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 504 km round trip from Nova Levante - roughly 8 h 41 in the saddle. It goes by way of Marmolada, Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles, The Dolomites and back through Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles. 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 26 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.
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 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 73 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 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles. 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 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 sits at 335 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 428 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Sciliar-Catinaccio closes the day.
Sciliar-Catinaccio → Marmolada is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Marmolada → Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Pöz-Odles → The Dolomites is 104 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 104 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 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Marmolada → Sciliar-Catinaccio is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.