The weather looked promising when I walked out onto the  balcony this morning. Yesterday I could not see the base of this mountain.

Big breakfast with lots of coffee and we were ready to roll. I quite liked this statue as we headed off from Cortina.

Immediately the road climbed, steeply! This was the view after 200 meters of climbing.

Then there was this sign……hopefully not!

When the ride starte today in Cortina we were at 1224m above sea level. We were riding up to Passo Tre Croci at 1809 metres.  On the previous ride to Passo Falzarego (2117m) the snow was at 1800m.  Today the snow started at 1600m. It appeared that there had been significant snow falls yesterday.

First goal achieved. The Giro d’Italia riders do this same climb on Sunday ( well I think it is Sunday?)…

Very scenic and a nice climb. 7.95 km from Cortina and 584 metres of climbing in that short distance. The weather was nice for climbing, little traffic.

Some beautiful views on the descent. You can see the dry river beds caused from avalanches of snow. Many had heavy machinery clearing tonnes of gravel material.

It was a nice long descent. Many sections were under repair as quite pot holed in places…new bitumen was nice to ride on.

At 864m we arrived in Auronzo di Cadore where we stopped for coffee. An interesting town that boasts ski slopes, old churches and a huge dam.

Many towns were gearing up for the Giro with town beautification projects including lots of new plants in garden beds, rose coloured ribbons and flowers being tied to railings and so on, as well as a massive road resealing program.

This caught my eye.

And then this…

As you can see above, there is no verge on the road here.  As I recommended riding from taking the photo above, Geoffmshot this photo…nice and close….😩

The weather had started to deteriorate somewhat so just after the rain jacket was donned we came across a cafe…time for minestrone soup…and hey presto, the weather had improved.

We followed a bike track for the last 15 km or so. I took this photo of an old train station, as I was putting my wet weather gear back on. I particularly liked the roof line.

A few km before Cortina I noted the old Olympic ski jump from the 1956 winter games.

Approaching Cortina this view was really nice.

A great ride that I could recommend to anyone..only 83 km or so, nice loop.

In the evening, we shared a meal with a lovely bloke staying at the same hotel, John, from County Clare, Ireland. A retired theoretical physicist, now working as a tour guide in German, French and English. He was a great raconteur with jokes and stories aplenty. He insisted on holding my hand for the photo.

Tomorrow we leave Cortina and ride to Asolo, about 130 km from here, to join up with a Giro d’Italia tour. Exciting for me, as I will be reunited with warmer clothing, as I have paid 375 euro to have my luggage collected from Bern and transported to Asolo.

Leggings, puffer jacket, Scarpa boots….oh I have missed you!! 😊