Ten popular climbs in and around the Dolomites

From Cortina d’Ampezzo, Falzarego begins with the road towards Pocol. The town gives way to a climb across the mountainside, with the Cinque Torri country higher up and the pass ahead. It is a long approach whose interest lies in the changing setting: inhabited valley, wooded slopes, then the rock around the crossing.

The road reaches Falzarego between Lagazuoi and Col Gallina. From there, the route towards Valparola continues into another piece of high mountain country. The two names often sit together on an itinerary, but this entry counts the Cortina approach to Falzarego itself; the onward climb is a separate part of the ride.

There is a useful generosity to a through-road pass. Arrival offers several possible next chapters, rather than a single return down the same hillside. Falzarego can carry a ride away from Cortina towards Alta Badia, or form one side of a larger circuit. Its place here belongs to that eastern approach, not the ascent from Cernadoi.

Tre Cime di Lavaredo is a climb towards a refuge beneath the mountains, rather than a crossing between valleys. The counted route starts around Misurina and follows the road towards Rifugio Auronzo. Its profile includes descending sections: the final uphill road is only part of the approach, and its character cannot be captured by the average gradient alone.

In 2013, Vincenzo Nibali won the Giro’s twentieth stage here in falling snow, wearing the pink jersey. The following day he completed his overall victory in Brescia. That finish gives the ascent a particular racing memory, but an ordinary ride ends with the same geographical fact: the surfaced road reaches the refuge, not the summits of the three peaks.

This is a destination with a definite arrival. Beyond the buildings and parking area, the mountains belong to a different kind of journey on foot. The access road is seasonal, so check its opening and any cycling restrictions before setting out. A summer photograph is no promise that the upper road will be open on the day of a visit.

Tre Croci leads out of Cortina towards Misurina, climbing into the country between Cristallo and Sorapiss. It has a quieter narrative shape than the refuge road above Misurina: an ascent, a pass, and the prospect of continuing into another valley. Woodland keeps much of the road close to the hillside before the crossing gives the landscape more room.

The entry follows the Cortina side. Reaching Tre Croci does not complete the separate ascent to Rifugio Auronzo, even when both roads appear in the same day’s itinerary. Keeping the climbs distinct makes sense of the geography: the pass is a way into the Misurina area; Tre Cime is a further destination.

Its position makes Tre Croci a natural chapter in a ride that starts in Cortina. The attraction need not be a famous attack or a summit photograph. There is enough in the change of valley, the wooded ascent and the shape of the road ahead. A pass can be memorable precisely because the journey continues beyond it.

Valparola’s Alta Badia approach starts near La Villa and travels through San Cassiano towards the high road. The valley gives way to woodland and then a more open landscape, where the stone of the mountains takes over from the buildings below. It is a gradual change of scale rather than an ascent that reveals everything at its first bend.

Near the upper road stands Forte Tre Sassi, now a museum of the First World War. The building places another history beside the cycling road: this was frontier country, and the traces of that conflict remain part of the landscape. The counted approach comes from the Alta Badia side, not the shorter continuation uphill from Falzarego.

The two passes nevertheless belong naturally to the same journey. Beyond Valparola, the road leads towards Falzarego and the Cortina side of the mountains. For a rider leaving La Villa, that connection gives the climb its purpose: an ascent from a settled valley into high country, followed by a choice of roads further on.

Mendola changes the landscape of this countdown. West of Bolzano, it belongs to the neighbouring mountains outside the core Dolomites. The counted approach rises from the Appiano side, climbing away from the lower country towards the pass. Its inclusion reflects the wider area covered by our selection, rather than a claim that every road here lies within the same mountain group.

The pass links the South Tyrolean side with the Val di Non. There is another route upwards too: the historic Mendola funicular climbs from Caldaro. Road and railway give the mountain two different rhythms, one built around a succession of bends, the other around a direct ascent from the valley.

On a cycling trip based around Bolzano or Appiano, Mendola offers a change from the passes around the Sella. The road belongs to a different landscape and a different set of connections. That variety is worth preserving: a journey through this part of Italy need not treat every ascent as another version of the same high Dolomite crossing.

