Last year, while planning the 2024 Tour I created a few routes on Komoot to take us from Selva di Cardore into Slovenia based on reading Jobst’s ride reports. What makes his trip reports so special compared to many random ride reports you might find on various other websites is that Jobst provides in some extremely terse language sufficient information to replicate the routes of his tours While his reasoning for picking a route can be puzzling at times, over the years I picked up on the principles that he used: first, to climb the steep side of passes while descending the gentler sides for maximum flow during descents. Secondly, he favors roads with scenery over roads where in his words, you would ride just for exercise value. This meant that if a route was difficult you could be assured that the effort was worth it for the views. Finally, Jobst had done so much riding over the years that he knew which routes attracted a tailwind under most conditions. You would reverse a Jobst route at your own peril!
Leaving Barcis after the baggage dropoff, we immediately found a series of shorter tunnels before the 4.5km tunnel. In the early morning, the traffic was not disturbing and having been prepared for the tunnels we had our lights on and pacelined through the tunnels, which were flat or slightly downhill.
After that tunnel, we regrouped with Stephan and Otto. Of course, what did we find but almost immediately another tunnel! “I’m so glad we didn’t miss all the tunnels!” said Otto. From there on, we had a fantastic descent down to Manago, where we rode past a Spar. “Don’t ride past a supermarket!” I told Mark. “I didn’t even see it!” I’d forgotten how long it takes a new tourist to start noticing important details to a cycling group. I remember years ago when another companion didn’t notice a water fountain right across the street before I pointed it out to her!
The route Komoot picked out for us turned out to be fantastic, however, transitioning from farm country bike path to minor climbs along a gorge which granted us brief but fun descents. Judging from the various bike route signs along the way we were a long some well established bikeway that I hadn’t known about but obviously Komoot had picked out. There was even some gravel, a low overhead tunnel, and we ended up having lunch at a place that advertised that they only opened for cyclists!
The early clouds in the day warmed up and by the time we got to Tarcento to meet Otto Sr who pointed us at an ice cream spot that was satisfying, it was warm. It was warm enough that despite our weariness that I pushed hard to stay higher up on the pass, at Rifugio Dei Pian Ciclamani, which had awesome reviews. Stephan prevaricated about spending the night there, but I immediately picked up the phone and made a reservation for the 6 of us. “I trust that you are coming. I don’t need a credit card. I save the space for you,” came the voice from the other side of the phone.
Stephan had broken his Pixel 6a, which was already on its last legs at the start of the trip, so he had to find a phone shop in Tarcento before heading up to the Rifugio. Stores in Tarcento closed for a long lunch break only to re-open at 3:00pm, which was coincidentally the time at which we finished our ice cream.
We grabbed our luggage from the RV, just enough to spend the night, then headed up the road that would lead us to Slovenia. Jobst describes it as a pleasant road and to our delight it exceeded our expectations. It was shaded in all the right places, following Canyon walls and with grades that never exceeded 8% but were usually in the 6% range, so even with luggage we could spin up the pass with ease.
The Rifugio was actually 1.2km from the pass, and when we got there, Mark had already visited the pass and come back. Boen and I chose not to do it reasoning that we would get to climb that last bit in the morning. Instead we got checked in, got shown our rooms (which were much better than the dormitory-style hostel we expected), and ordered the half pension. By the time Xiaoqin and Bowen had arrived we were all settled in with devices starting to charge and Boen had already taken a shower. The sun was strong and we had a balcony with which to dry out our laundry.
We were about to sit down for dinner when we spotted Otto Sr in the parking lot with the RV having a beer. Who knew how long he had been there! We invited him to sit down with us but he demurred saying that Stephan and Otto will be here soon.
Indeed we were in the middle of dinner when Stephan and Otto showed up, delighted by the very pleasant climb and with the former brandishing a newly purchased Pixel 9a.
We finished dinner and took a walk through the nature display. Boen had a mishap where he crashed while walking, crying like he had lost a leg but when we looked at the wounds they were all surface scratches and he would be more than ready to ride hard again the next day.
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