Passo San Boldo - Nevegal

From Vittorio Veneto I pedaled the road bike up over Passo San Boldo and its crazy cliff-face switchback/tunnels.  Then down toward  San Antonio Tortal, where I planned to take the main road to Valmorel.  But from the corner of my eye I saw a sign for Pianezze on a road heading steeply upward and had to try it.  It was a beautiful ride through tall fir trees interspersed with large grassy meadows  A km or two was unpaved but the hard-packed dirt was perfect for a road bike. 

You end up in Pianezze, but it turns out you're in a bowl valley so you must climb steeply to get out.  Luckily the pavement has resumed so you can get traction.  Near Pranolz you reach the main road which carries you through Melere down to Valmorel.  You now descend steeply to Val Lamon, through Tassei and again up steeply through Piandelmonte to Ronce.  Here you follow another hard- packed dirt road winding through the forest to Nevegal.

Fast descent on the main road to Quantin, right turn by cemetery down to Roncan, then right toward Cornolade and Lago Sante Croce, Fadalto and Vittorio Veneto.  Wonderful ride but hard because of all the saliscendi.  Quite a workout.

    

Passo di San Boldo

View near San Antonio Tortal of Dolomiti Bellunesi 

View northwest from road for Pianezze 

Rifugio at Pianezze 

From above Valmorel looking north

View from Cornolade road of beautiful Alpago and surrounding peaks

Steep climb from Tassei to Ronche

Castello di Zumelle

On the climb from Piave Valley up to Passo Praderadego I've noticed a turn marked Castello di Zumelle.  Clearly this needs to be investigated.  I started biking from Lago Revine a bit before 6 AM to avoid the heat and turned at Tovena toward Passo San Boldo.  Over the pass at 706 meters, and then down through beautiful rolling meadows to Trichiana.  Here you must ride briefly west on SP1, a busy road between Belluno and Feltre.  I exited as quickly as possible at Zottier, and started on a new route to Passo Praderadego.  It climbs across lovely meadowy uplands from Zottier to Pellegai, Samprogno, and then joins the usual route at Carve.  

After Carve and Valmaor I turned right at the aforementioned Castello di Zumelle sign and soon the little road turned to dirt, but rideable on road bike.  There was an unmarked intersection where I scratched my head awhile and then chose at random.  It turned to dirt again, then back to pavement.  This time I chose to descend a bit, reached a meadow, and luckily a castle on a hill.  There was a concrete walkway up to it so I rode up that.  Then I walked around taking pictures.  It was first built by the Romans around 40 AD as part of Via Claudia Augusta Altinate, a trade route from Italy to the Danube.  Later it was taken over by the barbarians, then local princes/dukes fighting one another.

I headed back the way I'd come till I reached the road for Praderadego.  Very steep and densely forested- this is a fun climb.  At the top (930 meters) are some places where people eat barbeque, drink wine, etc.    They have paved the section below the pass and it is beautiful.

The two passes are a great ride anytime and the castle makes a fun side trip.  I need to find out when they have events where they open the tower- I'd love to climb up there and check the view.
  

Wide meadows on north side of Passo San Boldo

Cliffs above the meadows

Church at Trichiana with Dolomiti Bellunese in background

I luckily guessed and turned right. 

