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.
614 km from Cimolais to Cimolais, about 12 h 18 of riding. It goes by way of Pelmo-Croda da Lago, The Dolomites, Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles and Marmolada. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
For about 107 km this is Passo di Giau · Dolomites, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
The Friulian Dolomites are the quiet cousins of the famous peaks around Cortina, and that is precisely their charm. West of the Tagliamento, between the Piave and the Friulian plain, these rugged limestone mountains rise in jagged ridges and pinnacles, with deep valleys and very few roads. They are part of the UNESCO Dolomites site and form the Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti Friulane, a wild area of forests, gorges and rock towers, including the extraordinary Campanile di Val Montanaia, a needle of rock standing alone in a high valley like a stone bell tower. Chamois, ibex, golden eagles and marmots live here, and the silence on the high trails is profound.
Read the complete Dolomiti Friulane e d`Oltre Piave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dolomiti Friulane e d`Oltre Piave is where the day begins. 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.
Pelmo-Croda da Lago comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach The Dolomites. Next is Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles.
Above Selva in Val Gardena and the villages of Val Badia, the Puez-Odle massif shows the Dolomites at their most theatrical: the jagged spires of the Odle, or Geisler, piercing the sky like a row of broken teeth, and behind them the Puez plateau, a strange high desert of grey scree, layered rock and hidden lakes. The area is a nature park in South Tyrol and one of the nine components of the Dolomites World Heritage site, listed by UNESCO in 2009 for its exceptional landscapes and geology.
Read the complete Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles, about halfway. Next is Marmolada.
The Queen of the Dolomites, they call her, and the Marmolada earns the title: at 3,343 metres, Punta Penia is the highest summit of the range, and its northern flank carries the largest glacier in the Dolomites, while the south face drops away as a sheer wall of pale limestone. That glacier is shrinking fast, and in July 2022 a large section of it collapsed, killing eleven climbers, a tragedy that brought the effects of climate change home to everyone who loves these mountains.
Read the complete Marmolada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Marmolada sits at 132 km, about halfway. Next is back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles comes up about 399 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 505 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Dolomites. 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.
back through Pelmo-Croda da Lago, late in the day. Next is Dolomiti Friulane e d`Oltre Piave.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dolomiti Friulane e d`Oltre Piave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 614 km.
Dolomiti Friulane e d`Oltre Piave → Pelmo-Croda da Lago is 63 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.
The Dolomites → Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles is 107 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles → Marmolada is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Marmolada → back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles → back through The Dolomites is 106 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 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pelmo-Croda da Lago → Dolomiti Friulane e d`Oltre Piave is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.