South Tirol down to Italy's lakes Region

Turns out it was a good choice to abandon our plans to ride the high passes in the Dolomites.  The picture below (which we did not take) shows Samuel Sanchez finishing the Giro d'Italia stage 20 atop the Tre Cime climb, on May 23rd. We didn't plan to watch this stage, but wanted to ride this climb and several other nearby passes.  Instead we continued south on the fine network of cycle routes in the South Tirol region of northern Italy.  These cycle routes are mostly on dedicated cycle paths, almost always paved, and often along old railway corridors.  The section down into Bolzano had lots of old tunnels and was a 20km downhill run!

We ended up in Mezzocorona, a small town that felt like a bedroom community for nearby Trento and Rovereto, but beautiful as it is situated at the base of the Dolomiti di Brenta mountains and is towered over by 4-500 meter high limestone cliffs.  We took some nice photos, but have misplaced our card reader that allows us to transfer photos from our digital camera to the iPad that we edit the blog with, so from here on out we will only be able to post photos taken with the iPad (or ones " borrowed" from online sources like the Sam Sanchez shot).  Although taking pictures with iPad is easy it makes us feel quite dorky.

We decided to try to wait out weather one more time and took a day trip on the train to watch the Giro d'Italia time trial from Mori to Polsa.  Time trials don't make for riveting spectating, but we enjoyed checking it out all the same. Again our hopes of improving weather didn't happen, and so instead of making a circuit through the Dolomiti di Brenta we continued south to Lake Garda.  The rain lifted for us and we enjoyed several days of camping (a night on the north end of the lake at Torbole and then a few nights near Sirmione at the south end). Lake Garda is beautiful, especially so with the newly snow capped peaks towering above. Lake Garda is also a very popular place for tourists and locals from all over northern Italy to visit, so it is crowded!

We had one more surprise run-in with the Giro d'Italia as we approached Sirmione. Turns out the final stage rolled right past where we were going to stay and we found ourselves able to enjoy a rode side picnic while the peloton "groupo compacto" (means all the racers were riding together in a cohesive group) flew by.

From Lake Garda we headed west to Brescia and then onto Lago di Iseo.

Cobblestone streets and sidewalks are cool and reflect a craftsmanship you rarely see in the states.  They are slippery when wet though - no wipeouts yet, but a few exciting moments for sure.

The look on Samual Sanchez's face makes us happy we stayed in the valleys.  Sure we got wet, and cold a few times too, but I don't think we suffered like the Giro riders did in the Dolomites (photo from Cyclingnews.com).

Lago di Garda with freshly snow capped peak in the distance.

This impressive castle in Sirmione on he south shore of Lake Garda was amazingly well preserved and neat to see.  Sort of makes the George R.R. Martin novel I am reading come alive.

We are careful to not eat pizza too often, but have had some great pizza!

Rain means some down time and down days, and down time and days are best with beer.  The south Tirol region actually had some good beer. Mostly we found light pilsners to be the norm in Italy.

Lago di Iseo. We rode a short 35km day from Brescia to Iseo dodging downpours at cafe's

 (coffee at the first stop, beer at the next).  The light on the water in between showers was amazing!

More fresh snow above Lake Iseo. Monte Isola, the island in he center of the photo is the biggest populated European lake island. We were encouraged to take a ferry out to it to ride all the way around it (all of 9km, but I'm sure it would be a nice spin.)

Austria and the Drau Cycle route

It's still spring in the high country, especially in the mountains.  We have known all along that trying to cycle through the high mountains of the Dolomites and  Alps in mid-late May was a gamble.  We felt lucky to get through the Julian Alps before the weather turned, and might have enjoyed another day up high, but decided instead to head north towards and eventually into Austria to buy some time along their fine system of valley bicycle routes while we meandered eastward.  The hope was to allow the inclement weather to pass, then to pedal back up into the high country in the Dolomites.

