Tour 1997, 21 - 25 July
| stage | distance (km) | climbing (m) |
|---|---|---|
| Giraniga - Mezzana | 152 | 2630 |
| Mezzana - Strigno | 141 | 3080 |
| Strigno - Forno di Zoldo | 119 | 3610 |
| Forno di Zoldo - Rina/Welschellen | 147 | 2960 |
| Rina/Welschellen - Innsbruck | 125 | 1660 |
| total | 684 | 13940 |
Stage 1: 21 July 1997
The main goal of this 1997 tour was to ride some passes in the Dolomites. In order to
do an interesting one-week tour it was obvious that i would have to take the train for
part of the way. I started from Obersaxen-Giraniga (Grisons) where the parents of my
girlfriend Catrina have a vacation house. I wanted to take the first train from Ilanz
and therefore got up already at five o'clock. This left me enough time for a rich
breakfast. I reached the train at Ilanz as well as the connection towards Samedan.
I must admit that i was still very sleepy during this train trip (after a short new-
moon night, if you know what i mean... ) and missed some of the superb landscapes along
the Rhine and Albula valleys.
Up at Samedan it was still chilly and i was glad that i had to ride first uphill as a
warm-up. At about half past eight i was on the way towards the Bernina pass.
Glaciers and snow on the Piz Bernina were blinding white and gave the mountain a
very impressive look. The road over the pass is good, broad and not steep. The
slope down to Poschiavo was nice. Further down in this italian-speaking valley of
the Grisons, however, the traffic was rather important and nervous.
After crossing the border, i reached Tirano and had to ride a while along the main
road of the Veltlina valley. Dangerous. I therefore did not like the Veltlina as much
as some of its wines. Soon i took to the left towards Aprica and was out of the big
road again. All the remaining of the stage was on good roads because they had
been repaved before the Giro d'Italia 97. There were two passes along the way
to the east: Aprica and Tonale. The first one may not be high, but it starts from a
low valley and goes through a really mountainous landscape. Passo del Tonale was
no big problem either. The slope down the Val Vermiglio was also very nice. The
region is touristic and i stopped at an hotel when i reached Mezzana. I was early
enough to watch the stage of the Tour de France on television. Marco Pantani won
at Morzine after a fabulous climb.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giraniga | 0 | 1250 | |
| Affeier | 5 | 1320 | 70 |
| Ilanz | 14 | 700 | - |
| >>> Samedan | 14 | 1720 | - |
| Pontresina | 19 | 1800 | 80 |
| Bernina | 34 | 2320 | 520 |
| Poschiavo | 52 | 1020 | - |
| Tirano | 68 | 440 | - |
| Stazzona | 73 | 400 | - |
| Aprica | 85 | 1180 | 780 |
| Édolo | 100 | 700 | - |
| Ponte di Legno | 119 | 1260 | 560 |
| Tonale | 130 | 1880 | 620 |
| Mezzana | 152 | 940 | - |
| total | 152 | 2630 |
Stage 2: 22 July 1997
The weather for this second stage was nice and warm. I had to wait till eight o'clock
for the breakfast to be served at the hotel. I rode along the Val del Sole ("sun
valley") and then on a broad plateau over it. The forests, streams and lakes as well as
the numerous orchards made a very attractive landscape. From the town of Fondo i
climbed to the Mendola pass. It has also a german name (Mendel) as it is on the border
to the region of Südtirol which belonged to Austria till World War I. The descent
was very nice and i had to review my judgement about italian roads: in that region i
saw almost only roads in good or very good state.