First sighting of Castello di Zumelle

View from castle of Passo Praderadego

Castle parapets with arrow slits

The east-facing wall, in best restored conditioned

Dolomiti Bellunese from castle

The restored tower and ruins of west wall 

House at Passo Praderadego

View of the gorge down to Cison Valmareno

Dolomite towers above Praderadego road

Cliffs high above

Nevegal - Valmorel - Passo San Boldo

I've been hearing rumors of a road connecting Nevegal with Passo San Boldo for a year or two, so today I thought I'd check it out.  I warmed up from Vittorio Veneto to Lago Santa Croce, with lots of weekend warriors out for their weekly assault on the climb.  I felt sluggish for some reason- I think this may be the slowest I've ridden up this easy hill.  At 0830 even in this shady gorge it felt warm and humid.  After Sella di Fadalto I cruised along the west side of the lake and felt a little more lively.  After the lake is a left turn signed Nevegal, which climbs steeply at first up through Vich to the main road from Ponte nelle Alpi toward Nevegal.  Here you begin a nice moderate climb, with long 7% straight stretches through pretty grassy meadows.  Definitely easier than the steep climb from Belluno to Nevegal, though that one is shadier.  Soon the sun was beating down and I dreamed of reaching the shady forest above.  

The road from Belluno and the road I was climbing meet in a traffic circle just below Nevegal at 987m.  Just after the circle is a turn off to the right toward Ronce.  Thankfully this road (Via Col de Gou) dives into the spruce forest almost immediately.  It snakes along the mountainside, finally reaching a junction, with Via Ronce to the left.  Via Ronce is a very fine dirt road, hard-packed and pretty much rockless.  It passes peacefully for 2 km through the dense forest until reaching a little cluster of houses in a sunny meadow, where it meets Via Piandelmonte.  Somewhere along here the road reverts to asphalt.  The landscape opens up into broad green pastures, surrounded by spruce-covered mountains.  The road descends steeply, with switchbacks and gorgeous views of the valley of Tassei (568m).

During this long descent I came across numerous riders ascending in the opposite direction.  Some of them were really suffering the steepness and heat.  I thought to myself "I'm glad I'm going this way instead," forgetting I would soon have to climb a similar slope on the other side of the valley.  So now I was struggling up that slope, exposed to full sun, till finally Via Tassei ended at Valmorel (806m).   Here you turn left on Via Valmorel, signed Sant' Antonio Tortal and "Al Peden" cucina tipica, then later becomes Via Peden.   More saliscendi and beautiful panoramas, and then you begin the plummet down to Sant' Antonio at 507 meters.

After Sant'Antonio another long gradual ascent to Passo San Boldo at 706m.  A guy in a bright red Ferrari accelerated loudly to pass me, which I thought was odd since I was only going 10-15 kph.  I think he was just having fun revving it up, like a kid with a motor scooter.  At a subsequent bridge he stopped dead in the middle and was afraid he would scrape his paint on the railing.  All the people backed up in the other direction were motioning to him to let him know he had plenty of room, but he was frozen with fear.  Somehow he summoned the courage and finally crawled through, with at least a foot of space on each side.    

Heavy traffic on the descent so not great fun, but no big deal.  I was hot and tired and just wanted to finish.  Soon enough I was back in Vittorio Veneto.  But now the question is, what will this ride be like in the opposite direction?

Via Ronche strada bianca through the spruce forest

Valley of Tassei from Piandelmonte

Tassei from descent of Piandelmonte

Close up Tassei

Via Peden toward Sant' Antonio Tortal

Gentle switchbacks down to Sant' Antonio

Beautiful mountain lane from Nevegal to Valmorel

Descent to Sant'Antonio Tortal

Nevegal left, Valmorel middle, Passo San Boldo right

Passi Praderadego - San Boldo

Previously rode this double climb in June 2011 http://dolomiti-friulane.blogspot.it/2011/06/passo-praderadego-da-gus.html .  This time I decided to try it in reverse direction, with Praderadego first, then San Boldo.  Definitely easier this way.  I was lucky and 2 cycling friends, Doug and Paul wanted to go.   We cruised out past Vittorio Veneto and then turned at Valmareno toward the pass.  It's a very wild landscape with stone cliffs and dense forest.  The previous dirt road section has now been paved and is in perfect condition.  We descended the steep north side to Gus, then continued on the main Belluno-Feltre road until Trichiana.  The San Boldo climb from this side was new to me and is beautiful and a bit easier.  After the pass we descended the scala of tornanti with U-shaped gallerias at the ends down to Tovena.  From here Paul, who's a very strong cyclist, wanted to climb Passo San Lorenzo from Tarzo to Vittorio Veneto.  Afterwards I was toast but continued pedaling as best I could the rest of the way home.  Doug was very kind and accompanied me to Giais to make sure I made it up the hill.  Another great ride with perfect weather and excellent company!

