As soon as we heard about a bikepacking event in the Dolomites, we signed up right away. When the route itinerary appeared in our inbox, we slightly regretted our initial decision. We were about to embark on one of the toughest challenges to date, yet the thought of riding the gravel side of the Stelvio encouraged us to go ahead.
The organizers of Sneak Peaks acknowledge that the idea was to make the route as brutal as possible. After visiting over 50 mountain rifugios, they made a selection based on their willingness to host cyclists. They came up with a route in which each checkpoint was one of the shelters, allowing riders to eat and sleep there if needed. Had the owners of the rifugios at lower altitude been more friendly, we could have reduced the amount of accumulated elevation.
The three different distances, described in our preview article, started and finished in Bolzano and had a similar ratio between kilometers and elevation gain. It was a matter of deciding if the additional magic places that the longer routes brought riders to were worth the extra days on the saddle.
When we think back on our participation at Sneak Peaks, what comes to mind is not a neat sequence of kilometers, climbs, or towns. Instead, it feels like a jagged profile on a topographic map. A landscape of peaks and valleys, both literal and emotional.
Valley: A start in jeopardy
The first valley came before we even started turning the first pedal strokes. Our bike was sitting half-assembled on the start line in Ahoi Minigolf, and we were impatiently waiting for a delivery containing the bike part needed. Other participants had already set off, disappearing into the mountains while we sat for five long hours with nothing but doubt.
Relief finally came with a box from Classified: the spare hub we needed to shift gears. We rushed through the assembly, clipped in, and rolled out alone. The Sneak Peaks had begun, but not in the way we had planned.
Peak: Gravel in the Dolomites
The frustration of that late start was soon replaced by something far greater: the joy of riding our gravel bike in the Dolomites.
The bike lanes near Bolzano were packed in both directions with cyclists of all disciplines bikepacking to or from the Italian mountain range. Bolzano is quite accessible by train or car, which made it easier for all participants to respect the no-flight policy of the event.
We had only been in that region once before, on a hiking trip, and we thought we knew what to expect. We were wrong. Road cycling in the Dolomites is well-known, almost too mainstream, but the gravel bike opened doors to hidden places: the off-road side of the Stelvio, or the brutal but beautiful hike-a-bike up to Rifugio Petrarca. It felt like discovering a secret version of the mountains we thought we knew.
Valley: Heavy gears and fading drive
Still, not everything rolled smoothly. We had already been warned that most participants would start Sneak Peaks with a mountain bike, but we were confident that our drop-bar setup would be enough.
On the first day, while covering the kilometers that separated us from the proper mountains, we already realized that when riding on a heavily loaded bike, one should opt for the lightest gear ratio available.
The “attention, bears” signs along the initial climb caught us off guard, same as the unexpected rain that forced us to take out our waterproof layers from the Tailfin bags earlier than desired, making the first off-road descent extra slippery. Another reason why we wished we were riding a mountain bike.
The wrong gearing turned every climb into a grind, while other participants spun up effortlessly with their smaller chainrings and bigger cassettes. Fatigue piled on.
Peak: Companionship in the wild
We started alone, but little by little we caught other participants. The encounters were infrequent but meaningful. We shared short conversations, long silences, and a few kilometers together. No one seemed crushed by the difficulty of the route; on the contrary, everyone radiated good humor, as if we were all in on a secret: that this mix of struggle and beauty was exactly why we had come.
The first evening, we overtook one of the Party Pace Patrols as they were setting up camp next to a lake. The Party Pace Patrols were small groups of riders led by an experienced cyclist who set a steady pace that would allow them to reach the finish in a specific number of days. Unlike other ultradistance events, Sneak Peaks encourages its participants to be social, ride together, and share the pain while climbing such iconic mountain passes.
We were not very social, and we kept on riding, but for this event, we wanted to minimize the time riding at night to see all the highlights in broad daylight. The plan was to sleep in a hotel or rifugio every other night, and pitch our Aper Gear tent at least once. It packed perfectly inside our frame bag, and the modular system was so easy to assemble that it was only a matter of choosing where to sleep and setting up everything within ten minutes.
Valley: Improvisation under pressure
Another low that turned into a lesson was the constant need to improvise. We had spent hours beforehand studying the organizers’ suggested itinerary, drawing and redrawing our own plan to finish within the number of days we intended to ride. But the mountains had their own agenda.
The delayed start meant the plan A for day one was no longer feasible. This and similar setbacks forced us to reroute, to hunt for new accommodations, to adapt in ways we hadn’t anticipated. It was tiring, sometimes frustrating, but it was also part of the game.
To make things even more interesting, one of our pedals gave up in the middle of a descent. The bearing had detached from the crank, making it impossible to put it back together. A few kilometers ahead, hiking-a-bike on our way to the top of the Passo della Vallaccia, the sole of the opposite shoe fell off. We thought it was a joke.
The fellow participant we were riding with at that moment was prepared and tried to fix our multiple issues with cable ties and tape, but the bodge didn’t hold for long. Fortunately, we were only 20 kilometers away from Livigno, where even on a Sunday, we found cycling shops open.
Peak: The Stelvio dream
If there is one memory that eclipses the lows, it is the day we pitched a tent a couple of kilometers below the Stelvio summit. For months, we had been carrying the idea with us: take it as easy as possible along Lago di Cancano and the off-road ascent to the Stelvio, stop a couple of kilometers from the top, sleep under the full moon of that night, and reach the summit the following morning with the road empty and the sun rising.
Aper Gear had provided us with the innovative and minimalistic tent they will soon launch on Kickstarter, and that night it became our alpine refuge. The next day, we crested the Stelvio just as the first light poured over the switchbacks, and then dropped into a descent that felt almost too perfect to be real: no cars, golden light, only us and the mountain.
Valley: Lost video content, but retained memories
Somewhere along the way, we got ready for a long ascent by taking off our jacket before reaching its initial slopes. When doing so, the action cam we had in the pocket, containing some of the best moments of our Sneak Peaks participation, fell without us realizing it. That evening, unpacking our bags in the hotel room, we realized what had happened and headed back to the location where we hoped we would find it. It was not there.
It sounds trivial, but losing it hit us hard. We lost motivation, and with it the determination to complete the route. At a certain point, the shortest way back to Bolzano seemed like the only option. And so, our Sneak Peaks adventure ended prematurely.
The final summit
We didn’t complete the route, and for a while, that felt like a defeat. But looking back now, the valleys don’t diminish the peaks; they give them shape. Sneak Peaks was never about ticking off every kilometer. It was about what unfolded between the obstacles: gravel roads through landscapes that felt uncharted, human encounters that mattered more because they were rare, a tent pitched on a dream location, and a descent at sunrise that will stay with us forever. In the end, the mountains gave us more than they took. And that, to us, was the real summit.