Sondrio | Gravel 41km | Life lessons in Val Cervia
The road up from Cedrasco is steep, so perhaps get all your conversations out of the way before embarking on the suggested first hour of this ride. It levels off after a while and there's beautiful, wide open scenery with meadows and high, high, high mountains on the horizon. If you bring a bike lock (not that you'll need it), you can do a ciclo-Alp adventure and keep running once the two wheels have taken you as far as you can go on the gravel.
Val Cervia is often over-looked but that's what is so special as you'll barely see a soul. Just marmots and deer. Exactly how it should be,
For the descent I'd nip off to the right when you see a bumpy track. It'll add some more excitement to your ride.
Summer only.
Mello | Run 14km | A lesson is finding bivouacs and descending over boulders
A spectacular route that starts at a holiday park-esque pasture that takes you by surprise. Cross the meadow, pine needle-strewn trails, a long but gentle gravel climb that escalates into sublime trails and an opportune bivouac. The descent is trickier – especially if there are still remnants of snow – but it's a superb mountain run and displays the greatest of the Basso valley.
A route reserved for late spring, summer and early autumn.
Triangia | Run 17km | Vineyard vagrants, the extended version
A staple run in the valley, the vineyard climb from Triasso to Triangia is a tough section of uneven steps that seems never-ending. It does end, but you might wish it hadn't because it's just so beautiful. Obviously afterwards the first thing you should do is go and find some Sassella red wine, preferably that made by the cooperative wine sellers in the village of Triasso or by Alfio Mozzi, Valtellina's fastest wine producer.
You can make so many variations of this run, including starting from almost anywhere: Sondrio for a longer climb or Castione for a shorter loop. This one starts and finishes in Postalesio to give your legs a warm-up and warm-down. The trail across the top of the vineyards from Castione is part of the Terrazzamenti trail, and it's just magical.
Above Triangia you've got the option to include the lake or not. I probably would but there's some beautiful pine forest trails that loop around it.
The descent back to Castione goes by the name 'Rodelbahn', as it weaves its way playfully through the woods. Enjoy it.
Year-round route. The wine harvest is in October usually, so that's a great time to see the hustle and bustle along the route.
Triangia | Gravel 39 km | Alpe Colina, the scenic way
This ride starts and finishes in Postalesio, but you could easily start from anywhere – you'd just end up climbing even further.
From Triangia the road is tarmacked beautifully up to at least 1,100 metres where you'll find a cluster of houses called Ligari. You can fill up your bottle and nip into the 'village' for some cake and a chat at the restaurant. It's open all-year round.
The road then worsens a little, but doesn't turn to gravel until around 1,700 metres of altitude. Then expect steep, concrete corners and rutted out gravel. Once you reach the cross at 1,900 metres, the track 'flattens' out for 6-7km before dropping down ever so slightly to Alpe Colina. The whole of this stretch is pretty beaten-up gravel so mountain bike tires are definitely recommended.
From Alpe Colina, you can take the road straight down to Postalesio. The first 1.5 km is still gravel, but unfortunately in 2017 they made the decision to tarmac a lot more of the road. It's in a great condition now if you're into going fast. There are a lot of options for proper descending on trails, just look for deviations on either side of the road.
At 1,000 metres you'll reach Pra Lone, an opening with a few houses, and here's where the real trails start, dropping down to Ca' Moroni then Postalesio. These are not gravel bike-friendly, just sayin'.
Route reserved for summer and early autumn.
