CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
371 km from Bolzano to Bolzano, about 7 h 39 of riding. The stops in between: Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti, Pelmo-Croda da Lago, The Dolomites and Dolomiti Settentrionali Cadorine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
For about 94 km this is Great Dolomites Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 25 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Bolzano lives with two languages and does so with a certain comfortable pride. It lies in a wide valley at the meeting of three rivers in South Tyrol, surrounded by steep slopes of vines and apples, with the pink limestone peaks of the Dolomites rising to the east. Until 1919 it belonged to Austria, and German is still the first language of most people in the province, though Bolzano itself is mostly Italian-speaking. Signs are in both, the cooking mixes dumplings and strudel with pasta and espresso, and the city feels like a conversation between two cultures.
Read the complete Bolzano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bolzano is where the day begins. Next is Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti.
The Val di San Lucano is a deep, shadowed gash in the southern Dolomites, and the point here lies near Rivamonte and Voltago, in the Agordino, the upper valley of the Cordevole river. The big, pale walls on either side belong to the Pale di San Martino group, one of the nine sets of mountains included in the Dolomites World Heritage listing of 2009, and their sheer rock faces rise more than a thousand metres above the narrow valley floor.
Read the complete Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti comes up about 94 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pelmo-Croda da Lago.
Monte Pelmo is the mountain that looks like a throne. Its huge limestone mass, rising to 3,168 metres, has two summits linked by a great curved basin, and the people of the Cadore call it the Caregon del Padreterno, the armchair of God. It stands alone between the valleys of the Boite and the Fiorentina, and in 1857 it became the first major Dolomite peak to be climbed, by the Irish naturalist John Ball. Across the valley, the jagged towers of the Croda da Lago rise above the little Lago Federa, and the two together form one of the components of the Dolomites World Heritage site.
Read the complete Pelmo-Croda da Lago write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Pelmo-Croda da Lago. Next is The Dolomites.
North of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the valley narrows between walls of pale rock, and the road toward Dobbiaco threads through a landscape that looks almost too dramatic to be real. Here, between the Cristallo group to the east and the high plateaus of Fanes and Sennes to the west, you are in the heart of the Dolomites, the mountains UNESCO inscribed in 2009 for their extraordinary beauty and geology. The rock is dolomite, a magnesium-rich limestone formed from ancient coral reefs in a tropical sea some two hundred and fifty million years ago, and the way it catches the evening light, turning pink and orange, has a name of its own in the local Ladin language: enrosadira.
Read the complete The Dolomites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Dolomites, about halfway. Next is Dolomiti Settentrionali Cadorine.
North of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Dolomites change character. The soft meadows and pine woods of the Ampezzo basin give way to long grey screes, vertical walls and the pale towers that make the range so unmistakable, and the road toward Cimabanche runs through a valley framed by some of the most dramatic rock in Europe. This area belongs to the northern Cadore group in UNESCO's Dolomites listing of 2009, nine separate systems recognised for their landscape and their geology.
Read the complete Dolomiti Settentrionali Cadorine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dolomiti Settentrionali Cadorine sits at 135 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Dolomites.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Dolomites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Dolomites comes up about 187 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Pelmo-Croda da Lago.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pelmo-Croda da Lago write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 234 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Pelmo-Croda da Lago. Next is back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti, late in the day. Next is Bolzano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bolzano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 371 km.
Bolzano → Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti → Pelmo-Croda da Lago is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pelmo-Croda da Lago → The Dolomites is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Dolomites → back through Pelmo-Croda da Lago is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pelmo-Croda da Lago → back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti → Bolzano is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.