I was very happy to see we woke to yet another day of great weather. Today was going to be a mix of old and new, as I wanted to get back to the Black Rose Pizza restaurant in Falcade, and I was also eager to explore some of the smaller roads to the west of the main Dolomite passes. I had a pretty ambitious route layed out but I did build in an escape point back to the hotel if we were running out of time. Our bellies (over)stuffed from breakfast yet again, the first order of business was heading over Pordoi. Not a bad way to start the day, not at all.
The run up Pordoi was fantastic, as was the section down to the intersection with Sella, but from there the road was clogged with trucks and busses. You can sit for quite some time while 2 busses figure out how to pass each other. We passed where we could, but even so it was slow going down to Canazei.
Our menu for dinner tonight. I maked my room number next to my choices.
Peter coming up Pordoi, and another smudge in the middle of the lens. Wish I was more diligant about that.
Frank
Frank on Pordoi
Peter on Pordoi
Frank nearing the top at tornante #30
Dave coming up
Got some nice shots of the guys going down the western side of Pordoi
Pordoi is still my favorite road in the world
We had about a 20 minute ride down SS48 to get to the start of Passo San Pellegrino, but our trip was slowed to get around the scene of bike accident involving a Ducati Monster and, most likely, one of the construction vehicles doing roadwork. We also passed a tour group of BMW C1 "super-scooters".
Passo San Pellegrino doesn't have an abundance of hairpins, but that can make for a nice change of pace. It's mostly sweepers up to the top, and while the scenery isn't as jaw-dropping as on Sella or Giau there ins't nearly the amount of traffic on it. We shared the road mostly with other bikers, with an occasional car or bicycle group along the way. The top of San Pellegrino is pretty bare, so we didn't waste a lot of time there before continuing on. Just before the intersection with Passo Valles there are, of course, some pretty fun downhill hairpins. We were riding solo back down from the top, and since I was in front I stopped at the Valles intersection, which just happens to be on a hairpin. Pretty soon Frank came along, and I sent him ahead to "wait at the top". Dave was next, and he agreed to be the lookout for Peter, so I headed up Valles. A few miles ahead I found a nice section of straight road with a great backdrop for photos, so I pulled off to wait for Dave and Peter. What I didn't know at the time was Peter had sailed right on by Dave at the hairpin and had continued down into the town of Falcade. Dave had to give chase. Of course when Dave and Peter did come by a truck was lumbering down the road ruining the shot. Grrr. At least when I continued up I spotted a terrific hairpin location for more photos, which I would direct the guys to a little later (we would be rerunning these 3 passes in the opposite direction).
Almost everywhere in the Dolomites you find ski lifts. These are at the top of Passo San Pellegrino
Passo San Pellegrino
And I waited....and waited...
View at the top of Passo Valles
Dave on Valles
Looking back down Valles
The southern ramp of Valles is a really nice ride next to a roaring creek, twisting and turning, rising and falling. No hairpins on this one (that I recall), just a great series of turns through the forest. At the end of Valles is a tight left turn to start up Passo Roll, easily missed.Thankfully everyone regrouped on this one and we each took off for our run of Rolle. Lots of hairpins on Rolle. At the top of Rolle we turned around and did Valle again on our way to the Black Rose Pizza in Falcade. I remembered the hairpin photo-op and went ahead on Valles to setup for the guys. After the hairpin photos I was back on the long straight section of road where I waited earlier. There was a cyclist hauling downhill here, and I clocked him at just over 50mph. Not too shabby.
This road should do nicely for photos
Here comes Frank
Frank having fun
Pretty sure Dave scraped his toes on this hairpin
Peter manhandling the FJR
We found our way to the back alley off the back alley that was home to Black Rose Pizza and, with great expectations on my part, went in for lunch. On my first riding trip to Italy in 2009 (which was also my first time ever in Europe) I declared their pizza "the best Pizza in Europe" and I was eagerly looking forward to another perfect pie. Everyone ordered their own pizza, and I went with my beloved "buffalina" from the last visit. This time around, sorry to say, it was only excellent and not exquisite. The guys seemed happy with what they ordered, and I know the Cokes went down well on this hot afternoon.
Lined up at the Black Rose
Not as perfect as last time
Everyone was happy with their pizzas
I had one more bike to try out - Frank's beast of burden, the Varadero. He was eager to give the TDM a whirl as it was pretty close in form and function to his Weestrom back home. We topped off our gas tanks in town and then had the pleasure of re-riding Passo San Pellegrino again on our way back to SS48. I liked the power delivery of the Varadero, and the riding position was really nice and spread out. The brakes left something to be desired, but this would probably be easily remedied. When we switched back to our own bikes at the end of the pass Frank was not eager to give back the Yamaha after professing his love for it.
A short run up SS48 took us to Passo Costalunga, which on the last trip Jim and I had voted "worst pass of the trip". The ride up to the top confirmed my feelings - it's just not that much fun. No views to speak of, fairly heavy traffic, and terrible sightlines for most of the curves. Now on that last trip we only rode this eastern side and back, but this time we continued along to the connection with Niger Pass. The "new" section of Costalunga was a little more interesting, but didn't change my vote.
