A little Monday reading.
I jumped into a last minute vacancy on a self-organised trip to the Dolomites, centred in Arabba. And I will not regret it. For starters, the view from the accommodation window:
Local planning was aided by a great cycling map published by the excellent local hotel/pizzeria Pordoi. We had pizzas there almost every night. Here's the map, or here:
Day 0: all the others arrived a day earlier, and undertook a crazy long trip (routes 2 plus 3 on the map). Went up Passo Giau, down the other side, on to Cortina, then to Misurina and Tre Cime di Lavaredo (at 2300 m probably the highest road in the Dolomites). At this point the rain started, turning into hail, and they had a major battle to get home. 140 km, 4000 m elevation or so.
Day 1: Two of us turned up, and not finding many candidates for a long ride after the day before, went round the Sella Ronda, and tagged on Passo Fedaia (routes 1 plus 4). Sella Ronda is a 56 km loop round the magnificient Sella group, a layered cake of a wonder-mountain, with four mountain passes. Gardena on the north, Sella on the west, Pordoi south and Campolongo east - 1600 m elevation. You can ski the same circuit in the winter. Here's a winter view of the Sella group from the top of Marmolada, the highest peak of the Dolomites.
After the Sella circuit down to Canazei for a beer, then up the Fedaia pass from the west (a beautiful road with a long, steady 8% gradient). The pass is at 2000 metres, where you see the frozen reservoir on the winter picture. Crossed the dam:
stopped for a photo (two of us in freshly designed new kit)
then sprinted up like crazy to the bottom of the ski lift on the other side, to the amusement of the beer-drinking public. Whom we soon joined.
The way down from Fedaia on the east is a brilliant descent. First hairpins with gradients up to 15%, then an incredible 11% long straight (strava segment called Fedaia Gravity Run). I reached 87 kph there, and my crazy riding buddy scored a 6th place on the entire DH segment out of a thousand people or more, never having seen that road. Here's the twisty part, he is in the middle.
Day 2: Rain forecast. A cold, cloudy morning. Set out in full long kit for an easy Sella Ronda, but off the Pordoi in one of the great hairpins suddenly my foot fell off the pedal. Or rather the pedal came off the crank! How? It turned out that the bearings went completely bust, and I simply unscrewed it as I backpedalled half a revolution for each hairpin. Speedplay pedals need regular greasing, which I somewhat neglected.
So down to a Canazei bikeshop (luckily reachable without any pedalling…), and I had to buy some replacement pedals. SPDs were the cheapest temporary fix. My two riding mates went for a beer in the same place as the day before, where the waiter immediately asked for the 'third one' - and was happy to hear that my bike was back in working order when I finally arrived.
A photo at the Simoni monument at Passo Pordoi (there is also a Coppi one).
Day 3: Passo delle Erbe. A long day planned, following some web research (that lead me to Will's blog) suggesting that Passo delle Erbe is not to be missed. In Arabba we were quite far from it, especially to make a loop. It is even off the map to the north.
Passo Pordoi for breakfast (1600 to 2200 m). With all the Strava-ing, what we really wanted by this stage was to get a proper segment placing somewhere, and someone from the group identified the 'last km of Pordoi' as a good one to give a go. So we did, and I'm now placed 2nd out of 6000 people! Managed to beat Peter Stetina, who is on my VDS team, so can I include myself on next year's team please? [better not to mention that he pushed the whole 9 km of Pordoi and got the KOM there while setting his last km time...]
Passo Sella again, followed by a 40 km 1700 m descent to Chiusa. The last 15 km is on a wonderful road on the side of a big valley, smooth, little traffic, 4% all the way. No photos, too busy enjoying it at 50-60 kph.
Then the climb to Erbe: 26 km, 1500 metres! The average did not look frightening, and we did not expect a steady 13% section after turning off the valley floor at San Pietro. Just kept going up and up after each turn. Half the group missed the turnoff, and climbed 600 m to a dead end, getting their placings on a Strava segment that fewer than 10 people had been on - in the middle of the Dolomites! This way we had the pleasure of waiting for them 2 hours at the pass, eating and drinking, and estimating which part of the 13% they were suffering on.
The rocky gorge at the bottom:
Flyin' the 'café colours
The relentless 13% section (see where it continues?)
And a long easy forested stretch near the top.
Eating kaiserschmarren (do, if you come across them!)
Eventually the lost contingent arrived.
And a long trek home. Nearly sunset on Passo Campolongo above Corvara:
The day ended with about 130 km, 3600 m elevation (4200 for the detourers).
Day 4: Loop 6. Pordoi for breakfast as usual, then down all along Val di Fassa. Coffee in Moena (lovely centre).
Then up to Passo San Pellegrino. Old village on the way:
But no inviting beers on the top, just some spa hotels, so went down to Falcade for the beer instead. (Dude's 61!)
A good descent (the eastern side seems steeper), and a lot of climbing to get back to Arabba.
Day 5: A longer loop found on the extremely helpful cycling map (loop 7). All the way down south to Agordo (600m), then up Passo Duran and Passo Staulanza. These are both very pretty, and both have quality refreshment stops. Duran is 12.5 km at 8%, Staulanza is a bit shorter. The scenery is again out of this world, with views of Monte Civetta. This was one of the best days, with a somewhat off the beaten track feel. No traffic jams here like on Pordoi and Sella.
Up to Passo Duran, here a steady 10%
then hairpins
Civetta (or some pre-peak) visible from the top, with Tibetan flags.
And another stupendous mountain above the next col, Staulanza.
A third incredible mountain somewhere in between, with cows.
On the way home we took a wrong turn, went down 400 metres unnecessarily, and had to go through two 300m+ very scary unlit tunnels. Dodged a shower, and got home with 115 km, 2600 metres climbing. An average day :)
Final stats: 5 days, 525 km, 13200 m, 0 punctures, 1 mechanical, 8 pastas, 5 pizzas, 3 cakes, about 15 beers, and according to someone in the group about 90000 pedal strokes. Almost no rain while riding, big showers in the evenings, lots of luck.
A brilliant, cheap and easily organised holiday. I often ride with younger guys who would treat this as a 'training camp' - but with this group we were just there to enjoy the ride.