Piancavallo da Pedemonte 2011

This is the biggest climb very close to home- only about 4 miles down the road.  It starts at only 145 meters and climbs an average 9.6% grade to Rifugio Bornass at 6.6 km.  A fellow passed me on this steep section, mashing a big gear and bobbing his torso up and down so violently his chin almost hit his stem on every pedal stroke.  Not sure how this increases power, but he definitely was ascending more rapidly than I.  At Rifugio Bornass (767 m) he was done climbing, just circling in the small parking lot to cool down.

I continued upward only slightly less-steeply to Castaldi at 10.9 km, with average grade of 8.5%.  Here at Castaldia (1090 m) there's a turnoff for Colalto (1374 m), but I thought it might be snowed over so I continued on the main road.  At 14 km I arrived at Piancavallo, which is still covered in snow.  I went around the altopiano and checked out the road down to Barcis- looked clear to me, but the signs say it's closed.  Maybe I'll try it from the other end soon.  I thought about cruising up the short climb to Colalto to see if it was snowed over, but was too tired.

I rode down as fast as possible.  The road was very clean- no cinders or loose pebbles like last Spring.  It only took about 12 minutes to descend 14 km and 1100 meters altitude.  Now that was fun!

The road down to Barcis

The snowy meadows from Piancavallo down to Pian delle More
Lots of crosscountry ski trails here  

Satellite foto from Pra de Plana (lower right) to Castaldia (upper left)