Ben’s Langdon bike ride…day 5

The Jewish News is following the progress of Ben Miller, who is taking part in the Langdon International Cycle…

The Gavia:

This morning, we had an easy final group ride. 20km up the beautiful Valtellina valley, a coffee and then the run home. Mark rode with us and even made it up the steep, short hill – albeit with a little help. At one point, Andrew Passer was pushing Mark and I was pushing Andrew.

We then said goodbye to the group who headed off to the airport. A handful of us stayed for a little extra cycling and headed up the Passo di Gavia, another classic climb in this region. A mere 25km to climb 1300m. Much easier than the Stelvio, but I still found it very hard in my current form. Tomorrow, I was hoping to ride the Mortirolo, one of the toughest climbs with sections over 18% and 12km of it over 12%. To put that in context, the 500m of Highgate West Hill is 10%. So the Mortirolo is a good chunk steeper and massively longer. To be honest, I may give it a miss – having struggled on the Stelvio and Gavia, as well as some of the other climbs this week, I’m doubtful I would make it.

Either way, it’s been a wonderful week. Great scenery, great company, amazing cycling, and hugely successful fundraising. Thank you to everyone involved and especially to everyone who sponsored us.