Alps 2024 — Day 8: Pieve di Cadore to Sauris

Last night we had “the talk”: A routing discussion where we took a close look at the remaining “aspirational” route through Italy and Slovenia to see what’s practical based on a lot of different factors. We’re due back in Merano on Saturday, so the days of riding are limited. We’re sort of getting to know what sort of routes are good for us and some of the stuff coming up is pretty difficult with less access, particularly Slovenia.

So the tl;dr of it all is that today will be our last eastward-heading day. Tomorrow we start heading back along a new route (still TBD we’ve got some ideas) that gets us back to Merano on time. It’s a bit sad we won’t see Slovenia but we can’t complain because everything we’re seeing is amazing!

Woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. Since we’ve been in Italy, the hotel breakfasts have been tempting; the only downside is that they often don’t start until 7:30 am. As the temperatures have increased during this trip, we’re starting to pay the price of later starts by riding further into the hotter afternoons. Of course we’re pretty hungry right away so were able to get a lot of calories for no cost except time.

We descended from our hotel into a beautiful, quiet river valley that sits below all the hubbubb of the Cadore valley. From there we started our first climb of the Passo Mauria.

The climb up to Passo Mauria would take us about an hour on very quiet roads with not too many high inclines. A few switchbacks here and there.

At the top, we ran into a couple of Dutch tourists coming from the other direction who were doing Salzburg to… I can’t remember where. Someplace west. We swapped stories and enjoyed mutual rest at the top of the pass.

A nice long descent that took us almost 30km, save for a few bumps to keep things interesting. Oh and there was a 2km tunnel that we had no way to bypass. Thankfully there were only a handful of cars and trucks and they gave us plenty of room. Of course we had front/rear lights too.

We ended the descent just shy of Ampezzo and at the foot of our next climb to Passo Pura. Before the climb, we decided to have a bit of lunch.

We also booked our hotel in Sauris.

Then the real work began. This climb would take us almost two hours with an average gradient of 8.8%. Doable for us, but tough. What made it extra difficult was that the temperatures were between 85F and 90F with noon sun.

So yeah we were just drenched and having to work hard trying to stay hydrated. Thankfully at the top we could celebrate at a small restaurant/bar/hotel in a shady, breezy spot with a cool beverage.

The downhill was fierce, but we were greeted by a beautiful turquoise lake.

And also a very fun, windy, unlit single lane tunnel that was probably 300m? 1000ft? There’s a reason this road doesn’t get used that much!

Our last stretch would send us to Sauris and, once again, give us a head start on tomorrow’s first climb.  We checked into our hotel, went shopping at the village market and relaxed the rest of the day.

Tomorrow we head back west to the Cadore valley, Cortina and eventually a bit north even?