Haute Route Dolomites 2021 – Stage 3 Race Report | 3bikes.fr, your Cycling, Gravel & Triathlon magazine

Stage 3 of the Haute Route Dolomites connects Trento to Bormio, via Passo Tonale and Gavia. A difficult stage that our ambassador David Polveroni relives for us.

Haute Route Dolomites 2021 – Stage 2 Race Report

At 7:30 AM, we set off from Trento, the capital of Trentino, for a stage that will undoubtedly be decisive for those competing for the overall classification in this Haute Route Dolomites 2021. After about fifteen neutralized kilometers, it’s a rather fast start.

I had in mind to save energy on this stage and do the minimum, but my instinct resurfaces, and I burn several matches trying to break away with Rashid – who also did the Haute Route Alps – but behind, the leader sets the pace on the climb, and we tackle these first small ascents in a group.

I analyzed the course too little, and I’m surprised by these first climbs, which ultimately will hurt my legs for the rest of the stage. At the end of a second climb after a timed stop, I attack again with Rashid, and that’s when Loïc also decides to attack. The group splits in two, and I quickly realize it will be very difficult to catch up. The turns at the front are sluggish. I try to stay calm, but it annoys me a bit… I even get told off in Italian for supposedly pulling too hard…

I lose some mental and physical energy. This valley seems endless… We approach Passo Tonale at least three minutes behind the leaders. Paolo and an Italian set a good tempo at the bottom, and I let go halfway up. I feel that my mental and physical strength are abandoning me for this stage… Little by little, I can no longer push. I cling to the rest of the group with this strange sensation of pushing without actually doing so, and that not much is coming out.

At the summit, Loïc has gone with another competitor – I think, because it’s always complicated to read the race with the neutralizations – and we reform a large group. I can no longer understand anything about the race or the positions; I just know that this stage needs to end quickly for me.

We arrive in Ponte di Legno – a lot of traffic, the neutralization is understandable – a little less so for the first 3/4 kilometers of the Gavia where there will be a feed station just before the timed section resumes.

In the condition I’m in, these stops don’t benefit me… But we deal with it… Some take the opportunity to stop for long minutes. I set off again and try to maintain a rhythm. Quickly, it becomes impossible for me to sustain any effort; I resign myself to admiring the landscapes, because it’s not every day you climb the Gavia! I’ll remember this Gavia… A puncture in 2015, freezing rain in 2018, and in 2021, legs left at the hotel…

I am 16th in the stage and move up to 9th place overall. Ahead, Loïc Ruffaut reclaims the leader’s jersey with almost 3′ lead. In the women’s race, Mathilde Terrasson consolidates her leading position and now has more than 40′ lead over Mathilde Flandinet.

What I take away from this stage: even if my legs and physical condition were absent today, the course was relatively sublime with this Gavia, always so magnificent… It’s very hard for me to choose between it and the Bonette, the Galibier, the Iseran, or tomorrow’s Stelvio… But it has a certain charm, a retro style, with a narrow, poorly maintained, and not very beautiful road, old iron barriers, lakes, all in a high mountain atmosphere. Sublime.