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The long anticipated trip is underway! We arrived into Milan on Saturday morning and our group of 15 from UK, US and NL headed up to Varenna on Lake Como to put the bikes together and enjoy the amazing views lakeside.

We left the rainy weather behind in London and have had brilliant sunshine for the 2 days so far. After leaving Varenna we headed along the lake and then up into the mountains, over the Swiss border and onto St Moritz. The climb in between certainly helped remind me of the lack of training I have put in for this trip, and this was the easy day!

Wiggle kindly sent me over here with a new Felt Z5 2011 along with Dura-Ace tubeless wheels running on Hutchinson tyres. Not only does it look amazing, it rides like a dream. This is the first time I have ridden on tubeless and I am definitely converted! So comfortable and coupled with the smooth handling of the bike, riding is even more of a joy.

I took the bike out for a test ride last weekend in Sussex and Kent and the new racier saddle wasn’t the best choice. I have solved the problem by getting a pair of Assos bib shorts. They are certainly worth the money and after 100km in the saddle today I’m not dreading the coming tough days.

The views are spectacular here and I took a few random shots of things I don’t get to see on my usual rides. We are staying in St Moritz again tomorrow night and doing the Gulier Pass and the beyond category Albula Pass.

Today we covered 98km and 1800m with today’s profile being flat for 40km, up for 40km and flat for 18km. Tomorrow is going to be harder, we will see just how good those Assos bibs are :)

Happy training.

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