[Closed] Dolomites for Biking (and climbing)

Try this:
http://www.visitdolomites.com/en
this:
http://www.mtb-dolomites.com/eng/index.html
and this:
http://www.sellarondahero.com/en/race/sellaronda-hero-marathon

they may help. You can do the Sellaronda round both ways

http://www.fassabike.com/parks/canazei/

Might be worth chatting to these guys*...

*Full disclosure - had a beer with them at Eurobike, seemed alright...

I was out in the Dolomites in 2011 for a couple of days, we did 2 or 3 days climbing (via ferrata) and took one day off to do the Sella Ronda MTB tour.

I think we did it clockwise, it's mainly up a cable car, descend by single track and then up another cable car, repeat until you get back to the start. There's still some climbing once you're up there, so it's not all down hill and there was only one section where I felt out of my depth and I suspect I'd find it easier now.

We booked with Break Out sport in La Villa Alto Badia, not sure if they still do it, but the guide was friendly enough (although his English could have been better - lots of hand gestures 🙂

[i]although his English could have been better - lots of hand gestures [/i]

How was your italian? ;oP

How was your italian? ;oP

LOL, fair enough, my Italian was non-existant. Just would have been handy for him to know things like "The trail gets quite bumpy up here" or "You're going to have to take a sharp left at the end". A couple of times it wasn't until I was already going at a fair pace that I worked out what he was trying to tell us and it was almost too late 😉

Went to San Martino last September. They had some interesting stuff for a chap from the flatlands of Suffolk. Enough for 3 or 4 big days out including some stuff that had a fatal penalty for failure on the front of Pale di San Martino.
Theres also a bike park there to get your eye in.

Has anyone else biked around there, with any other guide recommendations/prices? I wonder if the sellaronda might be manageable without a guide, but we'd need one for any other trails certainly.

although his English could have been better - lots of hand gestures

How was your italian?

in half the Dolomites, German is more useful 😉

Stayed in Colfosco a couple of years ago, lovely wee village overlooking the Sella massif with some walking, via feratta and biking around. Quite fancy going back to try some of the climbing routes.

Hired a bike from [url= http://www.breakoutsport.it/en/s_bike.asp?c=2 ]Breakout in Corvara[/url] and went out with a local Ladin guide from [url= http://www.dolomitebiking.com/en/ ]Dolomite Biking[/url] for a days riding.

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The guide was well worth the money to make the most of the days hire, but I reckon you could just grab a lift pass for the week and get out exploring too. Passes didn't seem too expensive. I didn't ride any of the 'bike park' tracks but there were a few I spotted on the map. There is a lot of amazing singletrack in the area. Definitely a bit of pedaling to get to it, but the lifts do most of the work.

Will definitely take a bike [s]if[/s] when I head back out there. Great food and beer in the refuges scattered around the hills and the local lagrein is a lovely drop.

We've been fairly regular visitors to the Dolomites for climbing, mountain biking and walking for...crikey...about 20 years 😯

The climbing and 'via Ferrara' stuff is brilliant, and Canazei is a nice base (imo, Corvara isn't as nice as it once was).
Mountain biking in Corvara, Canazei and Val Gardena is pretty mixed, as some of the valleys and towns like Selva & Val Gardena are trying to encourage MTBers, whereas (according to the bike guides), other valleys don't like mountain bikers, and don't encourage it. FWIR, the valley with Canazei in is one where the local climbing community don't like MTBers! It's not too much of a problem though, because it's a relatively short drive over to Val Gardena, or you can get the cable car/lift out of the valley to drop into Selva.

Selva has a new DH/Freeride course that Is allegedly do-able even for old 29er riding f***s like me! The tourist office also sell a much improved and enlarged MTB route pack - and there are some great rides in there. TBH, if you really want to get the most out of being there, it's definitely worth hiring a local guide, as they can put together routes that include really good 'off the radar' stuff.

We stayed over in the Pustertal Valley last year (brilliant for biking, maybe less so for climbing), and we threw in a couple of days in Selva, as I wanted to do the Sella Ronda MTB tour from there. The Hotel Piccolo was recommended to us, and their guide came round and chatted through options - having checked me and my bike out, he suggested a custom Sella Ronda tour based on the 'Gravity' version of the tour. It turned out into an absolute classic day - we used 8 lifts to give us over 4500m descent with only about 750-800m of uphill pedalling over about 63km.

It's worth noting that the guides get a massive discount on the dat ticket for the lifts that connect the Sella Ronda, and they pass the saving onto the clients as a way of encouraging people to use the guides. The access arrangements in some of the less bike friendly valleys also hinge on the agreement that MTB groups doing the Sella Ronda would be accompanied by a guide - so it's good Karma to use a guide for people who want to enjoy the route in the future. TBH, the saving on the lift pass that you get with a guide pretty much evens out the cost of using a guide.

If you do want to hook up with a guide, I can recommend Enrico Perlini - he speaks English, really helpful with sorting out tyres & kit pre-ride, a total bike nut and he's a real character. PM me if you'd like his email addy.

Was there in 2010 and rode for a week plus a bit of via Ferrata
Lots of nice single track hiking trails, also did the sella ronda but didn't use any lifts so it was a reasonably long day out ! Great fun though. Cracking area.

Thanks for all your thoughts. You have given me loads to think about.