Limestone & Edelweiss: Must Knows about Mountain Biking in the Italian Dolomites

Scenery: 10/10. Trail quality: Variable. Good times: HAD.

The Dolomites, or “pale mountains,” are uniquely stunning. Dusty grey limestone crags shoot up from bright green high alpine pastures in what used to be a primordial coral reef. Today these mastiffs, which for very good reason are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offer a dreamy blend of  jaw dropping views, rivers and lakes a special color of turquoise only possible when you mix glacial run off with calcium carbonate, and mountain biking on crumbled limestone and hardpacked clay trails. Oh, and you’re never more than a few minutes away from an espresso.

Darcy and I packed up our bikes and headed off to this magical land for two straight weeks of laughing, pedaling, pushing our limits, and giving our Moonspin hemp bike tops and MTB short prototypes a very rigorous testing…

One of the many limestone mastiffs jutting up along the skyline.

 

Here are the “must knows” from our incredible two weeks biking in the Dolomites last September. 

1. Timing is everything.

The Dolomites are right smack in the middle of Europe - an easy hop from major hubs like Munich, Venice, and Milan - and draw crowds from around the world. Plus, they’re incredibly accessible, with gondolas, lifts, roads, and infrastructure seemingly reaching into all but the farthest and highest corners.We opted to visit in September to help avoid what I can only imagine is a busy summer season, and would highly recommend this strategy. That said, we did get hit with quite a bit of rain (and even snow!) during our time there. Apparently this was a little unseasonable, but can happen. And while this type of weather doesn’t typically give us pause, the Dolomite’s unique blend of limestone rocks and clay-like soil do not handle precipitation well! While the rock is typically craggy and the earth hard packed, it turns into soapy slick stone and greasy mud that packs your drivetrain and cakes into your tire tread. We still had a blast and welcomed the additional challenge to the riding, but would recommend planning your chain lube and tire choice to allow for this!

Pro Tip: there are quite a few bike washes around, in the bike parks, at the bases and tops of lifts, at bike shops in town, etc.

2. Our itinerary: A quick stay in Innsbruck followed by Cortina and Canazei.

We flew in and out of Munich on United. I’m not crazy about United and their bike fees can be high (it typically has cost me $200 to fly my bike bag to Europe with them, but has cost me more if my return flight leg is with their partner Lufthansa). But, their flight routes oftentimes are the best. You could also consider flying into Venice (or Milan), but we opted for Munich for two key reasons: 1) to visit friends in Innsbruck, Austria and bike there on the way to Italy and 2) because we are flying out of small airports from the U.S. and wanted to minimize any additional connections in Europe. We flew straight to Munich from our connection in Denver…can’t beat that.

Austria and the Innsbruck area are gorgeous and absolutely worth a stop over, but driving straight to Italy is a perfectly reasonable choice, too. After a couple of days in Innsbruck biking with our Austrian friends, we drove our incredibly fancy BMW SUV that we got a free upgrade on through the tight and fast toll roads and mountain passes to our first stop: Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Riding and smiling in Innsbruck with our friends Manuel and Karin, the best local guides <3

Cortina was recommended as a must-see, but to be honest we found it overly ritzy and developed. Cortina hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics and will host them again in 2026. So, there’s just a lot of infrastructure and development (picture a European Whistler, maybe? Not necessarily a bad thing, but a certain vibe). The restaurants were more crowded, the lodging more expensive, and it just felt a little less than authentic. But, the riding was fun and super challenging, offering a blend of gondolas, lifts, hike-a-bikes, forest roads, and some limit-pushing downhills.

Our evenings were spent drinking wine on the grassy expanse at our mountainside AirBnB tucked in small community on the outskirts of Cortina, where we’d practice our wheelies on the perfectly sloped lawn that was kept meticulously mowed by two robotic lawnmowers that would cruise back and forth into the late evening hours (and whom we affectionately named Mario and Luigi).

Drinking wine and practicing our wheelies while Mario and Luigi, the robot lawnmowers, tended to the grounds.

After two days of riding, we bid arrivederci to Mario and Luigi and headed toward Canazei, in the Val di Fassi. The drive is only an hour and a half, but we stopped off partway for what was, in some ways, one of my favorite rides of the trip. We cranked our knobby tires up the popular road ride, Passo Giau, where spandex-clad Euros gaped at our mountain bikes as they passed us (not as quickly as they probably would have liked!). At the top, we took a rickety lift up another stretch, and poked our way through challenging craggy trails across and down high alpine meadows, then into the woods and finally back into the valley.

Darcy prepping her bike, Felix, for a long road ride up the Passo Giau.

Having a Gingerino apertif at the top of the pass before hopping on the lift to the hit the trail. Moonspin top and short prototypes feeling good both on and off the bike.

“Italian flow trail?” Darcy commented in her deadpan wit, referring to the highly technical trail full of huge limestone babyheads.

