Sellaronda

Before our trip, as I scanned Strava’s heatmap, a very logical route surfaced to tackle during our time in Ortisei. It just so happened it was a classic bike (and ski) route called the Sellaronda, which also has an annual bike day by the same name for which the passes are all closed to cars.

I began my ride from our place in Ortisei, adding a decent bit of climbing to Selva and then up to where the loop begins. Passo Sella was my first objective and I tried not to over-cook it, given having three more passes on the menu. 244 watts for just shy of 46 minutes got me to the top from just outside Selva.

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The descent from here was a dream and pretty quiet in the morning. I found myself quickly turning left onto Strada del Pordoi and climbing again. This approach cuts off a decent chunk of the Pordoi and the gradient is a pretty forgiving 6.6% on average. 228 watts for 28 minutes was enough to do the job.

I was still feeling pretty strong at this point and decided to press on after a brief stop for an obligatory selfie and shot of the sign at the pass. The East side of the Pordoi was an especially fun descent—a moderate angle with lots of sweeping switchback turns and good visibility. I took a left at the roundabout in Arabba to begin the third pass of the day—the Campolongo. My legs were feeling a bit used by this point and a touch crampy when I pushed hard, but they held together pretty well at 246 watts for just under 18 minutes. I zoomed down to the quiet town of Corvara where I decided to stop at a cafe for a cappuccino, pain au chocolate, and fresh water. Magic.

I didn’t set any speed records going up Passo Gardena from Corvara, but I didn’t fade too badly either, doing 218 watts for 45 minutes. Passo Gardena might have been my favorite views of the ride with lush green alpine pastures framed between Dolomite limestone peaks. It was all downhill from here (except for the false flat not far down the Gardena) and I enjoyed it immensely—all the way to Ortisei.

This was a very worthy ride with four classic passes and a nice variety of terrain and views. I’d highly recommend it!

Sass Rigais Via Ferrata

During our first trip to the Dolomites, my wife and I hiked from Seceda to Resciesa via Forcella di Mesdi. We could see from the col that a via ferrata route went up to the summit of Sass Rigais, one of the highest points above the town of Ortisei where we were staying. I wanted to just do it as a scramble that day without any gear but thought better of it. It was high on my to-do list as we came back through Ortisei a few years later on our parental leave trip.

I took one of the first bins up to Seceda, chatting up an Australian couple most of the way. Right at 9am, I started jogging down and across the high traverse from Seceda toward the basin below Sass Rigais. I was moving pretty fast. Too fast, it turned out. In only 25 minutes, I ran right by the right trail, thinking it couldn’t possibly be this soon. There was a relatively high-looking peak to my left and it seemed correct to curl around and head up a well-established trail into the drainage that was ahead of me. I was pushing myself to go fast uphill and didn’t look at my topo map. Whoops. It wasn’t until I was at the high pass near Odla de Valdusa nearly 2,000 vertical feet up that I realized I’d made a big mistake.

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I launched myself back down the trail and hooked into the correct approach, now worried I’d be stuck behind a bunch of parties on a nice Saturday. Thankfully, I was able to pass all of the bigger groups and arrived at the base of the East route alone with nobody close ahead of me. The route was quite short and straightforward and I reached the summit at noon. I soaked in the views for a few minutes and then charged down the Southwest route. This proved to be quite a bit longer than the way up, but generally pretty mellow. I wasn’t sure that what looked like a shortcut along the way down to the left would go, so I stuck with the main route all the way to Forcella di Mesdi. From here, it was just a quick descent and then a jog back across to Seceda. I decided to finish by going up to the high point at the end of the traverse to take in the classic view of the Odles before reaching Seceda just after 2pm.

This was a gorgeous area and fun route, though I found myself wishing it were longer and a bit more consistently technical. The bonus mileage and vertical made it feel like a more worthy day even if it was a complete mistake.

Giro d'Langhe

After getting a pretty good taste for the area (literally and figuratively) with Dale last fall during our Bar to Bar ride, I was excited to have the opportunity to get out for another long ride in this beautiful area. We were unfortunately there during a big heat wave and the logistics worked out such that my big ride was the same day that we were picking up our rental bike in Alba, which meant that I didn’t get rolling from the bike shop until almost 9:45am. By that point, it was already 76 degrees and climbing fast, especially under the sun that was beating down on me.

I decided to ride a counter-clockwise loop so that any repeated roads would feel somewhat new. This took me first up to the top of the classic La Morra hill. I planned to do about 60 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing on the day, so I tried to pace myself accordingly. What I didn’t sufficiently factor in was the limited number of calories I’d brought with me and the scorching temperatures…I would pay for my relatively hard push up La Morra later.

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From La Morra, it was a glorious descent to Barolo before climbing up to Monteforte d’Alba. This area was one of the nicest of the ride, with views of vineyards in all directions and legs that still felt pretty fresh. From here, I turned back North to add a really nice set of roads running through Castiglione Falletto and then back South through Serralunga d’Alba and all the way up to Roddino. I thankfully found a fountain by the side of the road outside Roddino and was able to dunk myself under it to cool off a bit and refill my water. It was 95-100 degrees at this point.

Heading East from here brought me out of the vineyards and into a very different feeling terrain, often with orchards. I’d been intrigued by some squiggly roads on the map I’d seen heading through Borgomale. These turned out to be quite fun as a narrow, quiet descent and then a bit of a grind back up. By the time I’d made it to Manera I knew it was mostly downhill to get home, which was a good thing. The cumulative impact of the temperature and limited calories was really taking its toll.

I rolled into our spot in Barbaresco a bit under 4 hours after I’d started and was absolutely shellacked. I laid down on the floor under our air conditioning for a good while, waiting for my heart rate to come back down. Too bad the heat made this otherwise spectacular ride not as enjoyable as it could have been. Regardless, it was wonderful to get out there once again.