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.
A 501 km round trip from Rivamonte Agordino - roughly 11 h 14 in the saddle. The stops in between: Marmolada, Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles, Sciliar-Catinaccio and Rio delle Foglie. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 43 km this is Passo di Giau · Dolomites, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles. 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.
Sciliar-Catinaccio, about halfway. 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 sits at 112 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Sciliar-Catinaccio comes up about 297 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 367 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles. Next is back through 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.
back through Marmolada, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 501 km.
Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti → Marmolada is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → 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 → back through Marmolada is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Marmolada → Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.