To Bassano del Grappa

September 25, 2021

Today I said good-bye to the Alps, at least for now.

My destination was Bassano del Grappa, a medium sized city located where Venetian PreAlps meet the Venetian Plain. I’d been considering a number of options that would take me south from Feltre and each had potential drawbacks, with the variables being distance, hills, and traffic. The most interesting option was through Rocca and past Lago di Corlo – it was the shortest but did include what appeared to be a near vertical climb on my RWGPS profile. I'd gotten advice from the guest house host and the proprietor of my breakfast café who both deemed the route to be “perfecto”. And so I headed to Rocca.

It was grey and cloudy, with some chance of sunshine later in the day. The initial route out of Feltre took me towards Arsiè along small roads that comprise the variant VIA Claudia August route. According to signage, I was now cycling a section of the Anello del Grappa, a 135 km cycle route that circles the base of Mount Grappa – a route where you’re advised to have “a good base of miles in the legs prior to attempting.” It appeared to be a very popular route - I must have crossed paths today with 75 or more cyclists coming or going – all on light weight road bikes and many clad in skin tight kits of their favorite UCI race team. And then there was me – gamely pedaling along in my windbreaker and loaded down with panniers. I had flashbacks to the scene in Breaking Away where Dave crashes the Italian Cycling Team training ride, only to be forced off the road when he out-paces them. But unlike the movie, I overtook no one and most cyclists gave me a friendly shout-out and/or helmet nod.

The route took me six miles west of Feltre to Fonzano, then headed south along Cismon River, skirting Arsiè before coming to Rocco where a damn in the Cismon River had created the Lago di Corlo. I dropped down to the lake, following a small lakeside trail until it petered out towards the south end of the lake where the valley narrowed considerably.

The Anello del Grappo circuit was a hugely popular ride on this fine day. For the first time on this tour, the number of road bikes far outnumbered e-bikes, by a very wide margin

Wonderful biking route for those with “a good base of miles in the legs"

Near Arsiè, looking toward Lago di Corlo and the Cismon River valley

An Roman stone marker denoting the Via Claudia Augusta

Lago di Corlo, with Chiesa Di San Cassiano on the left

Looking south over Lago di Corlo. The route crosses the bridge on the right, heading around the bend before climbing through the narrow Cismon River valley

After crossing a small bridge, I started climbing. I did not really know what to expect but recalled the RWGPS elevation profile that showed a moderate climb followed by a short descent and then a near vertical climb. It actually went like this – After an initial one mile climb averaging about 5%, I passed through the small community of Incino and headed downhill on a very narrow lane until coming to a barrier that prevented cars, but not bikes from proceeding. Continuing downhill, I safely clearing some pretty impressive rock overhangs, and snaked down a series of almost impossibly tight switch backs until finally flattening out in Cismon del Grappo. It was quite the ride!!

I crossed the Cismon River just above the point where it joins the Brenta River and found a nice picnic table to enjoy my sandwich and marvel at the hillside that I’d just descended. I didn't even try to figure out what route RWGPS was following.

The road ends here - at least for vehicular traffic

Vehicle barrier at southern end of the route

Looking back at the hillside I'd just descended. You might be able to make out some of the lines denoting where the road goes

Relaxed and fed, I crossed the Brenta River and headed south along the river on Brenta bicycle route. It was a delightful ride along a small road - one heavily used by cyclists as evidenced by the “warning cyclist” signs posted every few miles. I stopped for a bit at Valsugana to watch the kayak and rafting racers. As far as I could tell, two rafts of school-aged children racing down the Brenta were neck and neck at the finish line, with both teams enjoying a plunge into the water after the race’s end.

Past Valsugana, the route alternated between bike paths and small roads before taking me across the the Brenta River on Ponte Veccio and into Bassano del Grappo. It was a memorable finish to my first crossing of the Alps – perfecto!

It's the yellow team, it's the blue team, it's a tie!!??!!

An Italian villa on the outskirts of Bassano del Grappa

Crossing the Brenta River on the Ponte Vecchio into Bassana del Grappa

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Today's ride: 33 miles (53 km)
Total: 446 miles (718 km)

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Rich FrasierI’ve had RWGPS show me those vertical climbs before. They’ve always turned out to be tunnels. Maybe that section under the rock overhang got interpreted as a tunnel?
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2 years ago

Susan CarpenterTo Rich FrasierThat's what I was thinking Rich - that the GPS couldn't find the road and was just reading off the elevation of the hill/mountain side. Interestingly,. the RWGPS route gave me a huge peak going through the Taueran Tunnel when I went from Bad Gastein to Mallnitz but the ride elevation had leveled the peak thru the tunnel. Here, the peak was the same on the route and the ride.
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2 years ago