So here it is then …..Day 12….the day that if we manage it will include the Umbrail Pass, the highest paved road in Switzerland at 8212 feet, and then will see us push on even higher to the top of the Stelvio Pass at 9045 feet. If we get there it will be most extreme thing we have ever done.

We both agree to set the alarm super early so we can get up and away before the inevitable tourists and bikers start making their way up, and so we are on the road by 730.

I mentioned yesterday that the campsite is literally on the via passo Umbrail, so we have already made about 50 feet of climbing before we even start. As soon as we reach the road outside the campsite it pushes up, a lot, and then continues to push up and up and up.

We ever so slowly grind our way up through the forest and around the many many switchbacks, pausing frequently to catch our breath and sometimes using the chance to take a photo as an excuse to stop.

Unexpectedly after the first 1000 or so feet of climbing we come across a hotel / restaurant affair so stop for a late second breakfast / early elevenses. This really is the most special part of the world and It is impossible to look around without seeing a spectacular view.

This first section is, along with the last, we now know the toughest in terms of vertical ascent. The road stubbornly stays between 9% (insanely, pushing your insides out of your ears type hard) and 11% (which I don’t wish to discuss with you not least because I know that there are some young adults reading!). Eventually we clear the 6500 feet point and break out of the trees and into a more open valley. The gradient softens ever so slightly to around 7% or 8% (which basically just feels like you need to be sick all the time)

Inevitably the road keeps switching up and up and up, way past the snow line and way past the point any sensible person would wish to cycle (we see very few others) let alone with panniers (we see none). Eventually we turn a final switchback and see the sign that says we have done it….we have reached and breached the Umbrail Pass. Excitement is dampened only by the clearly visible remaining 1000 feet up to Stelvio.

We press on literally grinding a meter or so out of every pedal turn, stopping more and more frequently (we have been on the move for over 5 hours by this point) but eventually we do haul ourselves kicking and screaming across the saddle of the Stelvio Pass….and we have done it!!! We have cycled all the way from London and conquered everything in our path including the Alps and now this ….the Stelvio. Cue lots of photos, tears, beer (obvs) and lunch in the absolutely perfectly positioned Albergo Ristorante Tibet…and we might as well be in Tibet given the scenery.

Given our achievement (which for the avoidance of doubt is mind blowingly huge) we decide we should stay here for a couple of hours and bask in the glory of it. The rest of the day is only down hill and whilst we of course can’t sit here drinking ourselves silly (two is the limit) neither of us want to leave just yet….we want to enjoy it properly and take it all in. We do exactly that for a good while but then our time is cut short when the weather suddenly changes, rain and sleet start coming down and the temperature drops a lot and very quickly. We need to get off the mountain before things get too sketchy….so we do.

In many ways the descent is just as hard as the climb, it’s super techincal, steep and by now slippy in places and whilst I wouldn’t go as far as to say “terrifying” it is a pretty scary thing on a bike, plus there is by now quite a lot of traffic.

It’s the most extraordinary and exhilarating descent either of us have ever experienced as we drop down from over 9000 feet through all the insane switchbacks and then the valley below all the way down to just below 3000 feet.

Today has simply been the most amazing, beautiful, tough, hard fought, life affirming and probably life changing day of my life….I am so grateful to be here, to have been able to do it and get to do it with my best mate.