Thursday, July 3, 2008

Stage 6, The Dolomites, Passo Valparolla, Passo Campolongo

After driving down the Stelvio, we high tailed in the van across northern Italy, travelling via Bolzano and on up into the Dolomites. We went over the Passo Gardenia, which would feature in the tours amazing final day (see above) and down through lovely Corvara and into La Villa, our starting point for the 2 days of Dolomiti riding. After the full day of Stelvio climbing and 3 hour van ride we were ready for some well deserved rest at the lovely Hotel Diana in La Villa. This is a major sportivo area, with mountain biking, Nordic walking, skiing, etc.

The following day we set out early for our first Dolomite ride. This took us up the Passa Valparolla, a tough climb, and then screaming down into a lovely valley, around to Arraba, and then up and over the Passo Campolongo, which we would come back over the following day. Unfortunately, 1) I forgot to put my SD card in my camera and quickly used up the internal memory, and I cant get the videos and pictures off until I have the right cable, and 2) it rained for most of the ascent and desent of the Campolongo. The descent was not fun, as I was freezing and shaking so much that I almost lost control of the bike. Steve and I stopped in Corvara on the way down and had great pizza, thin crust with aspargi, funghi, e spinaci....a hot hot shower at the end brought us back to life, and ready for the next stage: the innocent sounding Sellaronda.....

1 comment:

Phil said...

i feel your pain. riding wet and cold in wind is tough. sounds like balaklava/goggle weather. hang in there, you'll be back in 95 degree washington heat soon.