The Odyssey Day 10: 🇦🇹 ⛪️Imst - Garmisch Partekirchen ⛰️ 🇩🇪

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

We arrived in sunshine. That is the first thing to say. The goddesses were with us to the end and when we came into Garmisch the sun was on the rooftops and on the Zugspitze and on everything we had pedaled through to get there. There was no drama. No wrong turns, no mechanicals, nothing worth telling except this: we arrived.

The climbs did not hurt anymore. We had slept eight hours and eaten in a supermarket the way men eat when they know what they are doing: protein shakes and yogurt and coffee and the energy drinks, bread…and then we rode out and the Bavarian Alps escorted us without asking anything in return. The Zugspitze came closer slowly. That is what mountains do when you have already beaten them. They let themselves be seen.

Now it is raining. From the window I can see a light mist covering the valley, erasing the high peaks, making everything grey and still. The body does not know it is over. It is still running on war mode, waiting for tomorrow’s orders that will not come. That is part of any odyssey. The body is always the last to surrender.

To my friend Gian Paolo Amaduzzi, who gave up a biathlon to ride with us from Trieste to Udine, gratefulness and admiration. To the companions in battle who pushed when pushing was needed and said nothing when silence was better, respect and love. To those who followed from far away and were there anyway, thank you. And to the goddesses and the guardians who gave us sunshine when it mattered and mist afterward, when we could finally afford it, Praise. Ten days. One thousand kilometers. Twelve thousand meters. An odyssey. And we rode in under the sun.

Legendario

Juli Garcia Juan Sebastian Osorio Chaparro Joel Velasquez Alejandro Ortiz