Maratona dles Dolomites, live.

Seven passes, closed roads, one morning

Eight thousand riders drawn from thirty thousand applicants, sent over seven Dolomite passes on roads shut to traffic.

The Maratona dles Dolomites is the most coveted cyclosportive on earth, and the reason is simple: for one Sunday in July the Passo Campolongo, the Pordoi, the Sella, the Gardena, the Giau at 2,236 metres, the Falzarego and the Valparola are closed to cars and given to a peloton. The long course is 138 kilometres with 4,230 metres of climbing; the Middle takes 106 and 3,130; the Sellaronda covers 55 kilometres and 1,780 metres of the four passes around the Sella massif.

All three leave La Villa together at half past six and split later, so a rider decides how big a day to have while they are already having it. Livebib puts the whole route on one map with the rider on it, each pass drawn as it really is, distance covered and an arrival estimate for Corvara that keeps updating — one link for the people watching from a balcony in Alta Badia or from home.