From Kaltern / Caldaro to Auer / Ora i crossed the valley of the Etsch / Adige and
its orchards and vineyards. Then i had to climb again to a very nice valley with
meadows and woods. I was glad to find the cold fountain of Kaltenbrunn / Fontanefredde
to refill my bottles. After San Lugano the road went down to the Val di Fiemme which i
crossed towards the Manghen pass. This is one of the most beautiful passes i've ever
ridden. The road is narrow but good and there is very few traffic. The first part is all
in the forest and i appreciated its shaddow. Overall i saw very few bikers during this
tour. Here, however, i was caught up by a local cyclist. It was good to speak to
somebody, even if my italian is very poor, and we went on together up to the end of
the woods. Then i was no longer able to keep his pace (he did not ride so far and had
no bag on his bike). The last part of the climb was in alpine meadows. Steep but
extremely beautiful. While riding down on the other side i saw the road i wanted to
take the next day. It was not far at all but on the other side of a deep valley. No
crossing by bike! I had to ride down to Strigno and take a room in a (cheap but not
too bad) hotel.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mezzana | 0 | 940 | |
| Ponte Mostizzolo | 20 | 590 | - |
| ... | 22 | 670 | 80 |
| Ponte S. Gallo | 23 | 630 | - |
| ... | 28 | 760 | 130 |
| Cloz | 29 | 740 | - |
| Arsio | 32 | 830 | 90 |
| Brez | 33 | 800 | - |
| ... | 35 | 830 | 30 |
| ... | 36 | 780 | - |
| Fondo | 40 | 990 | 210 |
| Mendola/Mendel | 49 | 1360 | 370 |
| Caldaro/Kaltern | 63 | 420 | - |
| Ora/Auer | 74 | 240 | - |
| S. Lugano | 90 | 1100 | 860 |
| Molina | 98 | 820 | - |
| Manghen | 115 | 2050 | 1230 |
| Telve | 134 | 1370 | - |
| Scurelle | 138 | 380 | - |
| Strigno | 141 | 460 | 80 |
| total | 141 | 3080 |
Stage 3: 23 July 1997
My first idea was to begin this third stage with the Passo Cinque Croci ("five
crosses"). But somebody at the hotel told me that 5 km at the top were not
surfaced. This sounded to me (with my race bike) as bad as having to carry five
crosses. Then i decided to ride over the Passo del Brocon, which is less high but leads
to the same point. There was almost no traffic on that road and i was able to enjoy the
landscape with its narrow deep valleys, steep forests and green meadows. It was only
around Fiera that i encountered numerous cars and lorries. I had almost no stretch of
flat road on that day, even less than during the rest of this tour.
The next passes were Cereda, Aurine and Duran. I feared a bit the last one because it
meant climbing again 1000 m at the end of the day. Since i paid attention to drinking
and eating during the day (excellent soup at the Cereda!) everything went just
perfectly. I almost wanted to ride further than planned, but the lady at Forno's
touristical information told me that there was no hotel on the way to Cibiana. And
riding so far would have been too much.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strigno | 0 | 460 | |
| Bieno | 6 | 830 | 370 |
| Pradellano | 7 | 780 | - |
| Forcella | 8 | 910 | 130 |
| Tesino | 12 | 750 | - |
| Monte Ágoro | 26 | 1640 | 890 |
| Brocon | 30 | 1620 | - |
| ... | 44 | 750 | - |
| Canal S. Bovo | 46 | 760 | 10 |
| Góbbera | 51 | 990 | 230 |
| Imèr | 56 | 630 | - |
| Fiera | 61 | 720 | 90 |
| Cereda | 70 | 1360 | 640 |
| Mis | 74 | 1110 | - |
| Masoch | 76 | 1200 | 90 |
| Gosaldo | 78 | 1140 | - |
| Aurine | 81 | 1300 | 160 |
| Ágordo | 93 | 600 | - |
| Duran | 107 | 1600 | 1000 |
| Dont | 115 | 940 | - |
| Forno di Zoldo | 119 | 810 | - |
| total | 119 | 3610 |
Stage 4: 24 July 1997
After a thunderstorm the evening before, the roads were still wet this morning. The
stage started right away with a pass, the Cibiana. Nice little climb, mainly in the
woods. Then, between Venas and Auronzo, i was riding along the valleys and there was a
more important traffic. At least the roads were still quite good (there is nothing so
difficult as avoinding pot holes while being passed by a truck... and its swinging
trailer).
