Day 5, Tirano-Andalo via Passo Tonale and Fai Della Paganella

Day 6 of our FinKraft Cycling Camp and we are officially done watching the Giro on the road , now we just ride and watch it on TV. We set out of Tirano and kind of back track the Giro route via Aprica , nice climb up this ski town and a very popular Giro stage finish . Then a long decent down in to Edolo and towards Passo Tonale. Tonale is a Glacier and there is always snow on top year around . As a matter of fact it felt like it might snow today . Cold and cloudy , but we escaped any kind of real weather , but unfortunately a broken crank on the way up . Thank God for the follow van and no real issue. Cold on top of Tonale like I said and just a quick stop to get bundled up . I have been over this mountain many times and the weather always seems to be the same and not much happening in this town this time of the year either. A really long and gradual decent down into the valley . We are now in Val di Sol , cool roads and the home of the MTB World Cup almost every year. After making good time and not a bad place to stop for lunch . My master plan was to stop in Clees and say hello to Maurizio Fondriest at his shop . After a flat and a little push on the pace with a nice tail wind we make it there and Maurizio is standing on the front steps welcoming us ( not planned ) Of course he has a Dura Ace crankset ( his personal ) that they install and after a few laughs and stories we head south on some amazing roads towards Trento ( Mezzolombardo ). It was getting late with all the excitement , so in my mind we should probably skip the 10K Fai della Paganella climb and take a shorter way to Andalo and call it a day . Somehow we missed the turn off and still ended on the climb that we had originally planned, blame it on the GPS . A very nice road and a beautiful town on top so all worth it and sometimes it pays off to follow the original plan even though you get to the Hotel at 7.00 pm .We roll in to Andalo , a sleeping ski town and nobody around . A nice hotel and a great dinner to cap off a big day in the saddle.