Manuel Winkler - Lake Garda

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Earlier this year, we set our HB ambassadors a challenge. A Summer Project as such.
The task: document the ideal Summer weekend (aboard a HB.130, obviously.) 
...here's the second in the series from German Ambassador Manuel Winkler

My submission for the Summer Project was an easy one. A yearly tradition of mine is to go to Lake Garda for obvious reasons last year didn't happen, so my HB.130 had never seen one of my favourite places to ride.

The plan was set for the end of September, everything was packed, ready to go. I'd be meeting my good friends and riding buddies: Ramona, Ronald, David and Richard at Lake Garda, my car had other ideas though and broke down insight of the Italian border. Meaning I was towed and had to sort out a rental car, costing me half a day and making the drive a really long one.

Now I was even more excited to get to Torbole at Lago di Garda.
I was taking the road down from Nago to Torbole, as the sun disappeared behind the mountains that surround the Lake…amazing.

Two days of riding were planned: day one a big ride in the mountains and day 2 the Paganella Bikepark.
The weather had other ideas and we didn't fancy doing either in in wet conditions so, a plan B came together with an alternative rainy day ride for the first day and the big day on day 2.
The new ride involved a long climb, lunch at the Rifugio St. Pietro and the ride down the 409, also known as 'the flow'. 

I'd recommend everyone who visits the area to go to Paganella Bikepark (also visit Rifugio la Roda if you are want delicious food).

Day 1. All in all, it was wet, but not as rainy as forecasted, good for us!
The 1000m climb wasn't too bad in the the conditions, wet but warm and on the way up we stopped to eat figs from some wild trees (good time to be in Italy) as soon as we reached the Rifugio it started to rain really hard. Perfect time for lunch! Inside the Rifugio the wood stove was roaring and good food was served. Luckily for us the rain had stopped by the time we finished eating, so at least we woudn't get wet from above, on the way down.

Back on the trail, and a few more metres up to reach the start of the descent.
We rolled in, as soon as we started we realized in the conditions 'the flow' is far from what we considered a flow trail in Germany. It pretty challenging especially as it was the first day of riding for a while for some of us, and due to all the rocks it was crazy slippery, but as you can imagine, loads of fun. We made it down and as we reached Torbole the sky cleared up. Time for ice cream. 

Day one ticked off, with the big day ahead: The Tremalzo, it is everything but standard. Over 2000m of elevation by bike, around 60 km distance and of course the challenging trails on the downhills. We went to bed early to be refreshed for the next day.

Day 2 started with an early morning shuttle ride to the Rifugio Garda at an altitude of 1650m. The fog had closed in again, and unlike everyone else on the shuttle, we didn‘t take the easy climb, we took a short downhill on gravel to Malga Ciapa. Before a left turn onto the first hiking trail. At this point we left civilization…

The next descent started easy. A flowy couple of Km's to warm up for what comes next: Steep, rough, loose rocks and technical taking us into the middle of nowhere.
Followed by the first and for me hardest uphill section. This valley is always humid and warm, so perfect for pushing and carrying the bike up. During the push we hike through beautiful nearly untouched nature with hints of a former civilization, called the Malga Fobia.


A few more metres up and we reach the Bocca di Fobia. The end of the climbing.
After a short break we get going again. The trail first provides some technical switch backs in the trees, before an open flowy section that takes us to turn 5 on the road up to Passo Nota. Another 11 turns and 300m to reach the Rifugio. Time for a late lunch. Sadly, Richard had to leave us at this point, he's not riding Hope brakes and the rear gave up on him. 

It’s already 3pm when we set off again. We have a long way to go. Ronald is optimistic, and says we'll be back at Passo Nota in 3 hours. We'll see…
We take the gravel road in the direction of Limone. An undualting path, through five tunnels before a sharp left for more uphill. Back to pushing our bikes. We finally reach the ridge. All the carrying, pushing and uphill pedaling was worth it! The view across the valley and the lake is just amazing!

The next descent offers a bit of everything. Starts technical, followed by some flow, before a mad rocky, loose soil-y part. Leading us down to one of my favourites in the area, the so called Valle di Pura. Fast rolling, and rocky with a few tech sections. Crazy fun. 

It finishes in Limone back at around 220m above sea level. At this point there is the choice between taking the boat from Limone to Torbole or the pedal back up. We take the harder route and go for the pedal, climbing back up to 1000m before we hit the last trail. It starts on tarmac, a busy road with lots of traffic....no fun, followed by the same quiet road we pedalled up before.


We pass Passo Nota at 6:50pm, sunset is close. A couple more metres before the top. Just one downhill left. At points its already slightly too dark…I guess we miscalculated our time. All the picture breaks definitely slowed us down.  Although we could have taken even more… a good trade off. The trail ends at the church in Pregasina. The only thing left to do now is roll down the old Ponale Road and pedal back to Torbole.

Back in Torbole at 8pm. The sun has long set. Luckily David and Richard are already waiting for us with Pizza and Vino to properly start the evening…What a day!
The ride was roughly 60 km with 3600m of descending and 2000m of pedalling up.

No Problem with the HB.130. Thank you Hope.
Special thanks my friends Ramona, Ronald, David and Richard. 

 

Words and Pictures: Manuel Winkler