With the next race in Ridanna it was time to leave Cortina with an early morning departure. I still had the chains on the tires so it wasn’t much concern driving down the mountain but reaching the valley off they came and the concern for black ice. Thankfully it was not a issue and with plenty of time I pulled into my hotel in Sterzing. The roads were clear but the parking lot was snow/ice making me concerned for getting back on the road. Coupled with heading up a mountain to the race course I decided to put the chains back on.
The drive up was about twenty-five minutes and the road was clear, however the parking lot was snow covered so I was glad to have the chains. This was a really pretty area with a sunken shooting range. The course was very spectator friendly with three or four spots to cheer on each lap (depending on how fast I wanted to hustle between spots). This was a speed course (not a strength course) which made it a tougher race for Anna but hey no complaints from me as it was great to see her race.
She did a bit more training afterwards while I relaxed in her hotel lobby. We grab a late lunch (just made the cut off time) and then drove down to my hotel to check in and for her to get a break from the hubbub surrounding the racing venue. We checked out the areas of my hotel and settled in by the pool. It wasn’t long before the front desk guy gave us the boot because Anna wasn’t a guest. Lame. So I drove Anna back to her hotel, said goodbye and started down the mountain. Immediately there was a whack, whack, whack sound. Ugh. I got out and found one of the chains had broken on the tires. So off they both came and a carefully drove to my hotel.
My stress level over this car and getting to see the remaining races was high, so a couple of glasses of wine were needed to go along with my dinner at the hotel. It wasn’t my best night’s sleep…
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