Monster Grappa

"We shouldn't be too long" was about the last thing I said to Mum when we left for a short loop including the summit of Monte Grappa.  Famous last words...!

Rather than head down the main drag, we climbed higher onto the flank of the mountain before traversing on some lovely wee road through to the base of the climb.  

We were both feeling a little under-nourished, so we took a short detour, and soon had demolished additional coffee, and a cornetto for me.  I also grabbed a couple of baked goodies to takeaway.  A sign across the road read "Cima Grappa 27" and my Strava route suggested something like a 1500m climb.  A whopper by any definition.  

It was hot already, and the first switchback and the road leading to and from it, suggested we weren't going to get a lot of shade.    

On the other hand, the gradient was very nice, enough to eat into the remaining vert, but not so steep regular climbing out of the saddle was necessary.  

Even though the trees below the road weren't offering much shade, they were mostly obscuring the view over Bassano del Grappa - the main town in these parts.  But, from time to time, we did get views, and on one occasion I paused to watch one of many paragliders already out and about.  

I'd stop to wait for Sarah every 20 minutes or so, and I had plenty of time to enjoy the road and its features.  I enjoyed a very short tunnel that had alcoves painted per the Italian flag, and which was sporting some nasty scars from an oversized vehicle.  

As the road shifted onto the western face of the mountain, we enjoyed great views over the Brenta River, and I could even make out the pedestrian bridge we'd used towards the end of the previous day's ride.  

When Sarah joined me, she reported being a bit low on energy, and so we promptly consumed the only food we were carrying.  About 15 minutes later, we came upon an open Osteria, and ordered some pizza for lunch - this was already proving to be slow going.  

The pizza took a while to be served, but was bloody delicious, packed with tomato, mozzarella and basil.  Acqua (frizzante) washed it down nicely.  

As we were leaving, the signage suggested we were now "only" 10km from the summit.  Woohoo!

Monte Grappa was the scene of some fierce battles between the Italians and the Austo-Hungarian Empire during World War 1.  I stopped at a monument to discover that the bend was named "The lap of death", and only then noticed the pock-marks in the gully behind me - remnants of grenade craters.  

That was all pretty depressing, but it was impossible not to be cheered up by the abundant cows alongside the road.  The each wore a collar with a bell, and as they moved and chewed, the bells clunked, and when there were many cows together, they made a delightful racket.

I waited for Sarah just above a turnoff to Feltre, where we'd had lunch the day before.  I'd read that Monte Grappa has 10 distinct ascents, and had chosen the climb that was ridden during Stage 15 of this year's Giro.  I think the peloton probably turned off at this point, but we were heading further up!

We stopped to investigate a memorial to the Resistenza armata contra il nazifascismo, who no doubt had died valiantly on this hillside.  From there it was about another kilometre to the end of the road.  I went up to the summit on foot, leaving Sarah to have a rest in the carpark.  

It turned out my proposed route off the summit was a mere goat track, so we backtracked and took a left turn onto another sealed road.  We soon came to another intersection, and I scrolled my map a bit to discover it connected to the goat track! 

We took the turn, and found ourselves on an absolutely incredible piece of road.  First was a very narrow sidle, with a series of one lane tunnels.  

The drop to our right was often sheer, and we were given spectacular views down over the morning's traverse, and beyond.  

As if all this was not stimulation enough, once we'd rejoined our planned route, we found ourselves on a stunning rollercoaster ride down a small valley.  Whoever had built it really had a talent!

All good things must come to an end, and this sweetest section lead us onto a short, sharp climb which took us to the top of the main descent to our village.  Over the next 10km, we peeled off 1000 vertical metres, stopping regularly to let our brakes cool!  

Once back at base, we quickly got changed and went for a drive with Mum.  We managed to find a landing area for the paragliders, and watched three come in in quick succession.

We then headed for the river, and found the local Ponte Vecchio, which Mum knew was going to be nothing more than a wooden bridge.  From it, we could see the very spot that Sarah and I had taken photos some five hours earlier.  It was all very circular, given that the previous evening, we were crossing the same river on a bridge a few kilometres upstream.  