One of the reasons I had picked Niger Pass was because on the map we had it was listed as "24% grade", which sounded like it could be fun. Niger was also one of several passes that led west to the Autostrada where we could pick up other more interesting roads back east. I had spent some time on Google maps finding the tiniest through roads in this area and had plotted a zig-zaggy course using several of them. While Niger pass was decent, I don't recall it being any steeper than the rest of the passes in the area. The highlight was a fantastic view of the Dolomites for a split second when you left the top, which became almost immediately obscured by trees. Our string of perfect weather also came to an end on this pass, as the rain started on and off as we headed further west. There was more traffic than we would have liked on Niger, and even more as we got closer to the Autostrada. Some of the tiny roads would have been much more fun if we weren't just in a conga line of dozens of cars, or at least if it wasn't raining.
Eventually the rain started tapering off and we started working our way back east on a road that got progressively narrower and narrower. We were deep in farming country now, and were surprised to see how much farming is seemingly done with manual labor. No giant green John Deere harvesters out here, just old women with pitchforks and hoes.
The narrowness of our road was matched only by the fantastic views down into the valley far, far below us. We took turns stopping and taking pictures for a while, and then had a pretty slow run down the mountain to connect with a main road that would lead us to Worz Joch. The slow run was primarily dictated by the serious consequences of an off-road excursion - there wasn't much of a shoulder to speak of, and then a steep roll down the hill.
I'm actually happy to be there
Great views and a narrow road as we work our way down to the valley
Fun, fun, fun
What a view!
Wow, is this still a road?
We needed gas again before ascending Worz Joch, and that stop turned into an adventure in itself. The attendant/owner only spoke German, and was earnestly trying to explain something vital to us about the pumps. I tried to enlist Peter as a translater since I knew he spoke a little Italian, having not figured out the guy was speaking German. How could I mix up German and Italian? Eventually we worked out that it was cash only (or credit-only, I forget now), and he had to do all the pumping. I sprung for a $4 coke and pretty much guzzled it in one swig - it was pretty hot down in the lowlands.
The west approach to Worz Joch was another new section of road to me, having only down the eastern half last trip. To think that on that trip I remarked that Worz Joch was especially narrow - this side made the other look like Route 13 in Delaware. The road was about as narrow as I'd ever seen, essentially one car wide like the smaller farm road we were one earlier but this one was designed to handle more traffic. It started raining a bit as we ascended, and the temperature starting dropping as well. By the time we reached the summit I was pretty chilly, wet, and it was getting late. This "getting late" situation was becoming a recurring theme on this trip. You always want to pack so much stuff into every day that you inevitably end up running out of time to do it all. We were always the last ones back to the hotel, with other groups already sitting around enjoying drinks when we rode up. Next time I'd like to make a concerted effort to plan a shorter day and return to the hotel feeling good, rather than pretty worn out. On the other hand, you can see more by riding more. Tough call.
Going up Wurz Joch. That's one narrow little pass.
More rain accompanied us on the run down Wurz Joch, but it was almost forgiven when we came across a perfect, horizon-to-horizon rainbow at the end of the pass in town. Somewhere along the way we had passed by two orange Laverda's, which increased my "Laverdas seen on the road" count to....2. There was some GPS-induced confusion (once again) after town finding the main road back to Arabba, followed by a pretty uneventful ride down SS244 into Corvara and then over Passo Campalongo. Not entirely uneventful though - while passing a hotel my glance lingered too long surveying the parking lot full of bikes, and when I looked up again the car in front of me had slowed dramatically to turn into another hotel. My first experience with ABS was satisfying.
Looking back the way we came up Wurz Joch
OK, I'll put up with a little rain for this
Hot Alfa Romeo Brera hatchback
Dinner was, of course, delicious. I had the Penne Arrabesque followed by "air dried beef". I could have had three plates of the penne, it was excellent. The "air dried beef" was just OK, but the Panna Cotta for dessert made up for that. The texture was a bit rubbery but the taste was wonderful. After dinner we moved to the bar for another round of drinks, and had a good time shooting the breeze (I bet the Erdinger Weissbier helped).
My Penne was very tasty
Lasagna filled with rocket (arugala)
Escalope
My air-dried beef
Yum
I went upstairs to my room, and wanted to check the Zumo to see how long the route was going to be for tomorrow, our long ride to Passo Stelvio. The zumo wasn't in the room. Hmm, I must have left it in the mount on the bike. The Zumo 550 has a locking mount, which you need a special key to thread a small screw into the clamp preventing removal of the GPS. I wandered outside a little tipsy, and was not thrilled to see no Zumo in the mount. Maybe I put it in the topcase? Opened that up, rummaged through it, nothing. Hmm, I must have put in my pocket or something and brought it inside with me. I went back to the lobby of the hotel and spent a couple minutes looking through their brochures of the area, for what reason I have no idea. After a while a guy comes up to me and asks me, in the best English he can muster, if the red bike is mine. I replied that it was, and then he said a lot of things from which I picked up "navigate" "left on bike" and "manager". Turns out I had taken the Zumo off the mount (with Frank's key) and had left it on the seat when I went inside. And remember when I say "the Zumo" I really mean "the Zumo my friend Jim lent me". These guys noticed it and brought it in to the hotel manager. Wow, could that have been bad. THANK YOU GUYS! I found most of the hotel staff downstairs in the restaurant off the bar and the manager indeed returned the Zumo. She also mentioned we should park the bikes under the hotel rather than in the parking lot our front. Good for cars, she said, not so good for motorcycles.