Pordoi climbs from Canazei towards the gap between Val di Fassa and Arabba. The road works across the hillside in a sequence of bends, with the Sella group above it. The approach counted here starts on the Canazei side; the ascent from Arabba has its own road, profile and tally.

At the pass, a monument remembers Fausto Coppi. Nearby, Gilberto Simoni’s bicycle is preserved in a rock-and-steel memorial. They give racing history a physical place beside the road, allowing a stop at the crossing to become something more than a photograph of the summit sign.

Pordoi is one of the four passes of the Sellaronda road circuit. Its place in that loop means the ascent can be both a destination and a passage towards another climb. From Canazei, the bends lead into a larger journey around the Sella; from the top, Arabba and Campolongo give the ride its next direction.

On the southern side of Giau, the road rises from the Selva di Cadore area into increasingly open country. Woodland gives way to the upper slopes and the rock around the pass. The steepness shown in the profile is sustained enough to shape the whole ascent, giving this crossing a different rhythm from the gentler passages elsewhere in the countdown.

Giau appears on the long Maratona dles Dolomites route. Here, however, the counted segment is the southern ascent itself, not the entire event or a total for both sides of the pass. The road from Cortina is a separate approach, even though both deliver riders to the same high crossing.

At the top, the landscape opens around the road rather than closing into a narrow gap. That sense of space is part of Giau’s character: the climb keeps the hillside close for much of the ascent, then releases it. A stop at the pass offers time to look beyond the next descent and take in the country that the road has climbed through.

Gardena takes the road out of Corvara through Colfosco and towards the pass above the valley. The walls of the Sella group give the ascent its scale. Villages, bends and rock occupy different distances from the rider, making the climb feel like a gradual movement into the mountains rather than a sudden departure from them.

This is the Corvara approach, leading towards Val Gardena. It is distinct from the climb out of Selva on the other side. The pass is another member of the Sellaronda quartet, with its popularity recorded here on one road rather than combined across the whole crossing.

There is pleasure in a mountain road that connects two valleys so clearly. The landscape changes over the pass, but the road keeps the journey continuous. Gardena can be the main ascent of an outing from Corvara or one part of a circuit around the Sella, carrying a ride into another valley without losing the mountains from view.

The Sella count begins at the junction where the roads towards Pordoi and Sella divide above Canazei. It therefore covers the upper ascent from the Val di Fassa side, rather than the whole climb out of the village. This matters when reading the numbers: a segment can be deeply familiar to riders without including every kilometre they climbed to reach it.

The road continues towards the crossing between Val di Fassa and Val Gardena, with the Sella group and Sassolungo shaping the surrounding skyline. Its setting gives this part of the Sellaronda a distinctive scale. The ascent belongs to a route around a mountain group, yet the rock beside the pass makes the crossing a place in its own right.

Sella has more unique riders than Campolongo in this snapshot, even though it places second by total attempts. The distinction is small but revealing: popularity can mean the number of people who have ridden a road, or the number of recorded rides upon it. Here the latter determines the order, while Sella’s rider count gives another way to read the same landscape.

Campolongo leads this countdown on the ascent from Corvara. The road climbs towards the crossing above Arabba, linking Alta Badia with the southern side of the Sella circuit. Compared with several neighbours, its profile is compact, but the road’s position gives it a large role in the way cyclists move through these mountains.

The long Maratona dles Dolomites route climbs Campolongo twice. That does not prove why its Strava total leads, but it illustrates the distinction between unique riders and repeated attempts: the same road can be part of a day more than once. Its place on the Sellaronda adds another connection, joining Gardena, Sella and Pordoi around the mountain group.

The tally belongs to the Corvara side, not the shorter climb from Arabba. Viewed that way, the leading number has a precise home: a road out of a village, a sequence of bends, and a pass that connects the ride to the next valley. Campolongo earns the final place in the countdown through recorded journeys, while the road itself remains an invitation to make another.