Gries am Brenner

Eight hours of riding time to travel 250km, a whopping 30kph average! That’s the nature of these roads: the corners, the traffic, the poopy pant moments and the fact you need to stop every time you see some yummy food or pastries.

We started to head north today via a massive sweeping detour to the east and the Dolomites, my favourite mountains! It rained last night so we took it easy and waited for the sun to dry out our tents before packing them down. Obviously this meant more coffee in the shade of the mountains! Last night we met a man called Gio who was fantastic! He had a face straight out of a Pixar cartoon and was quite a funny character. He was introduced to Chez as Bubbles when I attempted to catch her attention and he called after her for me. This morning he set off in search of fishing and we said our goodbyes.

Retracing our steps from yesterday, we headed back up over the Passo de Tonale following the line of the ski lift as it ascended to just over 2000m. Mountain bikes in lieu of snowboards and skis, it’s an extreme sports junkies daydream and obviously for hikers too. Either way it was very busy and full of the hubbub of people trying to get somewhere else.

The surprise of the day was the Mendel Pass! Crikey! What a pass! We have no evidence of it and certainly no photos, it was fast, flowing and undoubtedly stunning. The number of bikers swarming the place highlighted that it might be worth and shot and it was, it was also pretty long and very tiring! Coming down into Bolzano, the roads sweeps down the mountainside and lands in San Michele.

Charging through Bolzano, which is nothing special, we headed out towards the epic Dolomites via the incredible Passo Gardena. Climbing up to about 2200m amongst more chic hotels, mountain bikers and hikers, it borders the Sella Group (Sella Ronda) on its northern side, and cuts underneath some of the towering limestone cliff like faces of these inspiring mountains. The Dolomites are like no other mountain range with sheer walls of white reaching high into the clouds.

The weather had been unpredictable with the mountaintops catching the angry looking rain clouds and finally after many lucky hours we were hit with a monumental thunderstorm. The clouds enclosed the valley in a deep grey, blotting out the sun and making it all feel very close and almost cosy. The rain came with a bolt of lightening just to add even more “epicness”.

Our final destination tonight is a little village on the edge of Austria, with hairpins to reach it, because why not!

Perfect tune for the day - M83 Outro

HIGHLIGHTS - Dolomites ❤️❤️
LOW POINTS - none
ROADS - SS42, SS242, SS243, SS244, SS49Read more