Team MotionBased

Early start today with a 5:30am breakfast and 9am rollout. It quickly became apparent that we had a hard day’s racing already in the legs as we hit the first 10K long climb - I guess the average gradient of 15-20% probably didn’t help. Up and into the Austria Alps, we pedaled by signs to Innsbruck, cow with the authentic Heidi of the Hills cowbells and beautiful little alpine villages literally built into the hillsides. The Tirolians seem to have developed a knack for controlling their rough environs while not spoiling the surrounding natural beauty. This really is one incredible race - the logistics alone of connecting these points through a variety of doubletrack, pavement, singletrack and the occasional hike-a-bike is truly amazing. You can check out the stage profiles courtesy of our great Garmin 305 GPS units and Team Motionbased.com software here! The sun blazed down making each “roller” harder and harder. We fought to maintain our position over the day and did a great job keeping the surrounding teams in sight and at bay. 76K definitely took its toll with a net elevation gain of 554m and total climbing of over 3200m. The wives cheering at the finish line in Ischgl were a welcome site for sore eyes (and bodies) as we rolled through in 4hr15min. We maintained our position on the day with a 18th overall finish. Its gonna be sweet dreams tonight - this is one hard race! At least we have six more days... =) Check out the Garmin / MotionBased file: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=1058786