Scenery: 10/10, Trail quality: Variable. But oh so worth it.

That scenery, though.

As soon as we hit Canazei, we felt a much more welcome vibe. While still very touristy, there was an authenticity and playful vibe that we just didn’t experience in the same way in Cortina. We pulled up to our AirBnB on the hillside just two blocks from the main drag, and parked our BMW not knowing we wouldn’t be using it a single time during the several days we spent in Canazei - as we were able to just walk and bike from the house (the bike gondola literally went directly above our balcony and up into the mastiffs).

3. Must-Ride Trails in Canazei area:

• Sellaronda MTB Tour – A legendary loop that circles the Sella Massif, combining jaw-dropping scenery with the adventure of a large loop. Lift access makes it manageable in a day. The riding itself isn’t 100% stellar, but the total experience is definitely worthwhile.
  
• Fassa Bike Park – We were able to access the main gondola to the Fassa Bike Park at the corner from our Air BnB. Flow trails with a mix of berms, jumps, and technical sections. Rodeline trail is a fun open berm flow with some fun table tops. It has a camera that, with the scan of your lift pass, will  record a goofy little video of you riding that you can access online. If you want to get into the woods and for some trail riding that has less of a built vibe and more of a wild rooty vibe, definitely check out Electric Line.

Dropping into Infinity, one of the many flow trails at Fassa Bike Park and a great intro to ease into the riding there.

• Tutti Frutti – This trail is somewhat of a local legend. Across the valley from the Fassa Bike Park, but still accessible by gondola, Tutti Frutti takes you down a craggy ridgeline trail with epic views, down some switchbacking side hill with rock drops and a couple of berms, and a short punch up a lower ridge where finally pick your exit among a few stellar wooded trail options. It’s a must do for more advanced riders!

Karin came down from Innsbruck to ride with us in Canazei for a couple of days. Here she is dropping into Tutti Frutti.

As we like to say at Moonspin, more Flora, less Strava. Saw my first Edelweiss (righthand photo), the most delightful fuzzy snowflake flower you could imagine.

Pro tip: Buy a multi-day Fassa Bike Park pass (you can buy them at the gondola window) for the best deal. Gives you essentially unlimited access to the area’s gondolas and lifts for hassle free valley-to-ridge-to-valley biking.

To guide or not to guide? I’m so glad Darcy talked me into hiring a guide for a couple of days. We rode with Stefano who works out of Fassa Bike right in Canazei. Stefano even came over to Cortina to guide us there for a day - maximizing our trail link ups in ways we would have never imaged to, even coming from two experienced trail and GPS navigators. Stefano is from Canzei and has a deep but humble passion for mountain biking.

We were able to ride trails that were questionably sanctioned and definitely off-the-beaten path, meaning we accessed corners of the valleys and mountains that even the biggest Trailforks, Komoot, and Ride With GPS rabbit holing wouldn’t have revealed to us.

Stefano, Darcy and I smiling our way up up a lift ride to more semi-sanctioned trails. We think Stefano found us amusing?

4. Infrastructure & Amenities abound.

Aside from very limited breakfast options (stellar coffee but do Italians really subsist on just a brioche roll for breakfast?!), we had just about any amenity one could need at our fingertips. Bike shops were well stocked. I typically find myself biking internationally where if you break a spoke your SOL, and while I had brought along my standard international travel quiver of spare tubes, tires, and tools (including my super handy teflon spare spoke cable), I quickly realized all of my preparations were pretty overkill. In fact, when the UCI Enduro World Champion riders arrived to town for the competition, you could find barely used high quality tires set out on the curb as they readied their bikes for competition… I was even able to have a fork seal replaced when I discovered an oil leak halfway through our trip with very friendly, speedy, and affordable service.

One of the standout features of biking in the Dolomites is the incredible infrastructure. Doing most of our mountain biking in the backcountry of Montana and Southwestern Colorado, or in much more remote international destinations, Darcy and I could not stop commenting on the insane amount of mountain infrastructure everywhere! The lift systems are bike-friendly, the trails are well-marked, and espressos and Aperol spritzes are basically available around every corner. You can ride up to a col or ridgeline, bomb down and across the alpine into an adjacent valley, and piece together a full day adventure covering an insane amount of terrain.

Pro tip: The amenities and infrastructure aren’t just bike related, of course. If you need a rest day or the weather is unfavorable, definitely check out Dòlaondes just outside of Canazei. This stunning wellness center features pools, saunas, and all sorts of hydrotherapy options for a very well-worth-it price.

5. Local Etiquette Tip.

When in Italy, remember that ordering a cappuccino after morning hours is a cultural faux pas! Italians stick to espresso in the afternoon and evening, so if you want to blend in with the locals, save the cappuccino for breakfast and opt for an espresso later in the day.

Reach out if you have questions, want to see our GPS tracks, or if you’ve biked in the Dolomites and have any other “must knows” to share!

Arrividerci, Dolomiti!