Following on the heels of the Fedaia experience on June 28th, we moved ourselves to Corina d'Ampezzo later that afternoon. I'll have to give a rundown of the hotels where we stayed, perhaps offer some kind of ratings and some possible alternatives. In Cortina, we stayed at Hotel Aquila. I'll have to do this summary in the next post.
We rode again the next day, Tuesday, June 29th. This was another instance where I didn't know what to expect. I told Linda it wouldn't be too bad.
Oops.
I looked up details after we got back home. Tre Croci is 8.1 kms (just over 5 miles), 1886 feet, 7.1% average, 12% max.
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/258805
The full climb to Tre Cime di Lavaredo is 7.5 kms, 7.5% average. It's in the last 4 kms, though, where the difference is made. In those 4 kms the average is 11.7% and we climbed almost 1600 feet. That was a tough, tough 2.5 miles.
There's a mild climb at the start, then it drops down to a park entry where vehicles have to pay to enter the park. Bikes were free. After a short distance, the road kicks up from KM 4 to the end.
Tre Croci wasn't too bad, pretty benign. Tre Cime was an eye-opener. The bugger was that, once I got to the top, you had to hike another several miles to get to the actual landmark! Well if I'd known that I wouldn't have gone!! I wasn't about to hike in my cycling shoes, stocking feet, or barefoot. So I had to suck it up, take a few pics and head back down.
The trail leading to Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
Looking back from where we'd come.
This was another instance where the descent reveals how steep the climb really is. The turns were in quick succession, requiring a good deal of braking. Thankfully, the white-knuckle portion was fairly short.
The Tre Cime di Lavaredo, which I have seen only in pictures.
In the end, we rode only 25 miles, but climbed almost 3500 feet. The ride back to Cortina after Tre Cime was uneventful and almost all downhill (mild downhill). It was a beautiful day, but a decpetively tough ride. Tre Cime was a bugger.
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