Ride the most beautiful dirt roads and trails, climb the highest off-road mountain passes, and pedal face to face with incredible rock formations. Grassy meadows, winding ridges, huts with views, local food, and craft beer. The adventure begins in the pristine Tires Valley, a half-hour drive from Bolzano. Begin your day as the morning sun rises over the shoulders of the Catinaccio mountain, pedaling in harmony among larch trees, fields, and crops.
Small, ancient villages and castles will guide you north toward the medieval town of Castelrotto before entering the Gardena Valley. The Puez-Odle Nature Park and Alta Badia now await you, offering some of the region's most iconic peaks.
Feel like a Giro d'Italia pro as you ascend the legendary Pordoi Pass, but please remember your true nature: that of a gravel grinder! Enjoy the off-road fun again, with a glimpse of the Marmolada glacier, descend into the Fassa Valley, and then climb silently up to the Alpe di Siusi. This is Europe's largest plateau, where lucky cows live at the foot of the imposing Sassopiatto mountain.
This is the tour planned by Michele Minessi and his companions, and this is their story: "The tour isn't our own idea, but it's the good, local work of our friend Alberto Frizziero , who recently organized something really great about gravel in the Dolomites (Dolomiti Gravel).
Given his experience and passion, we couldn't help but rely on him and one of his tour packages. Alberto tailors gravel tours in the Dolomites to bike packers, tours of all kinds, but above all—something we like—unconventional tours for true lovers of wild cycling...obviously, he obliged.
It's summer, the end of a long vacation spent in a van along the Alps, and it seemed right to treat ourselves to one last trip to end the holiday on a high note, and like any self-respecting impromptu trip, Piero joins us at the last minute! We meet in
the evening, have dinner in the vans, pack our bags, say hello to Alberto who's stopping by, and between a glass of wine and a big plate of pasta alla carbonara it's getting late." and we retreated to the vans for the night.
The next day, ready to leave Tires, we immediately realized it wasn't going to be a walk in the park, but Alberto had prepared some local alternatives for us. Mostly on dirt roads, we reached the Siusi plateau and the Molignon refuge, where the stage was supposed to end. But we continued because we had decided we would sleep in a tent somewhere as soon as we found a place we liked, and so it went. After crossing the Sella Pass, we knew that going down a forest road we would come across some tool sheds, and since Piero was without a tent, we looked for one for the night to shelter us from the incoming storms.
We will remember it for a long time, the search for the shed, one closed, the other collapsed, and there it is, we approach it, it's a little crooked but it's open... it's it! Piero and Giudi's enthusiasm is uncontainable... mine a little less so, since it seemed to me that a light breeze would be enough to make it collapse.
I'm the eldest and most responsible, I have to contain this delirious enthusiasm... but in the end
In the morning, we had breakfast with what was left and then we were off on our bikes. Unfortunately, the weather worsened in the late morning, so we skipped the Vajolet section, but we've already been there on foot, so no big deal. We passed by Lake Carezza, followed by lots and lots of beautiful forest trails, and then back to the vans, ready for rivers of beer!