It was a bit of a bummer to keep Mum waiting for longer than we'd led her to expect.  But we had a lovely evening outing, and knocked back a very traditional Italian meal just before getting back to base.  Tomorrow, we move to our penultimate accommodation, in the hills just north of Lake Garda.  

Stats:  a mere 63km ridden, during which we climbed 2000m, two-thirds in a single ascent of Monstrous Monte Grappa.  Definitely more calories burnt than consumed.  And, we lucked out to descend what I bet is the most charming of the ten roads to the top of Monte Grappa, but probably hard to enjoy as a climb!

Back to the hills - Croce d'Aune

Mum had never been to Venice, and nor had Sarah, so after leaving Trieste, we made our way to a hotel within striking distance.  Arriving mid-afternoon, I assembled the bikes, but put more than the advertised 5Nm into my seat clamp (or, it was getting tired and could no longer cope with that).  Luckily, I'd packed a spare, which I gingerly installed.  

It took most of a 58km ride to get over that, but eventually I stopped dwelling on it, and started enjoying turning the pedals over.  We first rode to a ferry terminal from which we could see Venice in the middle of the lagoon, and then rode into Venice itself.  While bikes are not welcome beyond a certain point, you can ride right up to where the local buses drop people off.  It was useful to scope things out for a family mission the next day.

Once back with Mum, we went in search of dinner.  I declined to head down a narrow alley to a highly rated restaurant, but soon after saw a sign advertising "Italian Street Food".  We agreed to give this a shot, and were soon strolling past stall after stall, selling all manner of things other than local fare.  I decided we must have missed some punctuation, e.g. "Italian Street: Food" might have been more appropriate.  That said, we did in the end find a stall that sold incredibly arancini and a pretty decent carbonara.  

After enjoying the hustle-bustle for a bit, we got fleeced at an impressive liquorice stall, before returning home with our tails between our legs.  

The next morning, upon hearing that the bus from our hotel to Venice was 9 Euro per person each way, we thought we'd take our chances with the parking building Sarah and I had scoped out the evening before.  The pricing there turned out to be a flat daily rate of 35 Euro, but at least it was cheaper than the bus, and way more time efficient.  

We got all-you-can eat "bus" passes (boats, of course), and then spent a lovely few hours sightseeing.

Once we'd had our fill, we headed back to the car, and plotted a route vaguely towards our next accommodation.  I wanted to divert into Padua, to see if I could find a replacement seatpost clamp.  A small shop recommended Decathlon, and while they didn't have the right item, Sarah enjoyed a bit of shopping instead!  Their check-out system was pretty amazing - a bin, into which you dumped all of the things you were buying, from which it sorted out how much you needed to pay - no scanning necessary!

Rain had started by the time we reach our digs, but even had it been dry, I don't think I'd have mustered the energy to suit up for a spin.

We had porridge for breakfast, and I enjoyed doing the dishes, not least because the "dish-rack" consisted of an entire cupboard above the sink!

That done, we got ready to set off.  We were in the shadow of Monte Grappa, but in scoping out a loop around it, I'd stumbled upon the fact that the base of Croce d'Aune was on the loop.  All up, it looked like it might be a long day, but with only the single major climb, I hoped it wouldn't be too arduous.

Cycling is well and truly celebrated in these parts, and it was fun to see remnants of the recent Giro d'Italia.  As it turned out, Stage 15 passed through here only a few weeks ago.

I noticed a bike shop - Biron Bike - and decided to stop to see if they had a seat clamp.  While the fellow was searching (to no avail), I enjoyed looking at some of his souvenirs from his past life as a pro race mechanic.  He even has a range of bikes in his name.   

Our route to the base of the Croce d'Aune left much to be desired, and we were on a main road for most of the way.  After a stop for coffee and some pizza in Feltre, we got stuck into the climb.  Traffic was very light, with the highlight being a tractor on a tractor.  

As we climbed in the heat, I mentioned to Sarah that I thought she'd be safe "pretending that you're in New Zealand" - the shady side of the road tended to be the wrong side!  

The climb was almost entirely in forest, but occasionally we got cracking views that only hill climbs can bring.  It is no wonder that I love them so much.

