Taio

June 20, 2025

Our host in Ossana, Monica, has been wonderful and her B&B is beyond beautiul. The attention to detail in the decor, against the exposed wooden structural beams is warm and welcoming. Not to mention that we had a great sleep because it’s silent here once the thunder subsided last night.

The evening storms really sneak up on you. We didn’t consider bringing rain gear with us when we left the room for dinner last night. But then, we started hearing raindrops on the canopy over the dining area. I said, “That’s odd, we haven’t heard any thunder”, to which the cloud replied with a massive grumbling crack. It poured and so we waited. The locals are very adept at waiting out the storms, so we followed their lead.

Eventually, the deluge subsided and we made it back up the hill to our B&B.

Those evening storm are essential to the climate here. They clear the moisture from the air and you get to wake up to scenes like the one below. As the temperature soars the following day, the moisture evaporates and fills the air. And, it happens all over again. It’s quite the cycle. Gorgeous morning views, misty afternoons and stormy evenings. It’s often spread out over two or three or maybe even, four nights.

We opened the drapes to see this view. The rain last night cleared the air.

Monica had been by before we were up and left everything we’d need for breakfast in the breakfast nook. There’s one fridge for each room and she puts whatever you request for breakfast in your fridge.

Breakfast nook at El Benel, showing the gorgeous wood beams that were used throughout the building. It’s tall, so would have taken some serious monkey-work to build! First floor is level with the lower street, second floor on the upper street of the town. Third floor would be level with the third street… a very steep village!

We couldn’t take our eyes off the view from our room.

Once we were satiated and had finished our second coffee, we said ‘ciao’ to Monica and dug the bikes out of her storage room. A short amble up the hill and we were on our way downhill again, along the bike path that paralleled the Noce river.

The gardeners were busy pruning and caring for the geraniums on this covered bridge.

I can’t resist a picture or twho of the veggie gardens here. As most are, this one is thriving,

A lazy morning ride, as the cowbell rang out. Even the cows live a good life here. Check out their barn!

The Noce is popular for rafting and it looks like competerice kayaking/canoeing is as well. It looks like this might be used as a competitive course.

As we meandered lazily down the beautiful bike way, we began noticing quite a number of riders cominrg our way. Many of them looked very fit, and young, I might add. David noticed a Team Canada jersey whiz past us and we knew something was up. About 2k after that, we came upon the source of all this incredible talent. It was the start of the 3-day UCI World Mountain Bike event at Val di Sole.

What timing! Three days of World Cup Downhill racing starts today in Val di Sole, one of the top race courses in the world.

Neither of us had any idea this was going on until we happened across it, but what a thrill it was! We watched from the trail for a minute or two. We saw the downhillers catching air on their final jump to the finish line and then decided we needed to cruise through the pits. Meanwhile, riders surrounded us, heading upstream and downstream on the bike path. Across the river, they were set up for camping, some sitting in the river to stay cool.

We had a peek-a-boo view of the warm-up runs for the downhillers. What a thrill!

You name any big name in cycling and they were here. Even Suntour, which we thought had died many moons ago. Apparently not. They’ve seen resurrected. Muc-Off is more recent, but one whose lube we use.

Muc-off, one of the big sponsors. Yes, David uses Muc-off to clean the drivetrains.

We cruised through the many layers of pits, watching the specialized mechanics at work. There is so much mechanical expertise required in this sport and the best of the best were here.

Mechanic tent after mechanic tent. This sport is tough on equipment.

There were large grandstands to view the event, along with the media stands, but we found the best views from the cheap seats on the bike trail. So we headed back to watch the practise runs for a few more minutes. There were courses for Downhill, Cross Country and Short Track. Each is a specialty unto its own. We couldn’t help but notice the difference, not just in the bike equipment but also in the type of riders that are attracted to each specialty. The downhillers are definitely the bad-ass riders of the pack! The others display more finesse. I was really excited to see so many young women, looking as fit as possible, pursuing their dreams. It took me back to some competitive moments of my own, reliving some uber competetive racing times in my life. I felt overjoyed for those young women, whose futures look bright.

