the Col d’ Ominanda (654m), the Col de Bellagranajo (723m), the Col de Sorba (1,311m), the Col de Verde (1,289m), and to top it off, the Col de Granaccia (865m). All totaled, over 9,000+ feet of climbing. Yep, our legs, shoulders, and bums are pretty sore.

The Col de Verde provided us with a real test of our reason for being cyclists. Not only is it long and grinding on a normal day, but today, mother nature decided to have a little fun with us. As we were ascending, the clouds began to gather at the top. Dark and foreboding, they swirled around the mountain top. As we finally reached the summit, it began to rain. Heavy droplets fell as we rushed to put on more layers, rain jackets and heavy gloves. As we started the 20km decent, the skies opened and it poured. It was just rain at first, but then we began to hear a pinging sound off our helmets and titanium bikes. It was hail. Soft at first, but then it really started. It was painful as the hail bounced off our legs and arms. With more miles to go, we continued, as the ice actually gathered on our gloves and arms. We made it to the village of Zicavo, where we found a café, ordered coffee and coco and hoped it would pass. It didn’t, so we layered up even more and continued. Finally it stopped, but the Col de Granaccia was still ahead. The sun came out, warmed us a bit, and we finished in grand - but tired fashion.

The hotel was a welcome sight. The group gathered for a couple of beers and then we enjoyed a dinner of roasted wild boar and pasta, was great and the day, and we, were done.