rons bikes blog dot com

currently on a trip we’d kinda planned for in 2020, but things happened and all, so here we are 4 years later picking up where we left off in some ways, and not in others. after attempting the Swiss Alpine bike route in 2017, Tenzin (formerly Arya) and I really wanted to get back and explore areas just over the boarder in the Italian Dolomites. better food and cheaper in general — and it’s ITALY! we love italy. when the opportunity arose to sponsor our friends (team dream team) endeavor as a pop up shop as Ultradynamico, we jumped at it. an opportunity to mix work with play in the lovely mountain town of Tirano at the base of the most famous climbs of the Giro.

team dream is a roadie brand, and as I have expressed in a pervious post, I knew I would have to work all year to get my roadie legs back so that I could ride with my more fitness forward friends out here. albeit we would mostly be on grav bikes, it would be a roadie mentality with the high passes and all the roadie lore around here. I jumped right back in, but I assure you my legs are still wooly (fun fact : I began shaving my legs sophomore year of high school until about 12 years ago). what I am saying is that I have roadie in my blood somewhere, and I knew I’d have to call upon those days under the razor.

this trip after much deliberation I took my ALUMAX (a bike you should buy at rons bikes dot com!) with 700×42 cava race slicks. I knew we’d be doing mostly road, but wanted to be ready for the grav when it arose. plus this bike is so damn light — lighter than both my steel road bikes. I opted for TPU tubes so I wouldn’t have to fuss with tubeless while traveling. so far so good. the fat tires are also a blast to descend on.

we are checking off a bunch of iconic passes, this one the incredibly steep 11 percent average for 5000 ft Motirolo. I consider myself a Marco Pantani fan. he was very romantic — as much of an inspiration to me in 1997 as he is today — well certainly this day.

I got dropped immediately. enjoy my photos.

27 switchbacks. my low gear is a 29×34. really coming in handy! I personally loved this climb. sure it was steep — but mostly in the shade and with zero traffic. lots of cute springs and fountains along the way too.

met back up with my friends towards the top. hope they didn’t have to wait too too long.

the top was nutso! once we were up there we found the most lovely ridge road I have ever been on (paved). it was mostly flat for about 12 miles (we still talk in MILES here) before we plugged back down an incredible twisty descent to gelato.

ohhhkay thats all for now! check out my strava for more granular DATA!

ciao ciao,

Ronnie