Leonie and I set off for a road ride from our campsite at Cortina del Ampezzo. I was not particularly motivated by the cold gray weather but we headed up Passo Falzarego anyway. At the turn off to Passo Giau we ran into the Montana Dles Dolomitten race and cycled the next 40 km with many other cyclists. They had closed the roads for the race which was nice. No pesky motorbikes. From Passo Falzarego we had a short ascent to Passo di Valparola before a long descent.
With difficulty we managed to avoid crossing the finish line and navigated around the crowds to begin the ride up Passo Compolongo. On the descent the weather closed in and we had some nasty cold rain. It was localized though and as we continued down the valley we were back in sunshine.
We stopped for a pizza just after 5 pm and then decided to tack on another pass. It was a very nice sunny We reached Passo Staulanza after a short ascent and briefly pondered what to do. How would our track look like on Strava? If we continued we’d have a nice loop but it would probably mean arriving after dark with a long ascent up a valley to finish. If we turned back we’d have a loop with two ugly pointy bits. What a dilemma.
We decided against asthetics and rode back towards the pizzeria and then we began our ascent to Passo Giau. It was getting late and we were getting a bit tired but we first had 29 switchbacks to contend with. We arrived at the pass at 8:30 pm and took a few photos in the last of the light before descending to our camp site in Cortina for a late dinner.