The pass at Croce d'Aune caught me by surprise, as it wasn't at the top of the climb I'd mapped out.  In any case, we stopped to admire the Tullio Campagnolo sculpture.  Inner Ring has a very interesting account of the history here, and if true, the inspiration for the quick release lever came from an ascent of this very climb!  I'd worn Oli's classic colours, complete with Campag logo, especially for this moment.

After a pick me up at the adjacent bar, we spent another few minutes climbing, which again, afforded lovely views.  

Then, we got stuck into the descent, during which we'd peel off about 700 vertical metres, on a near deserted road.  Of cars, that is - poor Sarah got stung by a wasp near the top, and then ended up with another biting thing in her jersey...

Once on the main road, we were able to bypass a 1km-long tunnel, which was fascinating.  The tunnel wouldn't have been too bad as it was on a descent, but we passed some spectacular cliffs, a waterfall, and I even saw a metre long snake scurrying off the road.  

Very soon after we rejoined the main road, I noticed a cycle-route sign, and thought we'd be crazy not to follow it.  We deviated significantly from the route I'd mapped near Arsie, where we stopped for gelati and to contemplate which way to proceed.  In the end, it proved to be a great choice to stick with the cycle route, as aside from some lovely quiet road, it provided some real highlights.

After quite a long loop in the wrong direction, we found ourselves riding down a series of fortified switchbacks, something I've never seen before in all my years of switchback riding.   

Next up was a lovely bit of old railway line alongside a river, deep in a gorge.  It was really busy with riders, including families, cycle tourists, and fully kitted out roadies.  At the end was a cafe that wasn't able to entice us in, despite knowing we'd be very welcome indeed.

We had a fair way still to ride, but it was down valley, and while we were riding into a light-headwind, gravity and my great gelato-legs were making easy work of it (gelato-legs are not to be confused with jelly-legs, which make for poor progress...!!!).  It probably also helped that the surroundings were wonderful - a mix of natural features, as well as an assortment of infrastructure and dwellings.

I got a little bit navigationally confused as we approached Bassano del Grappa, but after a short back-track, we crossed the river on a pedestrian bridge (sitting on top of a canal...!) before beginning the eastward climb up to our village on the flanks of Monte Grappa.  

Above us were a couple of dozen paragliders, which my camera did a poor job of capturing...

We soon joined our driving route of the afternoon prior, and as we got close to home, things were even more familiar courtesy of a supermarket run.  We needn't have stopped in for another box of pistacchio gelato (pronounced "piss-tar-key-oh" here) - we got home to find our hostess had stashed three epic bowls of panna cotta in our fridge while we were all out...!  The gelato will live to fight another day.

More Giro remnants to distract during the final minutes of the ride, and then it was time to find out what Mum had been up to.

Our accommodation is adjacent to a pizzeria, which we'd planned to go to for dinner (it was closed the night prior).  We'd been warned it was popular, and that was no exaggeration.  We did manage to get a table, and had three delicious and very well priced pizza for dinner.  Perhaps that along explains the popularity, but we look forward to quizzing our hostess (and thanking her profusely for the dessert) tomorrow.  

Stats:  Venice shakedown ride was 59 pan-flat km.  a  The Croce d'Aune loop was 120km, with total climbing of just over 1700m.  This was the longest ride of the trip so far, and it provided clear evidence that we've got fitter!  Temperature range 24 to 36 degrees.  3 stings for Sarah.

A three country ride

By now I've become pretty good at the car jigsaw.  It seems helpful to remove pedals, but I no longer have to remove my rear derailleur.  Luckily, Sarah's head tube is much shorter than mine, and her handlebars narrower, so the front ends nestle together well.  The only real drag is that both seatposts have to be removed.  

To get out of the mountains, the car's navigation system suggested we drive over Passo Mauria, which meant we were able to have another crack at the mighty fine panini caprese available in Ampezzo.  

Soon after, we'd merged with a motorway, and by virtue of the 130km/h speed limit, made good progress towards Trieste.  Arriving in a city was a bit of a shock to our systems, and I did contemplate forfeiting our booking and heading back out into the sticks!  But, we decided to give it a whirl.