It was getting warm when i started to climb to San Antonio, that is to the Passo del
Zovo. I stopped at the pass to drink and had the opportunity to talk with people from
Switzerland (hikers, not bikers). After a short descent it went up again to the
Kreuzberg / Monte Croce pass. It is not steep at all. It began to rain when i was riding
down. For a short time i was in a thunderstorm, but then the rain receeded. There was
much more traffic after Innichen / San Candido. Thanks to the downhill slope i reached
Bruneck / Brunico in a reasonable time. Then, however, i lost time because of a
mistake. I did not look precisely enough at my map to see that at a particular point
two roads were almost joining but not really. The distance was only a matter of 200 m
... horizontally but also vertically. This lead me further than intended to St. Vigil /
S. Vigilio. I had to come back down to Zwischenwasser / Longega before being able to
attack the next climb. Because it was raining again, i chose to stop at the next
possible place along the road. This happened to be at Welschellen / Rina. It was a nice
little Gasthaus and the meal was according to my appetite: this is seldom enough to be
mentioned.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forno di Zoldo | 0 | 810 | |
| Dozza | 2 | 900 | 90 |
| Villanova | 3 | 860 | - |
| Cibiana | 12 | 1540 | 680 |
| Boite | 22 | 770 | - |
| Venas | 23 | 830 | 60 |
| Domegge | 37 | 740 | - |
| Domegge | 39 | 770 | 30 |
| Lozzo | 41 | 750 | - |
| Lozzo | 42 | 770 | 20 |
| Bagni di Gogna | 44 | 760 | - |
| Cima Gogna | 45 | 800 | 40 |
| S. Caterina | 48 | 770 | - |
| Auronzo | 49 | 790 | 20 |
| Zovo (S. Antonio) | 57 | 1480 | 690 |
| Padola | 62 | 1200 | - |
| Monte Croce / Kreuzberg | 72 | 1640 | 440 |
| S. Candido / Innichen | 87 | 1170 | - |
| Brunico / Bruneck | 119 | 830 | - |
| Enneberg-Pfarre | 134 | 1290 | 460 |
| Zwischenwasser | 143 | 1000 | - |
| Rina / Welschellen | 147 | 1430 | 430 |
| total | 147 | 2960 |
Stage 5: 25 July 1997
I wanted to start early from Welschellen / Rina in order to catch the afternoon train from Innsbruck to Zurich. Fortunately i got a breakfast already at seven at the hotel. At half past seven i was on my bike. I was glad that the climb to the Würzjoch / Passo di Erbe was no longer as steep as the first part ridden the day before. The sky was overcast and the temperature ideal for climbing. The next pass (Kofeljoch / Passo di Eores) was no big deal from that side. Then there was a long nice descent towards Brixen / Bressanone. It was the last opportunity to really enjoy the beautiful and well kept landscapes of South Tirol. The rest of the stage was indeed along the Brenner road and there is not much to tell about it: traffic, head wind and (on the italian side) road works. I arrived at Innsbruck early enough to write the draft of the day's report before taking the train to Zurich, where Catrina was waiting for me. This had been a nice tour in a region i didn't know before. It is on purpose that i rode around rather than into the central part of the Dolomites. I was thus able to largely avoid roads with heavy traffic. And this leaves me some high and famous Dolomite passes for a next time...
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rina / Welschellen | 0 | 1430 | |
| ... | 2 | 1470 | 40 |
| ... | 4 | 1430 | - |
| Antermoia / Untermoi | 6 | 1510 | 80 |
| Erbe / Würzjoch | 11 | 2000 | 490 |
| Gunggan | 14 | 1740 | - |
| Eores / Kofeljoch | 16 | 1870 | 130 |
| Castnazza / Schnatzner | 22 | 1600 | - |
| Palmschoss | 25 | 1700 | 100 |
| Bressanone / Brixen | 41 | 560 | - |
| Vipiteno / Sterzing | 72 | 940 | 380 |
| Brenner | 87 | 1380 | 440 |
| Steinach | 100 | 1000 | - |
| Innsbruck | 125 | 570 | - |
| total | 125 | 1660 |
PS / 28.7.1997