Dark monument to Fausto Coppi, Italian racing legend who died of mysterious causes–cocaine, poisoning or malaria, depending whom you believe

We headed out of Arabba, climbing 7 km at 7% over Passo Perdoy, site of a famous memorial to the great Italian bike racer, Fausto Coppi. After a brief photo op, we descended 5 miles to an intersection with a sign pointing to Passo Sella. Our instructions were to continue into the town of Canazei so we bypassed the Passo Sella road and descended another 4 miles to town, where we regrouped only to learn that we should have turned at the Passo Sella road. This was disconcerting news–the road was a strenuous climb BACK from where we had just come! Yes, we were here to climb mountains, but somehow the idea of climbing something not on our itinerary and not of our own choosing seemed impossible. We decided to have lunch and think it over.

Shedding gear before climbing Passo Gardena

Howie and Chris had trailed behind us over Perdoy, and had received corrected instructions before arriving at the Sella road. They had made the turn. That seemed terribly unfair–they didn’t have to climb an added 4 miles. We settled in at a pizzeria and it began to rain. Our legs felt tired.

Mike suggested we load our bikes in the van and drive back to the Passo Sella road. Problem solved! We just had to come up with a congruent story that made us look like “hard men of the peloton”. We settled on the idea that “we rode 4 miles back up the mountain” was sufficiently ambiguous if we didn’t specify “bike” or “van.” Our legs felt much better.

By the time we arrived at the Sella road, the rain had stopped and we happily mounted up and rode over Passo Sella and Passo Gardena, amid majestic Dolomite peaks, before descending into Corvara, our home for the next two nights.

Atop Passo Sella

Ours day’s ride totals were 50 miles, 9,000 feet vertical.

Atop Passo Gardena

Down to Corvara