Passo Pordoi
There are many harder climbs in the Dolomites than the Passo Pordoi, but none as essential or, for that matter, quintessential. There are more beautiful passes, but perhaps none more beguiling. There are older and more strategic roads in northeast Italy, and greater feats of engineering, but none, for the cyclist, whose name captures the essence of mountain riding in the Dolomites like the Pordoi.
The Pordoi is unmistakable. Moseying steadily upwards out of the Val di Fassa and Canazei in the west and the Val Cordevole and Arabba in the east, its trajectories unite in the shadow of the immense Gruppo del Sella and the Sasso Pordoi, commonly known as the terrazza delle Dolomiti or the terrace of the Dolomites. The Gruppo del Sella sprawls the length of the Pordoi while peering over another rocky massif at the northern face of the Marmolada, the Queen of the Dolomites and the highest mountain in the entire range at 3,343 metres.