By Bike

Pocol to Canazei

At the Passo Giau, I met a beaming Italian cyclist who had not long ridden past me on the climb from Cortina d’Ampezzo (I started a little higher in Pocol). We exchanged ‘bikish’ pleasantries (ooh, bella bicicletta!), and I learned that on every holiday he came to Cortina, and every morning of his holiday, he rode to Passo Giau.

It was not hard to see why.While Cortina is a massive ski resort, it sits in a spectacular wide valley surrounded in all directions by towering peaks. The view from Passo Giau is even more stunning, again in almost all directions. Despite my disdain for routine, it would be hard to get bored with this ride, even after a thousand times, and with all the same superlatives.

The ride, on this crisp autumn morning, and before the waves of annoying motorbikes take over the road, is sublime. A steady ascent through conifer forest, glimpses through the trees of a different colossus with each hair-pin turn, either of a fiery wall or a foreboding shadow depending whether I turn toward or away from the morning sun.

The stillness is broken by cascading streams and clunking bells that hang from the necks of grazing jersey cows. Above the tree line, it feels ethereal. Despite the steepness of the road, I float to the top without the need for air. Lucky, it’s starting to thin out at this altitude!The ride, or should I say dive, down the side is wild – 28 tornante (hair-pin bends) and a drop of 1000m in 9km.It’s starting to get hot now. I stop on a relatively flat section for a photo-op startling a small but surprisingly chubby lizard. A few bends later I hear and then see overhead a magnificent golden eagle soaring effortlessly low above the trees.

I’ve made good time today, and after a brunch stop at Caprile, l head off up the famed Passo Fedaia in high spirits.Good thing I hadn’t studied the form guide for this one. I knew it was steep, but 18% I hadn’t reckoned on.

A quick stop at the pass, under the shrinking glacier on the north side of Marmolada as spots of rain appear. A drink, a photo of me in front of the sign to remind me in my dotage of my youthful moxie, on with the wind proof jacket and gloves, then the obligatory blistering, snake-like plunge to Canazei in time for late lunch…

According to Garmin

Total distance:  59 km

Max speed: 73.01km/hr

Total calories: 2592

Ascent: 1904m

Descent: 1944m