I was looking for a hotel close to the Sella Ronda, as I have permission to pencil in a “Dolomites Bike Day”, when Paula asked me some details about the amenities in our Bormio apartment.
I navigated to the Italianway website for the page with the apartment’s info, but I couldn’t find it, so I emailed them and they got back to me the next day.
Turned out they were no longer renting out that apartment 😱
Lucky – for them – they were offering an alternative, albeit not in Valdisotto but in Premadio.
While that’s on the other side of Bormio, the apartment itself looked just as good as our “original”, so you can imagine my relief.
However, when I told Volkan that we would not be neighbours after all, he mentioned he also had a problem with his booking, as his party now would be 4 instead of 3.
I checked the website again and found a property with several apartments, each on its own floor, Villa Tola, just south of Valdisotto.
Paula and I settled for the yellow one and Volkan’s party for the blue one…
So, with that out of the way, I went back to looking for an accommodation for a “Dolomites Break”, as we did in 2020, when I cycled the Maratona dles Dolomites, eventually booking the Hotel Millenium.
While another Maratona is not my intention, I have some other cols that I do want to get under the belt.
Like last year, I’m looking at a VeloViewer “100 Greatest” list, the one for the Dolomites with 23 climbs.
The area is too large to be able to get many more on my palmares, currently showing 9, my 1st – from 7 – spot on the Monte Zoncolan included.
(I did cycle 2 more, the Giau and the Sella, but these no longer count for the list.)
As I will effectively have two half days and one full day, I think I will be able to get 4 more on the list.
These are: Passo Manghen, Passo di Valles, Passo di Costalunga and Passo di Falzarego.
The Costalunga is in there as our hotel is in Pozza di Fassa, so it seems like a waste to not cycle it…
And although I’ve cycled the Falzarego, I have not done so in its entirety from Cortina d’Ampezzo.
So, I’ll use the trip to Pozzo di Fassa to cycle the Maghen, Valles and Costalunga – if that turns out to be too much, I’ll cycle the Costalunga on the full day there, together with the Falzarego.
That day I want to visit the Hero Mall in Selva di Val Gardena, so I’ve created another trip starting somewhere near Cortina d’Ampezzo, also including the Costalunga.
The return to Bormio will be used to cycle Val Martello, extended with the Stelvio from Prad if I’m up to it.
Given that Volkan will be in Bormio, waiting for me all fresh, eager to go the next day, I might not cycle the latter, even if I’m up to it 😎