Fortunately for us the cycle paths along the northern edge of the Julian Alps (into Tarviso Italy and then northwards into Austria) as well as the paths along the River Gaile and later River Drau westward to Lienz and back into Italy were worthwhile in their own right. Unfortunately the weather didn't improve all that much and we did our best to dodge the worst weather by riding shorter days and booking rooms to stay the night while it poured outside.  We didn't succeed in missing all of the weather and our day of riding back into Italy was especially soggy and cold. At times we did get glimpses of the Dolomites through the clouds, and the Austrian villages, beautiful countryside, apple strudel, and schnapps along with the weather made for a very memorable experience. 

We took an extra day in San Candido, partly because we were now a bit gun-shy of the second day of "Periods of rain" forecast, and partly in the hopes of a miraculous turn around in the forecast.  Leaving this area and heading west and then south means abandoning our dream of riding in the heart of the Dolomites, and instead of just accepting this we procrastinated. It is a bit disappointing, but despite the wet spring that we have faced this is the first time we have had to completely abandon our itinerary and re-think things, not bad after 2 months of touring.

On the way to Bovec, Slovenia.

Slovenia's emerald river, the Soča.

14% is pretty steep, and yes we rode 26 switchbacks up and 24 down the other side! 

Looking up towards the top of Vrsič Pass (1611 meters above sea level, and 1120 meters higher than Bovec where we began our day).

All the switchbacks on the north side of the pass were cobbled to improve traction.

A monument to the hundreds of Russian POW's who built this pass during WWI to bring supplies to the front lines. Many of these POW's were wiped out by avalanches and the pass was supposedly re-named to Passo della Moistrocca in 2006 to honor these men.  We never heard the new name used so perhaps it hasn't stuck yet?

Villach, Austria

With our new Friend Patrick who we met through Warm Showers. He told us we were old enough to be his parents. He is studying mechanical engineering.

Along one of the dirt sections of the Drau Cycle path.

Another "single track" section.

The guesthouse we stayed at near Spittal, Austria.  We enjoyed chatting with Rudy, one of the fami members that ran the place. He showed us excellent hospitality and shared some fine schnapps with us.  We also enjoyed some amazing Thai food as well, a first on our trip.

Our campground in Lienz was right on the edge of town, with awesome peaks towering above.

Heading off from Lienz, the rain started at kilometer 5 and didn't really let up. Fortunately for us most of our day was uphill, so we stayed warm, that is until we stopped and then we quickly became hypothermic while scrambling to find a room.

Bike touring isn't always fun...

The road tips up (and down) to see the Giro

The ride over Predil Pass to see the Giro was up, up and more up with a 14 % grade at it's steepest parts!  Fortunately for us (and not so much for the fellow bike tourers we passed) we did not have to carry our tour bags with us because we would return to our apartment in Bovec for another nights stay. 

When we arrived up and then down to the other side of the pass we found that yes there would definitely be others joining us for a view of the final climb up Sella Nevea to the finish.  So many people and we still had another 10 km to ride to the site of the steepest switchbacks of the finish. We found a place to park our bikes and walked up a narrow road that soon became a very steep 20% grade of switchbacks that would be a great place to see the suffering racers climb!  

So exciting and fun to be out there with everyone celebrating!  We would still have a 3 hour wait before the racers would come bye and then it happens so fast!  You always know when they are getting close, first the racers support cars parade through and then the motorcycles police with sirens and lights flashing and the helicopter hovers above filming the fans, everyone is cheering and waving flags hooting and hollering Alle! Alle!

Because the race starts so late the finish is late, around 6:00. So as soon as the racers pass everyone heads out, riding to there cars or in our case up and over the pass again to Bovec.  We were lucky the weather held out and it was all fine and not too cold of a decent back down to our digs in Bovec.

 

Pre-race parade antics.

We thought it was a bit chilly until we saw the finish (on TV) of the Galibier stage yesterday, where it was snowing!

Rigoberto Uran ended up winning the day! He had over a minute on the favorites when he pedaled past us.