Sella Chiunzutan
Looking at this road on the
map, you would suspect that it has very
light traffic. It is a connection that
parallels a much busier road in the valley
in the valley of the river Tagliamento,
south of the city Tolmezzo. But this road
goes through curvier terrain following
narrow canyons and crosses a plateau top.
And yes - traffic is light, in spite of
the fact that this is a pretty wide road.
My favorite part is the descent into
Tolmezzo, for which there are several
options.
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1.START-END WEST: low
point at bridge over Torrente Arzino
2.turnoff to route over Sella
Chiampon
3.TOP:Sella Chiunzutan, 954m
4.Chiaicis, profile goes left here
5.START-END EAST: bridge over
Tagliamento south of Villa Santina
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Approaches
From South. Riding
through San Francesco, and surveying the
road and landscape ahead, it seems there
would not be enough space in this narrow
slot between green tables, to accommodate a
road of this size. But actually there is,
and before the canyon gets too narrow the
road pulls and escape trick with the help of
4 tornanti to get to the summit meadow. On
the summit is an Inn catering to cyclists.
From
North. (described downwards). The
most interesting views on this Sella come a
little further down this side. They are of
the sharp peaks behind Tolmezzo. Especially
the highest one is a wizzard of cloud
construction, during turbulent athmosphere
days, like I was experiencing. If it's sunny
on the bike, there may well be a
thunderstorm over the mountains behind
Tolmezzo. At little later it was raining on
the bike, and the mountain produced
cumulus-nimbus high into the sky, surrounded
by sunshine on Tolmezzo.
Rather than descending
directly into Tolmezzo the profile stays on
a balcony of sorts and takes in the views of
Villa and its church and then decends into
Vilino, crossing the river Tagliamento a
little further upstream. No pictures from
that part of the tour - it was raining
profusely.