Europe

Dave Mitchell and Ditte van der Meulen round out their time in Italy exploring tracks and chasing cheese around Passo del Tonale.

Dave Mitchell and Ditte van der Meulen regale us with part two of their Italian adventure. This time they're revisiting the iconic four passes of the Dolomites’ Sellaronda.

Huw Kingston leads a tour through Italy, weaving a winding line through the Apennines on singletrack, dirt tracks, gravel roads and a bit of asphalt, with an unexpected dose of fango, before heading north to the Dolomites for a big mountain finisher.

Dave Mitchell and Ditte van der Meulen flee the Kiwi winter to basecamp themselves at Canazei in the heart of the Italian Dolomites.

The bustling city of Aosta sits in the valley of the same name and is surrounded by monster mountains with quaint villages and farmhouses perched on their rocky slopes. Ditte and I have had a couple of previous sessions exploring the valley’s magnificent trails and so were pretty excited to return last year for an encore.

Beyond St Moritz where all the beautiful people hang out and the bike shops are full of carbon and titanium shiny stuff, a lonely mountain pass (Julierpass) leads to the train-less settlement of Bivio.

We were ensconced at alpine resort Vulpera, opposite Scuol but on the wrong side of the railway tracks and river.  The faded once grand hotels and 80s budget apartments have been left to the vampires, vultures, chain smoking Italian road workers, and us mountain bikers. A bouncy castle, mini golf and kids swimming pool had invaded our front lawn, but an amazing piece of single trail descended from this to the mineral springs and back along the other side of the river into Scuol, bliss.