Stage 6, Tour de Pasta: Climbing Torri di Fraele & Laghi di Cancano (Car-Free!)

Stage 6, Tour de Pasta 2026: The Road Was Closed to Cars, So I Climbed It Instead 🚴‍♂️🇮🇹

The rest day plan went out the window the moment I heard the news: the road up to the Laghi di Cancano was closing to motor traffic for the morning. In Bormio, that's not an opportunity you let pass by.

This is the sixth route of Tour de Pasta 2026 — a ride I hadn't planned on doing this early, but the EnjoyStelvio Valtellina initiative made the decision for me. A few times each summer, the Province of Sondrio shuts its most iconic mountain roads to cars entirely, handing them over to cyclists and walkers for a few precious hours. On the 11th of July, it was the turn of the climb to Cancano — so instead of resting, I woke up early, rolled out of Bormio under a clear blue sky, and pointed my wheels north.

The climb itself is a proper alpine classic, even if it lives in the shadow of its more famous neighbour, the Stelvio. It winds up through Premadio and Fior d'Alpe before the real work begins: a long, hairpin-stacked ascent — 21 switchbacks in total — that only gets steeper and more dramatic the higher you climb. What really sets this route apart is what's waiting at the top: the Torri di Fraele, the ruins of two square watchtowers first raised in 1391 to guard this high mountain corridor. They were reinforced through the 15th century, then largely destroyed in 1513 during a Grisons invasion from the neighbouring valleys — the cliffs just below are still known locally as the "burrone dei morti," a name that hints at how fiercely this pass was once contested. Ride through the short tunnels cut into the rock, and suddenly the towers frame the road ahead like something out of a medieval painting.

Push on past the ruins and the tarmac gives way to the Cancano plateau, where the milky turquoise waters of Lago di Cancano and Lago di San Giacomo open up below the ridgeline — two reservoirs joined by a dam, and one of the most photographed viewpoints in the whole Stelvio National Park. The climb picked up a bit of extra fame after featuring in the 2020 Giro d'Italia, and on a car-free morning like this one, it felt like every cyclist in the valley had come out to enjoy it — riders grinding up past me on the switchbacks, others flying down the other way, all of us sharing a road that, for one morning, belonged entirely to bikes.

This video is the full story of that morning: the climb up through the hairpins, the reveal of the towers, the ride around the lakes, and the descent back down through Bormio — no cars, no rush, just switchbacks, sunshine, and a rest day well skipped.

Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/19265580066

If you enjoyed this one, come along for the rest of Tour de Pasta 2026:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/when_in_doubt_cycle/ 🚴 Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/86551840 ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PaoloTagliaferri

#TourDePasta #Bormio #TorriDiFraele #LaghiDiCancano #EnjoyStelvio #RoadCycling