View from Passo Praderadego toward Valmareno
and prosecco hills

Rock tower below Paso Praderadego

Climb up Praderadego, bottom to top

Passo San Boldo climb, from top to bottom

The third climb is Passo San Lorenzo

Passo di San Boldo 2012

This was an unusual and interesting ride.  I left home at 0630 and cruised to Caneva.  There I met Joe for our ride and several other folks from GC Meschio club also arrived.  We headed toward Passo di San Boldo around 0800.  I held on to the back of the bunch until Cordignano, when my front tire and tube were slashed by some road debris.  The guys heard the load hiss and all came back to help.  Joe told them to go ahead, we would change the tube and catch up with them, but they would have none of it.  Two guys pulled off the tire, carefully checked for any glass, etc still lodged in the tire carcass, and half-pumped the new tube.   Another guy was using the pump to try and find the hole in the tube.  That could wait for later though, so the other 2 guys finished pumping my tire and reinstalled the wheel.  All the while the whole group remained waiting, for me a total stranger who happened to be tagging along.  Their kindness and patience with me holding up their ride was really amazing.  Days like this remind me why I love living in Italy so much.


I redoubled my efforts to keep up and managed to hang on through Anzano but the little hill at Serravalle dropped me.  The last I saw of them was on the climb toward Longhere on Via del Prosecco.  I settled into my usual snail-like pace and continued till Cison di Valmarino, where I turned toward Passo di San Boldo.   This is a beautiful place; even if you don't bike you should visit just for the view.  I continued up the tornanti to 665 meters, where I stopped for the traffic light (there are single-lane U-shaped tunnels at the ends of the tornanti so it's safer to wait for a green light to avoid hitting descending cars head-on.  While I was waiting Joe and his companion (whose front derailleur cable had broken) arrived from the passo, where they had waited awhile.  They were headed down so I went with them- there'll be plenty more chances to climb this again (and descend via Passo Praderadego!)
Fun ride and I met some very nice people!


Note:  I didn't bring a camera but here are some fotos of the passo from previous rides:
http://dolomiti-friulane.blogspot.it/2011/06/passo-praderadego-da-gus.html

Passo San Boldo da Tovena

I've been sick with a cold or flu all week, but now my fever broke, it's beautiful out and it's time to ride.

This climb starts off the road from Vittorio Veneto to Valdobbiadine.  It climbs gently through a beautiful little green valley for a few kilometers, then starts the first of 18 tornanti up the forested slope.  Then at tornanti 6 you reach a near vertical cliff wall at the head of the valley.  The next 5 tornanti are directly on the cliff face, with the u-turn at the end of each one inside a u-shaped tunnel.  It's a remarkable piece of engineering, and they manage to keep the gradient down in the 10-12% range all the way up.  Marilyn has my camera in the States, but you can see a picture of the scala here:
http://www.magicoveneto.it/Trevisan/CisonValmarino/Strada-Passo-San-Boldo_F01.jpg

After the pass (706 meters) I descended on the easy side to Trichiana.  Here you join the main road from Belluno to Feltre- a bit too busy for my taste.  At a traffic jam by Belluno I said to heck with it and headed up the road toward Nevegal.  I was hoping some of these little country roads would connect to the descent to Lago Santa Croce.  I climbed up past Castion, Caleipo and Sossai to 570 meters but the road eventually turned to dirt and got too steep, so I turned around.  By now the traffic jam was gone so I continued down the main road.  I skirted Lago Santa Croce, climbed up to 500 meters at Passo Fadalto, and descended rapidly to Vittorio Veneto.

Great ride- I'll try it in the opposite direction next time.