The riders edited the forest and then had two jumps. On the final one they flew through the air about 30m to land on the steep pitch below.

This guy is a showman, a little twist of the bars as he enters the final jump.

This is the lower part of the technical cross country course.

We pushed off, continuing our downhill ride next to the river. We passed by a number os small villages on the opposite side of the valley.

Having fun on the Noce river. It’s well known here for excellent rafting.

Random glorious scenery on today’s ride.

As we neared the foot of the valley, it narrowed and our route headed up the hillside through the apple orchards and the forest. These apple trees are all espaliered and all are grafted stock. I describe these as apple trees with knobby ankles. It don’t know if it’s obvious from the photo, but virtually every tree has a knob about 4-6” from the soil where it’s been grafted. Apparently, there are many varieties of apple grown here.

And strawberries, too. These are all growing in elevated troughs. The plants are dripping with berries.

There’s logging all through these mountain forests. Don’t know how they do it or where, as not a leaf is touched in these log storage sites.

Deep canyon where the the Noce curves around and heads south.

It’s much deeper than you can judge by this photo. Not a place for someone with fear of heights to hang out.

We turned onto a highway after taking a break at the bridge and began to climb ever so gently. The highway was shaded and wide enough that the traffic was of no concern. It was, however getting very warm out. We could see another highway across the valley, diverting traffic from the bucolic farming going on below. The valley opened out as it curved around and the hillsides became one immense apple orchard again.

We rode into Cles and stopped at the central square for a tall lemonade in the shade. Then we moved on towards our destination, the small farming village of Taio. The highway traffic was getting rather thick, but it was of no consequence because the cycle.travel app had routed us through the narrow roads of the apple orchards to a bridge across the Noce. As we descended the steep slopes of the orchards, it reminded us of our rides through the ancient olive orchards of Puglia. We crossed the bridge and were led into the orchards once again. They were lush and somewhat cooling compared to the highway.

This may be Coredo, a town, across the way from us.

Just a guess, but this may be Campo on the nearby ridge.

Image not found :( — You can’t win ‘em all. The road crews were out in full force, closing roads and the local bikeways.

We arrived at Taio at 2pm, but our host said check-in was at 3pm so we hung out in the shade at the Despar grocery store for awhile. We bought some drinks, then just hung out and waited. This is the first time a host has not accommodated an early check-in.

While we waited at the Despar, I wished the radicchio starts well. These needed to be planted yesterday… or better yet, last week.

It was very hot and humid out so I whatsapp’ed the host at 2:30 to inquire when we could come by. He said he’d be there in 15 minutes. We were relieved to get out of the heat.

Manuel introduced himself and showed us to our room. I asked if these apple orchards are his and he beamed as he said, yes. He is first and foremost a farmer and second, runs a B&B. Every time we turned the conversation to apples, he smiled. He told us the best apples for this climate are the golden delicious and he described how the ones grown high in the slopes have a blush of pink, resulting from the sun’s rays heating the moisture under the skin of the apple. Truly, an apple officinado. I have a deep respect for farmers.

We rested in the B&B, trying to stay cool as the sun dropped over the hills. There is just one restaurant here, and it’s above the Desoar grocery store. So that’s where we headed for dinner at 6:30. It’s run by an Indian family and offers Indian and Italian cuisine and also pizza. We shared a salad, then I ordered the chicken tikka masala and David stuck with beef and potatoes. Both were very good. For a final cooldown, I had lemon sorbetto and David went with the affogato again. Good thing we didn’t have far to waddle back to the B&B, just down the hill from the restaurant.

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Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 866 km (538 miles)

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Anne AnastasiouWhat a lovely and fun day. Loved listening to Dire Straits and seeing the captions on the video.
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1 month ago

Patty BarronDuring this ride, it did indeed sound & look like there was a lot of joy & the surprising fun of seeing the competition riders!
Music & captions were fun!
It is inimaginable how one would be able to navigate those small, twisty alleyways without some high-tech gps gear?
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1 month ago