The Sella Ronda — the circuit of the Sella massif crossing four major passes — is considered one of the great cycling loops in Europe. On a weekday in September, with the summer crowds gone and the first cold of autumn biting the higher elevations, it is extraordinary. The Passo Gardena, Passo Sella, Passo Pordoi, and Passo Campolongo form a circuit of roughly 55 kilometres that can be ridden clockwise or anti-clockwise, each direction offering its own rhythm of climbing and descent.
Light That Cannot Be Photographed
There is a quality of light in the Dolomites that photographers have been chasing for a century and never quite capturing. The pale limestone towers — the Langkofel, the Sella group, the Marmolada in the distance — turn from white to gold to amber to deep rose at either end of the day. I was on the Passo Pordoi at around 6pm, having stayed out longer than planned because I simply could not make myself go back, when the last direct sunlight hit the Marmolada glacier. I stopped pedalling, clipped out, and stood there for perhaps ten minutes.
"Every turn in the Dolomites is a postcard. After three days of riding, you stop reaching for your phone because you accept that no image will ever do justice to what you are seeing with your own eyes."
The climbs themselves are not the longest in the Alps — the Pordoi from Arabba is only 9 kilometres — but the gradients are consistent and the altitude is real. At 2,239 metres, the thin air on the upper section demands a level of respect that the statistics do not immediately suggest.
The Food Factor
A Dolomites cycling holiday is also, unavoidably, a food holiday. The region sits at the cultural crossroads of Italian and Tyrolean tradition. Rifugio lunches of speck, local cheese, and polenta with braised venison are not exactly sports nutrition, but they are perfectly suited to the spirit of the place. I ate like a king every day and did not apologise for a moment of it.
If you have a week for a cycling trip and you have not considered the Dolomites, I urge you to reconsider. The roads, the scenery, the food, the culture — it is the complete package, and nowhere does it better.