The Dolomites

The Dolomites were amazing. Arguably more spectacular than the Pyrenees, and that's really saying something.

We took 5 trains in a day, starting at 9am and finishing at 7:30pm, and got to the beautiful city of Bolzano. We randomly met this dude called Tim and his American friends who were road riders who'd just been riding in the Dolomites, and Tim gave us lots of info and a great map of the area. It was the best advice we'd got this whole trip, and we were very thankful for it as it made the planning and riding a whole lot easier! Thanks Tim!

Jen and Tim in Bolzano

After a morning doing jobs, we set off in 30 degree heat up a pass, 1700m or so high, and realised after 3 or 4 hours of climbing, that Bolzano was probably quite a bit lower than that. Like, 1500m lower. It was a long gruelling climb in the heat, but we made it 70km later to Canazei, a small ski-village at the base of the Sella Mountain group where we camped for 2 nights.

Our beautiful campsite near Canazei. This is the view from our tent. Not bad.

The next day we did what is known as the Sella Circuit, which goes around the Sella Massif. It involves about 65km of riding and 4 big passes. So we left all our gear in our tent (hoorah!) and then set out for a great day.

Jen on the Sella Circuit. Notice the lack of gear, though our bikes still weighed about twice as much as the superlight, sub 7kg road bikes everyone else was taking on the circuit.

After the 4th pass, we were happy to go downhill. Here's Jen fanging down.

The next day was massive; 2 big passes, the 2nd involving a 1000m plus of vertical ascent, with gear on. This was on top of the last two days which were both bigger than we expected. Anyway, 80km later we arrived in Cortina.

I can't remember when this was taken, but it was in the Dolomites, and it's cool.

After that was a short day to Aurunzo (only one pass in 35 degree heat), where we had a much needed rest day.

A few days later, and we're in Slovenia! That was via Austria and the 18% Wurzenpass. Brilliant.