After unloading the car of all but the bikes, I jumped on cyclingnews.com to see what the outcome of the day's Dauphine stage was, only to find that it was still going.  After scrolling through about 40 channels, I was delighted to find a live broadcast of the last 40km of the stage!  The Slovenian superstar took the stage out, which was particularly nice given I was planning a ride into Slovenia the next day.

We'd left the car in a parking building, and I was keen to retrieve the bikes, and take them for a spin.  I convinced Sarah to join me, and we soon stumbled upon folk sunning themselves on the Trieste waterfront.  There was no sand, and it was pretty weird to see people lying on cobblestones!

Offshore was a massive yacht with a very strange appearance.  When we got home, we discovered it had an even stranger story, having been seized in March 2022 by the Italians in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and costing a small fortune since to "maintain".

Sy A

On our return journey along the waterfront, I saw an interesting monument up above us, and eventually found a way up to it.  

We made good use of the hard-won elevation, and the tried to retrace our drive through town to our accommodation.  I was able to recall some of the turns, and the closer we got, the worse things became!  We got there in the end, though not by memory...!

We struck out for dinner on foot, and while there were of plenty of places to have a drink, there weren't too many dinner options.  We settled on a Chinese restaurant, "Cinese" in Italian, courtesy of their special "C", and it turned out to be some of the nicest Chinese food we'd collectively ever had.  I especially loved that they called dumplings "ravioli"!!!   

The next morning, I popped to a nearby supermarket for some extra breakfast supplies, and after making mum a morning coffee, we got rolling.  It was an absolute shambles at first, as I hadn't been super careful mapping the ends of the ride, and I got horribly confused by two inefficient tracks on my GPS map screen.  

It didn't take very long at all until we we seeing signs for Slovenia.  How exciting!

We crossed the "border" on a small road a few minutes' ride from a massive shopping mall on the outskirts of Trieste.  There were a couple of signs, and that was it!  Quite remarkable, especially coming from an island nation, where our border makes so much sense!

So began our only major climb of the day, up to only about 400m above sea level, but hot work on exposed roads.  Before too long, we passed under a couple of epic modern viaducts, and I really appreciated the shade they offered while I waited for Sarah.

After admiring a nifty sculpture adjacent to the road, we did a quick lap of Kubed, hoping to find someone who'd sell us a cold drink!  While we were unsuccessful there, there was a shop not far up the main road.  I found myself not knowing whether to use my Italian pleasantries, but it was great that my Euros were welcome!

The road we'd been on was fairly busy, but we soon turned off onto a much quieter road, and we treated to some shade for the rest of the climb that would top out about 35km into the ride.  Signage seemed to indicate we had another border ahead, with "HR" appended to some of the town names.  Sure enough, Google Maps confirmed we were bearing down on Hrvatska, or Croatia as it more commonly known down under. 

This border actually had some buildings at it, and a sign suggesting some had "Free Passage".  NZ was not on the list, but it seemed crazy to turn around!  

Unfortunately, aside from the road quality, and the shape of the people, I wasn't really capable of picking any dramatic changes in the built environment between Trieste, Slovenia and Croatia, though it was obvious to me that we were no longer in the Alps or Dolomites!  The old stone buildings were always a treat to see.  

What goes up must come down, and we were treated to a mostly-downhill 25km run back to sea level, during which time Sarah stopped for a bath, and we both stopped for a ham and cheese toasted sandwich, which up until now would have been called a panino.  

The final minutes of the descent were on a big road, which at one point had us perfectly lined up with an airport runway (IATA code, POW!)!  Unfortunately, there was too much traffic to be pissing around with my camera.  It had to stay away too, for the border crossing back into Slovenia, which this time was what one might expect when switching countries.  Sarah and I rolled through behind some cars, giving the Slovenian border guard a smile, to which he responded with a small tip of the head, which I took to mean we should keep rolling!

Moments later, we joined a cycle path, which we enjoyed for much of the rest of the ride.

Once we got out onto the Adriatic Coast, we found an abundance of folk sunning themselves.  As with Trieste, it seemed that sand is pretty rare, so most of the swimming was being done off concrete walls.  We'd packed togs, and followed the lead of three cycle tourists by getting changed in the shadow of a supermarket!  We celebrated a quick swim with some pricey gelato.

