Journey 03 · Slovenia
Julian Alps, 24 Hairpins
Slovenia with actual gradients
Published 31 Jul 2026 · Travelled 12–21 Jun 2026
- 8 moments
- 10 days
- 75 km
- Summer
- Slovenia
Overheard · Kranjska Gora
"Tomorrow you ride the pass?" — "That's the plan." — "The Russians built that road in the war. The cobbles in the hairpins are original." — "Is that good?" — "It is original." It was not good. It was original.
- 46.4410° N, 13.7480° E
- Vršič pass, north side
- 09:35
- 9°C, fog, 100% humidity, character
The forecast said clearing, the mountain said fog, and the mountain outranks the forecast. From hairpin 10 the road climbed into cloud and the world shrank to fifty metres of wet tarmac and dripping spruce. I stopped at the bend where the road doubles back under itself and could hear water running everywhere and see none of it.
- Vršič pass
- 11:10
1611 metres at the top, 24 numbered hairpins on the way up from Kranjska Gora. My computer said 801 metres of climbing in 12 kilometres; my legs submitted a higher figure that I consider more accurate. The Dutch polder never once made my ears pop.
- 46.3670° N, 13.7440° E
- Trenta valley
- 12:20
- 19°C, sudden summer
Over the top the fog just ended, like leaving a room. The south side dropped through sunlit meadows with the valley opening below and the road running down the middle of it, empty. Twenty minutes of descent for two hours of climb, which sounds like a bad trade and is the best one in cycling.
- 46.3310° N, 13.6440° E
- Velika Korita, Soča
- 14:45
- 21°C, sun in the gorge
You see the photos and assume someone pushed a slider too far. Then you stand in the gorge at Velika Korita and the water is actually that colour, a green-blue with no correct name, running clear over white stone. I filled two bottles from a spring beside it and drank the landscape. Best water of my life, and I am from a country with good mountains.
- 46.2480° N, 13.5790° E
- Kobarid
- 16:30
- 23°C, warm, valley breeze
The road follows the river all the way down, and every few kilometres the Soča shows off again — wide and braided here, with the old stone of Kobarid stacked above the banks. I rode fifty-two kilometres of gentle descent along it and rang my bell at nobody, twice, out of pure morale.
- 46.2780° N, 13.8870° E
- 46.2780° N, 13.8870° E
- Lake Bohinj
- 07:10
- 12°C, still, mist burning off
Everyone told me Bled, and Bled is fine, but Bohinj at seven in the morning is the serious one. The church of Sv. Janez stood at the head of the lake with the stone bridge still empty, and around the corner the water lay dead flat under the ridge for exactly as long as it took me to unpack the mirrorless. By eight the first paddleboards arrived and the mirror was over.
- Lake Bled
- 20:05
- 18°C, golden, midges included
- Last frame
Last night I gave Bled its turn and rode the lake loop as the light went long. The island sat there with its church and its swans doing the full fairy tale, and I stopped being a cycling snob about it for ten whole minutes. 6980 metres of climbing this trip. The Netherlands taught me to ride into wind; Slovenia reminded me why I climb.
- 46.3620° N, 14.0940° E
The route
8 stops
Journey completed
Ten days, eight stories
- Distance walked
- 22 km
- Frames exposed
- 980
- Hairpins up the Vršič
- 24
- Metres climbed, total
- 6980
- Burek consumed
- 9
- Favourite moment
- Dropping out of the fog on the Trenta side into sudden green sunlight
- Best food
- Burek from a bakery in Kranjska Gora at 07:00, still too hot to hold properly
