Coltura to Piancavallo

This wonderful loop takes you from 72 meters above sea level at Gorgazzo, up through Mezzomonte to the Panoramica Cansiglio-Piancavallo, which reaches 1500 meters.  It's gorgeous wilderness with great views in all directions.  Today was the first time Fedaia has made it up the concrete ramp below junction with the Panoramica without stopping.

Traffic on Piancavallo Highway was so busy I decided to turn off at Bornass and take the car-free road to Madonna della Monte by Costa.  Very peaceful.     

Matajur

Matajur is smack on the Italian-Slovenian border.  There are several routes but this is the toughest, via Stermizza.  The lower parts are shady and cool, which came in handy in the humid 32 degree Celsius temps.  Unfortunately above 900 meters the trees thin out into grassland.  Stinking hot.  Resting at the top cooled me off a bit, then just as I began the descent the rear tire flatted.  Luckily a nice shade tree was conveniently nearby so I wasn't roasted while working.

There is a wonderful descent on the main road from Cepletischis to Ponte San Quirino.  The road through Stermizza is too switchbacked to sustain any speed on descent.


Note: this climb was included in stage 13 of the 2016 Giro d'Italia.  They paved the road for the stage and it's still absolutely perfect.  

Col Visentin

At the top of the long climb from Longhere to Pian dei Grassi another climb starts- Col Visentin.  It used to be all gravel but now the first 2 or 3 km are paved.  After that it's MTB only.  Unless you try to see if you can road bike it, like me.  I had tried last fall on 25 mm tires and didn't fare too well.  Today with 28mm slicks it was the same deal.  I rode maybe a third of the gravel and walked the rest.  Anyway it was a beautiful day and I got a killer workout.  Quite nippy on the descent but at Vittorio Veneto it was sunny and hot as ever.  A classic.

Grassy bald dramatically lit

The climb

Molltaler Gletscher Strasse

Woke up early and drove to Austria near Grossglockner.  The weather was much cloudier than expected and cold.  I did a quick warm up around Ausserfragrant on Maxxima and headed up the road.  Like the guide book said, this is a killer.  To complicate matters my meticulously prepared gatorade bottles were all sitting in a bag in the car: I had forgotten to load them on the bike and backpack.  I thought about turning around and aborting but the actual climbing was going quite well.  I decided to continue and turn back if I felt thirsty.

As it turned out it wasn't a problem.  I continued up several dozen switchbacks in the cold damp air.  Finally after the dam at Wurten Speicher I decided to try a couple more switchbacks (which as luck would have it were each about a kilometer long) and then called it quits.  The rain was increasing and I was worried about hypothermia so I turned back.  The climb continues another 6 km, topping out 500 meters higher at 2365 meters.  I'll try it again in better weather. 

Sorry about the drizzly foto.  Next time I'll get more waterfalls.

Hard climb

Col Artent - Malga Garda

Col Artent is a very special climb.  It arises from Lentiai on the banks of Fiume Piave, quite steeply up to the scene of one of the last small battles of WW I.  There is a chapel and gravestones of a few of the final casualties lost in the waning weeks of the war.  

From there I continued on a good gravel road to Malga Garda at 1300 meters.  Great views from here of Dolomiti Bellunese, Piave valley, Monte Cesen, Monte Grappa massif, with unusually good seeing thanks to the temporale Saturday night.  Visit here if you can.

End of pavement coming up from Lentiai

The descent concrete ramp from Malga Garda

The tough climb to Col Artent

Topo map close-up

Pian delle Femene

We're having a heatwave, temps up in the mid-30's Celsius.  I kind of scoffed at it because I grew up in Alabama and worked in the Air Force on the flightline in the Mojave Desert, Nellis, Korea, and New Mexico.  But it was a bigger problem than I expected.  After the first half hour I was crawling in low gear.  My original target, Col Visentin, quickly evaporated.  Luckily a cloud floated over so I was able to recover shaded and made it up to the top with no more problems.  I descended fast so I could get some sweat windchill going and by the time I reached the car at Vittorio Veneto I had rejoined the living.  Anyway this is an awesome local climb which I would recommend to anyone in the area.

     

Beautiful rolling grassland with firs

Cowgirl leading her horses back to the barn

Tougher than you'd think

Monte Crostis

The climb from Comeglians to the Panoramica delle Vette is a Carnia classic.  Miles of switchbacks through steep fir-covered slopes, followed by wide-open alpine landscape.   Fedaia handled the climb well, and then deftly switched to gravel bike on the rolling Panoramica delle Vette.  She's an all-rounder.

Next I arrived at the descent to Ravascletto, steep  and well-paved since the Giro d'Italia preparations of 2011.  Unfortunately there've been some landslides over the winter and the road was blocked for repair.  Some motorcyclists had been turned back but I lifted my bike over the barriers and then used the wooden guardrails as a catwalk to reach the other side.  The workers were rappeling on the steep slope to secure chainlink landslide prevention in place.  Hard to imagine how hot that would be even up  in the mountains with the sun beating down.

Eventually the road reaches Ravascletto and the beautiful main highway.  Some great curves on the plummet down this road.

Try this loop if you get a chance.  It's a great experience.

Rhododedron-covered slopes above top of climb 

Gorgeous mountain meadows

Monte Crostis hiking trail

The valley where I started in Comeglians

Wild rhododendron close-up

Monte Coglians again half-hidden behind smaller peaks

Big peaks to the west in Veneto

Looking down at the descent road to Ravascletto

The tough climb from Comeglians

Follow the zig-zags clockwise

Zoufplan

This is a wonderful climb up fir-covered slopes, reaching the lower edge of altopiano at 1500 meters then continuing up  miles of sunny grassland to 1900 meters+.  Previously I climbed this on my old Merckx, continuing on the gravel road to an Italian communications post.  Then a couple years later I mountain biked all the way up.  Today climbing with the Legend Fedaia on 28mm tires worked fine but descending was quite tedious.  Once I descended to the paved lower section everything was fine.  Must try this ride if you're in the area.

Monte Coglians hiding behind Monte Tenchia

Monte Zoncolan ski area on left

Lago di Zoufplan;
blue sky reflection if you're at the correct angle

On the right the valley from Tolmezzo to Timau

Toward Timau and Austria; antenna on lower right
was the highest I reached on road bike back in 2011 

Wild rhododendron blooming along the gravel road

The circuitous gravel road down to the shady paved lower section

Blue line shows the switchbacking climb

15 km of 8%, the last 6 km on gravel