Cycling in the Dolomites

Itinerary

This is the best part of the trip for epic climbs and amazing scenery. Most of these mountain passes were used in the Giro D’Italia many many times over the years. The main route in the Dolomites, the Sella Ronda ( that circle to the bottom left of Badia ) is breath-taking and absolutely overrun with tourists.

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Passo Fedaia

First day out of Badia and a big one to one of the hardest passes in the area. This loop starts with Passo Valparola then Passo Fedaia ( steeper ) and goes to passo Pordoi which is part of the Sella Ronda loop which is basically “the loop” of the Dolomites that hundreds of cyclists do each week in the summer.
The first taste of the Dolomites is pretty incredible though it certainly is absolutely packed with tourists and traffic.

Quite annoying welcome to the Dolomites with 3 of these construction lights on the way up the very first climb on day1....

This first climb is called Passo Valparolla. Already the view was amazing.

Clouds already forming around the mountain. They predicted rain almost every day but every time it would just be much later or at night.

Starting to see tons of cyclists already.

Most of the passes have ranches in the upper portions. Starting to think elevation makes really good cheese.

Top of Valparolla. I mean. This is just World Class.

Every climb in the Dolomites has a restaurant or "Refuggio" on top ready to fleece tourists with overpriced food and kitchy souvenirs.

Going up Fedaia. It's a less scenic climb/pass than most of the others but that isn't saying much.

Lots of wood carvings and sculptures of random stuff in all the towns scattered through the climbs. What is going on here?

Look at the last switchbacks at the top of Fedaia. They are fun to climb but awful to descend because you will get stuck behind slow-moving cars and trucks, always.

Top has a huge alpine lake and snowcapped mountains. Did not stay long because the weather was starting to look grim.

The damn on the lake. Very thankful all week to never get stuck in a storm at the peak of any pass.

One last cloudy valley before making it to the Hotel to watch the evening rain.

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Tres Cime

The most iconic area of the Dolomites ( so I am told ). Located atop a very steep 500m climb to the parking lot where hordes of tourists do the same hike around the mountain to take a selfie with the perfectly aligned rocks that show the 3 peaks. The parking gets full very fast but buses drive people up there. Absolutely amazing views of course.

Started the ride with Dar and Karsten, this German guy who Dar met in France on a bike trip

Dar just invited him as well and he was one of the few people who accepted to come! Traveling with people is actually not that easy

Lake on top of Valparolla

Then we descended to Cortina D'Ampezzo which seems to be the tourist hub of the Dolomite. Absolutely stunning city located in a massive valley. No pictures haha

What it looks like near/around Cortina. Just insane honestly.

A lake so clear I could see every fish swimming in it

From Cortina you climb back up towards the iconic Tres Cime area

The views are literally never bad any road you happen to take. It's like this everywhere.

Some random spanish guy tagging along as we get to the tourist shop atop the climb

There's this huge lake near where the Tres Cime climb starts. It's gorgeous. There's a cable car, lots of trailheads and of course zero parking.

The theme of the Dolomites is Bavarian crap. Beer mugs, goofy hats, clocks, strudel... Milk them tourists. Milk them good and hard.

The climb up to the Tres Cime trailhead is super brutal and about 500m elevation

View from the very top parking lot. No words really

Apparently there's a Dinosaur museum of some sort in a nearby city. Lots of fossils in these mountains as we'll learn later on.

Tourist took this terrible pic of us with a wide angle setting. For some reason.

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Pederu

Rain forecast for noon that day so we only did this short out-and-back to the heart of the mountains. Pederu is a trailhead with many paths up and over the central chain of the Dolomites.

A 3 hour ride as a recovery ride is certainly something I never though I’d ever be doing in my life when I started this sport.

Bavarian town on the way out of Badia. Well "Ladin" is what the people here are called in "South Tyrol" region

That describes the Dolomites well. Imagine renting a car for thousands of dollars and just taking a bus everywhere anyway.