At a split in the cycle route, I asked Sarah if she wanted to take the long or short route.  I probably should have offered the flat route or the climb, but then we probably would have missed out on a lovely old railway tunnel, which seemed to be having some incontinence issues at one point.

After passing a few thousand more sunbathers, or in some cases, sunbakers, we reached the Slovenian port city of Koper.  It was fascinating to see people having a beach experience right by massive cargo ships.

By this stage, we'd lost the marked cycle route, but generally had "local" cycle paths to use.  One of Sarah's knees was giving her some sharp pain, which probably contributed to her not noticing our fourth and final border crossing of the day, back into Italy!  During our second passage of Slovenia, we'd ridden much of its 47km Adriatic coastline.

A road closure had me pull the pin on the route I'd "planned", but Garmin's "Back to Start" option served us very well instead.  I recognised plenty of road from our outbound trip including the massive mall where we'd turned off into Slovenia.

We found mum in the park opposite the entrance to our apartment, sitting adjacent to folk enjoying some marijuana with their evening conversation.   Once upstairs, we got stuck into a lovely post-ride snack of mozzarella, tomato and basil, and followed that up with a home-cooked meal.  

Tomorrow, we start heading west.  

Stats:  a 26km entree, and a 115km main course.  A mere 1400m climbed between them.  Three countries and one swim.  Temperature range on the longer ride between 26 and 43 degrees.

Last riding in the Dolomites

After three nice nights at Schloss Dolomiti (and three epic buffet breakfasts), it was time to move on.  

On the way over Passo Pordoi a couple of days earlier, I'd scoped out the opening times of the gondola up to Sass Pordoi, and while we'd not finished our rides early enough to head up before their closing time, they were up and running when we arrived by car on our relocation drive.

The gondola ascended about 800m in the space of a few dramatic minutes, and at the top, we found fantastic views, a bit of snow, and a cafe.

We soaked it all in for a good half an hour, and it was fun for the riders amongst us, to see the roads we'd ridden from above.  While there was a walking track, we headed down the way we'd come up!  

We followed our cycling route to Passo di Falzarego, and it was fun pointing out to Mum some of our ride highlights.  No trouble with road closures this time, we were soon hunting around Cortina d'Ampezzo for a carpark.  In the end, we decided it wasn't for us (or it decided we weren't for it), and we ended up having a lovely lunch 10 minutes out of town.

From there, we followed our noses in the general direction of our abode, in Lorenzago di Cadore (not to be confused with San Pietro, Santo Stefano, Vigo, Laggio, Pelos, Lozzo, Domegge, Calalzo, Pieve, Tai, Ospitale, Valle, Venas, Cibinana, Vodo, Borca, San Vito or the four other comunita di Cadore that I can't find on Google Maps).  

Once we got to our Airbnb, the ladies headed out for a vino, while I suited up and went for a ride.  We were perched above a lake, and I hoped to do a lap of it, visiting at the far end, a spot we'd driven to a few hours earlier.  It turned out a full lap wasn't possible, but I crossed the lake a couple of times on bridges, and enjoyed a bit of time on a converted railway line.

I also did a bit of hike-a-bike, and found some epically steep road to ride up, but eventually made it to the dam.  The bike was a much better vehicle from which the "driver" could enjoy the views.

And, a turn that was bloody awkward in the car, was a piece of cake with a bit of forewarning and on a highly maneuverable bicycle.  

I was feeling very ready for dinner by the time I'd finished the grovel up to our village, but the lovely light helped keep my legs turning over.

We went out for dinner at a nearby ristorante, and I ordered what turned out to be a humungous calzone.  We hadn't bought breakfast supplies, and I wasn't keen on going driving, so I stopped eating once a breakfast sized portion was left.  The waitress didn't seem to have much of a sense of humour, or I completely butchered my witty "calzone per la colazione" comment to her...

That slid down well for breakfast, and once I'd realised our host was providing real coffee for use in the also-supplied stovetop (rather than instant), we rolled out well caffeinated too.  

The first loop I'd mapped had been a massive 160km mission - well beyond our legs and willingness.  My second attempt clocked in at just under 90km, and riding it clockwise would see us starting and finishing on a downhill.  Given I'd finished my previous evening's ride on the first descent, I was amazed at how long it took!

