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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 596 km round trip from Aldino - roughly 10 h 17 in the saddle. On the way it passes Sciliar-Catinaccio, Marmolada, Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles and The Dolomites. 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 24 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.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 134 km into the recorded legs you reach Marmolada. 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 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 sits at 298 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 398 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 467 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Marmolada. 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, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 596 km.
Rio delle Foglie → Sciliar-Catinaccio is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sciliar-Catinaccio → Marmolada is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Marmolada → Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles → The Dolomites is 98 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Dolomites → back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles is 98 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 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Marmolada → back through Sciliar-Catinaccio is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sciliar-Catinaccio → Rio delle Foglie is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.