Final destination. The road ends in the middle of the mountains and from here you can start a bunch of hikes or dirt bike trails.

The mountains but made better by my face

Dark clouds gathering. We made the right call. Whole region is charming with all the grassy hills and alpine architecture

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Alpe de Siusi loop

Most ambitious loop of the week to make it to the hardest reachable climb in the region. Well turns out nobody cares because only about 30 people ever rode up this entire climb from the highway to the peak above the ski center of Alpe de Siusi. It’s a few kms with lots of 20%+walls which I guess is why this ranks so high in difficulty. This route also has 2 other huge passes and incredible views though.

Top of Passo Erbe which I had to get over just to descend to the actual start of the other climb. If you come here you're going to climb.

More at the top of Erbe. It's a bit out of the way from the other passes but still amazing and also crowded.

Many of the passes in the Dolomites have more or less sketchy tunnels. Bring a back light on every ride basically.

Climbing up Suisi and waving at the lazy people in the cable car. You guys suck. Boooooo

Peak of the climb, about 1200m of gain. It's a super vast grassy plateau with little shacks scattered all over

Majestic horses on one of the ranches up there. Who lives here? What is this mystical place?

The official climb ends at this ski resort but you can keep going a few kms on a 20% one-way garbage pedestrian path to the REAL top.

The Giro D'Italia used this climb in 2009 apparently! But not the "all the way" dumb segment, just ending at the ski station

This whole climb is just epic, do it if you think you have the fitness, it's a hard ride even for the Dolomites.

Top of Gardina Pass, the last one I had to do that day to get back to the hotel...

Gardina might be the most beautiful one. It's part of the popular Sella Ronda loop

Stunning

They put this sculpture in a little town called Corvana.

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Passo Giau big loop

Completing more of that Dolomites heat map by doing the remaining roads on Sella Ronda then Giau pass, one of the toughest in the region as you can tell from the elevation map.

Sella ronda is absolutely swarmed with tourists and cyclists it’s a little obnoxious but Giau I guess is too hard and “far” so I saw almost nobody all day on it except near the top. Wonder why it is that I always see more cyclists near the top of climbs than the bottom. Do they just get dropped there by car? Do they just do half?

Top of Gardina again. There's cows everywhere here btw. Between the towns is very wild and rugged and then you cross these kitchy tourist oasis every so often

I mean it's all postcard worthy when the skies are clear. Crazy place.

Have to go through this huge valley to pass from Sella Ronda to the bottom of Giau

Stopped at the least tourist trap looking cafe and the most Italian grandpa of all time looked at me the entire time

More of the valley. The whole place is stupidly amazing, I'm glad I did other parts of Italy just to make sure the Dolomites were actually a special place

Top of Giau. Not pictured: the 2+km of cars parked on the side of the road all the way to the Refugio at the peak

Stopped for maybe a pee and water but it was too packed and also get bent with your 2 euro toilet lol. I'll shit myself first.

More from the peak of passo Giau

Just some cool rocks at the bottom of Valparolla pass, last one I had to climb back up. I was so dehydrated. Damn you 2 euro toilet BS place.

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Passo Erbe (Brixen)

Last ride, Dar tagged along for this one. Finally cracked him but we both did 30 hours this week. Sure got our money’s worth in Badia, dodging the rain every single day and getting to ride basically every road!
This way up Erbe is the hardest and longest, with really awesome views at the top. Well. That’s everywhere in the Dolomites actually.

Town of Brixen, where you start the harder side of Passo Erbe

Starting the ascent of Erbe with Brixen in the distance

Nearing the peak of Erbe.

Was feeling good so I put 15 minutes into Dar like the ass that I am.

The worst picture in the universe ( according to Dar )

The best pictures in the universe ( according to me )

Saw this little guy on the way back down to Badia

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Well that was awesome.
That last ride cracked Dar pretty good and I was also looking forward to a nice rest. Plans of waking up at 5am the next day and doing one last short ride were replaced with plans of eating more corn flakes.

Next is travel / living / tourism around Alta Badia!

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