Stage 1, Campo Blenio - Thusis

Start in Campo Blenio (1200 m) at 7 AM - Passo del Greina (2357) - Passo del Diesrut (2428.) - Vrin - Ilanz - arrival in Bonaduz (655) 8 PM. With the ups and downs we accumulated 2100 m altitude on 80 km. 6 hrs riding, 3.5 hrs pushing and some carrying.
See the map.

	The trip actually began the day before. Enrico, Mami, Lorenzo, Serge and Marc came from the Lausanne region by car, François and Catherine from Lugano. I travelled by train from Zurich. We met in Biasca and set our for Campo Blenio together. After 5 minutes the luggage car had a flat tire...! In Campo Blenio we where expected for dinner by the very kind people of the hotel Genzana. It got later than planned, of course, but we managed to go to bed before midnight. It had been a hot summer day, but the air was cool up there. The moon shone through our room window, and everything felt great. Personally, I didn't sleep too well, but I guess it was the excitement. We had been looking forward to this trip for almost two years.
	The Genzana hosts prepared our breakfast in advance, as we wanted to eat around 6 AM, and gave us the keys to the restaurant. We started around 7 AM from the Genzana hostel and pedaled on a mostly paved road for about 2 hours. At altitude 1950 m we where expected by a funicular dedicated to the transport of material for the Capanna Scaletta. Enrico had organized this, so we could walk up to the Capanna (which had a restaurant and sleeping facilities) without having to carry the bikes. While the bikes where lifted, we walked into the rising sun, over rocks and some snow fields. We where incredibly lucky with the weather. Most of July and the first week of August had been cool and rainy, but now the Summer had decided to make a final appearance.
	At Capanna Scaletta we enjoyed soup and had our first extended break. There where about 100 meters elevation to go to the Passo del Greina. After that an amazing altiplano opened before our eyes. It was like being on the moon, a bit, I guess. I had never seen such a wide and long plain in the alpine region. Unfortunately we had run out of film, so I can't show any photos of our own here. We had hoped that the plain itself would be cyclable, but rocks and potholes mad us push the bikes almost all the way across, about 1 hour. A the end of the plain we turned right and carried our bikes up to the Passo del Diesrüt. A little downhill race? No way! Hurting feet and shoulders where our company almost all the way down to beautiful Vrin. A few hundred meters before the village François broke off his saddle and Lorenzo had a flat tire.
	Hungry and tired we met Catherine at a nice little coffee shop, where we had late lunch. It was 4 PM and we started wondering if we would make it to Thusis before dark. But we really needed to take a break, to fill our stomachs and bottles, and to fix the bikes. I called my cousin Esther to say we might get there a bit later than planned. She and her friend Hull had been so kind to invite us to stay at their house at the end of stage one. Enrico had planned to take a few side roads from Vrin to Ilanz. So we raced down to the bottom of the valley instead of staying up on the mainroad. For a few miles everything went fine, but then we missed an intersection and all of a sudden the trail was going up again, back towards the main road. When we finally determined our position, it was too late to get back to the small road. Well, the few kilometers from Vrin to Lumbrein took us 45 instead of 10 minutes.... The main road wasn't so terribly main either, hardly any traffic.
	In Lumbrein François was hit by a surge of power and accelerated like some race biker on the final sprint. His chain jumped, and there goes François, a short sit-in in the middle of the road. Fortunately no car was following close, and Enrico barely managed to avoid him - so the incident caused little damage to man and bike. In Ilanz we rode through the pretty town centre and paused to the music of a one man band. We tried some dancing on the bikes, and a kind restaurant owner took this group picture. At the exit of the village François had another flat. We met Catherine again in Castrish at 7 PM. I wanted to ride on quickly, 'cause it was getting late, but all the others insisted on a break. We decided to call Hull and ask him to pick us up in Bonaduz, about 20 km before Thusis. This would save us an hour and allow us to have dinner at a reasonable time. After Castrish it was time to revamp the race I had lost to Lorenzo 2 years ago. There was a long uphill ahead. But this time it was no race. Although Lorenzo has a natural athletic talent, nothing can replace intensive training. And he just didn't have enough of that.
	The small road through Versam provides some impressive views into the Rhine valley (or rather gorge, at that point). In Bonaduz Hull expected us with his trailer, and drove us up to Präz, which was a few km and many altitude meters off our route. It was 9 PM. Enrico, Lorenzo and I stayed at Hull and Esther's place, while the rest had rooms in the nearby hotel. Our hosts treated us like kings with a great pasta dinner and good wine. Esther even did some laundry for us

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