We stopped in Vigo - you guessed it - di Cadore to buy some fruit for Sarah, who'd bemoaned overdosing on pizza and being in desperate need of some vitamins!  Not long after that, I pointed out to her some running mountain water for some cooling too.

The first climb of the day was not insignificant, ascending 1000 metres over about 16km.  But, the gradient was never too savage, and for the vast majority of the climb, we were in shade provided by the pine forest we were riding through - or the road itself, when we hit some switchbacks in the upper quarter.

We'd bought some raspberries at the shop, and we made them last almost to the top.  It didn't take me nearly so long to decipher the road markings, which had the kilometre number written below the decimal point, which was in Roman numerals.

Raspberries finally demolished at 14.6km from the bottom...

The top of the climb was labelled Sella Ciampigotto, but rather than immediately descend, we had a few kilometres riding across a basin.

After admiring a cow-enhanced view to the north, we stopped in at a "bar" which sold coffee, booze, cheese and meat.  We stuck with the first of these, and I dared to order due cappucini per favore, despite it being a couple of minutes past noon.  

We passed another marked summit, then climbed to yet another.  Just beyond it was a van supporting about 10 riders, none of whom showed any interest in us, and couldn't even muster a single "ciao" between them.  

A few minutes into the descent, Sarah hollered at me from across a ravine, and it turned out her front brake had vanished.  It returned a few minutes of careful descending later, thank goodness.  

The riders started passing us just as we reached a stunning artificial lake, and I resisted the temptation to speed up, and instead enjoyed a few minutes of flat - and sedate - riding.   

At the far end of the lake was a dam, below which was an incredibly deep gorge.  I'd initially thought we might ride over a saddle at this point, but that would have added distance and climbing, and also would have bypassed what looked to be a good lunch point.  

The road to Ampezzo was quite something, and included five tunnels through the rock.  These were unlined, generally unlit, and cobbled.  We didn't have front lights with us, so pretty much had to let gravity take its course and hope like hell we didn't hit a hole! 

The gorge continued almost all the way to Ampezzo, but views into it were generally obscured by the forest.  The aloof roadies passed us near the bottom while we were taking a photo stop - the silver lining being that Sarah was relieved of modelling duties, which would have involved her riding back up the hill a little bit!

We had to deviate off our loop at Ampezzo to find lunch, but once we'd found a place, we enjoyed a couple of panini (Caprese - with mozzarella, fresh tomato and prosciutto).  

The climbing began again after lunch, and it looked like we'd ascend about 800m over three distinct sections.  The GPS data had a bug in it, which I suspected would be a tunnel (if not a bug, we had a very nasty spike to ride up...!).  It turned out to be a whopper, a full 2.2km of well lit, beautifully paved downhill!  

Our gelato cravings coincided with the tail end of siesta, and it became obvious that we were going to be shit out of luck, even in one decent sized town that we passed through (not yet something di Cadore...).  

While we couldn't marvel at the quality of the ice-cream, we can report that the stone work in this part of the world is absolutely stunning.  We did wonder if the interiors of these buildings are modern, but boy-oh-boy, do the exteriors have a classic look!

After managing to get a cold drink and our bottles refilled at a bar, we began the final ramp - a 300m climb up to Passo Mauria, beyond which we'd have a 9km descent back to base.

The adjacent mountains were spectacular, but unfortunately the light on them wasn't great.  Eyes are better than cameras at times like this. but we'd had a good fill of Dolomite peaks over the last few ride, so cannot complain.

There was no sign of activity at the pass, and the signage was almost completely obscured by stickers that motorists (and cyclists, I guess) had deemed fit to add.  

We had the road almost to ourselves, and it was a nice way to finish one of the better proportioned loops of our trip so far!

Our next destination is Trieste, which doesn't feature at all in our "100 Greatest Cycling Climbs" guidebook!  I'm sure that we will find something else to do!

Stats:  my solo ride was 42km with a surprising 820 metres of climbing.  The loop ride with Sarah was a sweet 88km with 2085m ascended.  At a guess, we had 4km or so in tunnels!  Temperature range was 21 to 38 degrees.