Grand Tour
The Dolomites in Three Days
Three days through the heart of the Dolomites, from the Sella Ronda to the Tre Cime, finishing in the Alta Badia.
Nowhere in the Alps stacks great passes closer together than the Dolomites. The four roads of the Sella Ronda circle a single block of pale rock, and within an hour of them lie the Marmolada, the Giau and the high war roads above Cortina. This tour ties them into three short, rich days: a circuit of the Sella, a crossing to Cortina beneath the highest peak in the range, and a finale that takes in the Tre Cime before dropping into the Alta Badia.
Distances are tiny, so the days are about texture rather than miles. The passes open from roughly June to October, and summer afternoons like to build into thunderstorms. These are also some of the most cycled roads in Europe: give the riders room, and check ahead for the occasional bike days when the Sella passes close to cars.
The Sella Ronda
Overnight: CanazeiThe famous circuit, driven clockwise from Canazei: over the Sella to Selva, across the Gardena to Corvara, over the little Campolongo to Arabba and back across the Pordoi. Four passes round a single massif, and you sleep where you started.
Under the Marmolada
Overnight: Cortina d'AmpezzoEast out of Canazei over the Fedaia, beneath the north face of the Marmolada, then down through Rocca Pietore and Caprile to pick up the Giau at Selva di Cadore. The Giau is unrelentingly steep and thick with cyclists on fine mornings, and its long drop through Pocol lands you in Cortina with the afternoon to spare.
Tre Cime and the war roads
Overnight: CorvaraA morning out east over the Tre Croci to Misurina and up the dead-end toll road to the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, returning the same way. After lunch in Cortina head west to the Falzarego, slip across the little Valparola past its Great War fort, and drop through San Cassiano to finish in Corvara.
