Tornanti_2...Three Weeks Of Carve Till Ya Barf!!

castle-of-teck said:

Passo San Boldo
Now that makes me really jealous. Didn´t get it the week before when i stayed in arraba, too

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As said, mate...as passes around the wider area go, it's a "flop".
And it's only a lousy 5k climb, if that.

But the way those 5k's are arranged is something I've never seen before.

"Unique" is the best word to describe it.
I reckon it's one of those that everyone should do once, just for the sake of seeing it.


(....unlike the Panoramica/ Cason di Lanza etc etc )

What a cracker-start, eh?





Despite yet another morning of clear skies, not all is well in the Tornanti-camp.
Yours Truly….can’t even boil an egg , but tries to run a 3-week, 5000k ride halfway around the globe.



Breakfast bombshell:
Moike: “My wallet’s GONE!! Must’ve lost it last night when we sat outside! Already turned over the room and all my gear twice….”

OH SHIIIIIT!


“You guys go; I’ll go and see the Carabinieri, cancel the Credit Cards and all that.”

One good thing though: the passport’s still there….and there are photocopies of credit-cards, drivers license and everything else important.

Let’s just hope that this turns out something like Tim’s “adventures-of-the-lost”…but I don’t fancy Moike’s chances, not around here.

What a BUMMER!!



Arabba





How fast things can change ...just a few k's down the road there's a cop car with blinking lights and cop flagging us down...on the side of the road a small group of 3 riders, one of them thankfully standing next to his busted bike after hitting some wildlife…poor bastard, his day’s over before it even started.

Servo with a view….and WHAT A VIEW!!



Down-valley and towards the Passo Falzarego





Just into the climb, there’s an old ruin to the left…and a little further an unassuming single-laner leading to the Castello di Andraz. The narrow asphalt turns to dirt…and what a sweet little pocket full of surprises this turns out!!














Let’s keep poking around a little more…









Tim goes for some bum-tobogganing when trying to get THAT shot…

I reckon, BMW should start paying for those shots….but it’s so hard to walk past.







Up the Falzarego then…















…and on towards Cortina d’Ampezzo.











A few short k’s before the well known playground-for-the-rich-and-who-cares; it’s a quick tack south-west, up the Passo Giau.

The aim for our time in the Dolomites is to pick the cherries out of the pass-smorgasboard…the scenic, the more demanding ones, the more exposed and the single-laners.

While ANY of the passes around here beats any road we’ve got at home, we just haven’t got the time to ride ‘em all.

Only the best then! ….and the Sella Loop.

The Fedaia for the glaciers of the Marmolada….the Giau for the best mix of good road and tighter stuff on the bottom, opening up towards the top with great scenery to boot…the Manghen for the single-lane stuff and that “remoteness” feeling…and the Pordoi for the ALL-OUT, NEVER-ENDING TWISTIES-RIOT!










The lack of traffic is an absolute delight, the roads are OURS!








Across the little Colle de Santa Lucia and back onto the Falzarego…turning off at the top and cutting north onto the Passo di Valparola…..into the Sella Ronda.













This is neverending!!

A 3min dogleg into Corvara… and there’s the start of the Passo Gardena.

Can’t go past our Applestrudle-Pitstop, eh?

Man…it’s been a rough day



Apple-WOT? Playing coy…



It’s a tough decision!!





Hey mate…if you don’t like it, can I?...



It’s not just the strudel around here…. groan





Back to work then…

A few bends down, then the turn-off up the shallow Sella Pass (from this side), which ends about 6 hairpins worth above Canazei onto the Passo Pordoi.
Neat !!





The last few wiggles of the Pordoi before it finishes 100m from the front door with the last hairpin.









The” happy sign”: Garage for Motorbikes!!







Ed and Henrike roll in 10 mins later from a different direction.
Mike’s got an empty beer in his hand and a half grin on his dial: The wallet was found just after he succeeded cancelling the credit cards.
Everything there…but all cash was gone.

He also got some riding in and made it back and forth across the Falzarego to Cortina d’Ampezzo for some shopping.



If it wouldn’t have been for Moike’s rotten luck, it would’ve been THE PERFECT DAY….

…..this way, it was damn close!!



Piled maps, shouts, pointing fingers, laughs, another round…the stories fly back and forth across the 3-course-cluttered-table….it’s a happy night at the Albergo Pordoi.

You guys are dangerous with your wallets and papers ... I suggest you just give them to me now ...for safe keeping

glitch said:

Hi to the Dutchess!!

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Hello hello......

How are you all doing there..... we are doing great.
A bit busy but that's part of the game.

Are there already plans for more tornati's next year?

We are going anyway... maybe to the Pyrenees or a good combi of that with the alps. But first we'll go ski-ing down some of the mountains we drove down when we met you all.

Last May I was on the back (Ed's the driver) of my S... going down the Stelvio...



.. thought I'd share the movie.

Talk to you later.... Grtz. Henrike

jo said:

You guys are dangerous with your wallets and papers ... I suggest you just give them to me now ...for safe keeping

Click to expand...

The Dutchess said:

Hello hello......

How are you all doing there..... we are doing great.
A bit busy but that's part of the game.

Are there already plans for more tornati's next year?

We are going anyway... maybe to the Pyrenees or a good combi of that with the alps. But first we'll go ski-ing down some of the mountains we drove down when we met you all.
Talk to you later.... Grtz. Henrike

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Great vid!
Solo or 2-up...Ed only knows one to ride, eh?
Certainly busy here too....catching up on 4 weeks seems to take 4 months

No Tornanti's next year....think, that's a few years off yet.
There are too many other rides "on the boil" (Ed already "stuck his finger" into the New Zealand ride in March )

Lucky you, to have it all so close to home...and even better to see that you're making the most of it

Ready to pull out for another day of adventures…while Marty takes a day off, not feeling all that well.



At the top of the Falzarego “ Oh mate….I don’t know about this”



Moike’s white around the nose, his "fear of heights" makes his steps shorter and shorter up the ramp to that contraption of aluminium-and-glass dangling off the thick steel cable.

Even Dave’s getting quieter by the meter…but they’re trooping on and get into the cage.

No way back now!!







Picking today as a day-off-the-bikes seemed an excellent idea, as the cablecar jiggles into its “berth” at the top-station….

OMG....just look around !!

THIS IS STUMPING !!!!!!!!!













Zoomed in, there’s the Passo Gardena Saddle we rode through yesterday.

…and we had absolutely NO IDEA, that this mountain also was one of the most hotly contested during WW1…looks like, above everything else, we’re also in for a heavy history-lesson.

The interest is sparked, let’s go for a look-see.
















It’s just inconceivable that barely 100 years ago Austro-Hungarians and Italians were shelling the shit out of each other…UP HERE???

What an unbelievable place for a battlefront…












Check those holes in the cliff-wall…yep, the whole little peak is like a Swiss cheese, tunnels and shafts everywhere.