Passo Giau

This is what it’s all about. The top of a mountain pass in the Dolomites. Roads are great, sweeping hairpins and bikes are plentiful. I (Dave) like to think I was riding pretty well but that didn’t stop a guy on a Panigale acing us on the penultimate bend.  A bit rich, considering we were two-up carrying bloody great Touratechs. This was the best day we had had so far. The Dolomites at their best. We love riding over the high mountain passes in The Alps and luckily today the weather stayed dry for it. The Passo Giau is over 2,200m. The ride up was pretty easy, compared to some, like the Grossglockner and Stelvio Pass which we conquered last year. The views at the top were just as good, however. There were a lot of bikes out, as it was a Saturday, but that just made it more fun.It was interesting to see that almost everyone at the top of the pass was over 40- cyclists, hikers and bikers. Wonder what young people do at the weekends. The cyclists are always impressive when you watch them cycling up. They must be mad of course. Some were even pulling little trailers!

This is by far the most stunning part of The Dolomites and, for us, so far, the whole Alps but we have yet to get to France. The Dolomites are not as high as the French Alps but they are very vertical, so more impressive than you would expect for their height.
We had a very nice espresso at the top of the pass and we ate some locally made dark chocolate while we soaked up the scenery.

We finished the day at our beloved Camping Bellamonte near Predazzo.