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.
569 km from Canazei to Canazei, about 12 h 50 of riding. It goes by way of Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles, Sciliar-Catinaccio, Rio delle Foglie and Dolomiti di Brenta. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 92 km this is Great Dolomites Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 92 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sciliar-Catinaccio.
Watch the Rosengarten at sunset from the valley of Bolzano and you will understand the legend. As the sun goes down, the pale dolomite peaks glow pink, then red, then purple, a phenomenon the Ladin people call enrosadira. According to the old story, King Laurin of the dwarves had a magnificent rose garden here, and when he was captured by enemies who had spotted his roses, he cursed the garden so that no one would see it by day or by night. He forgot the twilight, and so, for a few minutes each evening, the roses bloom again on the rocks. Together with the Sciliar, or Schlern, the great flat-topped massif to the north, the Catinaccio forms one of the components of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage site, listed in 2009.
Read the complete Sciliar-Catinaccio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 162 km into the recorded legs you reach Sciliar-Catinaccio. Next is Rio delle Foglie.
Rio delle Foglie is the Italian name for the Bletterbach, a gorge that cuts deep into the plateau above the Adige valley, south of Bolzano, near the villages of Aldino and Redagno. It is part of the Dolomites World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2009, and it is one of the best places in the Alps to read the history of the Earth in rock. The stream has carved down through hundreds of metres of layers, from volcanic porphyry at the bottom through red sandstones to the white dolomite of the Corno Bianco at the top, spanning tens of millions of years.
Read the complete Rio delle Foglie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rio delle Foglie, about halfway. Next is Dolomiti di Brenta.
The Brenta Dolomites stand apart from the rest of the Dolomites, a separate range west of the Adige valley, and they look as if they were carved by someone with a taste for drama: sheer walls, needle-sharp spires and long ledges of pale limestone glowing pink at dawn and dusk. The range is part of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage site, listed in 2009, and it is protected within the Adamello Brenta Nature Park, home to brown bears, which were reintroduced here from Slovenia around the turn of the millennium.
Read the complete Dolomiti di Brenta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dolomiti di Brenta sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rio delle Foglie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rio delle Foglie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rio delle Foglie comes up about 362 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Sciliar-Catinaccio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sciliar-Catinaccio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 408 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Sciliar-Catinaccio. 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, late in the day. Next is Marmolada.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Marmolada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 569 km.
Marmolada → Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles → Sciliar-Catinaccio is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sciliar-Catinaccio → Rio delle Foglie is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rio delle Foglie → Dolomiti di Brenta is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dolomiti di Brenta → back through Rio delle Foglie is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rio delle Foglie → back through Sciliar-Catinaccio is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sciliar-Catinaccio → back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles → Marmolada is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.