Ampezzo - May 14

What a brutal day. I set off from Udine towards Slovenia since I had mapped out a ride through the Carnic Alps. I crossed the border at some goat herders crossing. Now it's all open anyway, but in the past it was a crossing likely only used by locals. I rode towards Nova Gorica and then turned north towards Kobarid. I'm basically finding way points in biking tour books and then letting the GPS/navi find a route using the curvy route function. I rode up some small (well I thought it was small at that point) mountain road, which had some fairly spectacular vistas. My first taste of the mountains.

All was well until I had crossed back into Italy. I was cruising through a nice flowing forest roadwhen the   GPS informed it had found a better route. Sure, why not. Then it told me to turn around. I thought no way, go recalculate - well it won. After 5 km of nagging, I turned around. Went back to turn onto the upper path. Oh boy. This had barely been opened (the road closed signs were still leaning there). I wound up going 12 km on a road that barely fit a car, had crap all over it and was so windy that I never made it out of first and in fact had to feather the clutch so often that my clutch hand started to cramp up. Half an hour later I stopped to see if I could resurrect  my left hand. At least I made it - guess again - the descent was almost as nasty. After that episode things went well for quite a while and I was on some great rads through alpine valleys, except I was getting pretty tired. I didn't have a lot to eat and hat goat road had zapped quite a bit of energy.

Well, I was a half hour from Ampezzo when it again told me to turn off  on to a goat road - this time it actually was closed. Crap. At this point I found out there was a reroute/road closed function. Great, get me there quick. Sure, first back up 20 km, then take the long way around the mountain - 1h to go. By now, I was beat. It was getting pretty hard to focus and those switchbacks were getting tough. Well, no choice, rally and go. I finally make it to my hotel. It's closed. Shuttered, empty, not a soul around. In the immortal words of Johnny McEnrore - You CANNOT be serious! I'm starting to get delirious now. I ride into town in search of a room. Everyone's booked. No wait, the guy at the pizzeria down the road rents a room. Off I go to 'El Greco'. Ja, wir haben ein Zimmer frei. 30 Euros. Awesome. Thank the Universe! He probably made the worst pizza in Italy - all the toppings were canned, but it was great. The beer was good too. I ate, went to my room and passed out for 10 or 11 hours. The place did have a great view -

GPS:
Nova Gorcia: N 45.69, E 13.65
Kobarid: N 46.2462, E 13.5798
Ampezzo: N 46.41, E 12.79