We’re into day three of the Six Days of the Giro series, and it’s time to hit the dirt.
If ever a Keepers Tour goes to Italy, then we’re doing this climb. No doubt. Climbing on gravel up a real mountain, what’s not to love?
In fact, you could probably do an entire Italian Gravé KT, such are the number of iconic dirt roads in the country’s great races. The Gavia (before they went and ruined it with tarmac), Plan Des Corones, Strade Bianche, they’ve all seen their share of legendary racing on their unpaved surfaces, but the one that stands out most for me is the Colle delle Finestre.
Coming from a mountain bike background, the notion of racing road bikes on dirt really tickled my fancy, as if it needed tickling anyway; so when the organisers of Il Giro announced they were sending Stage 19 of the 2005 race up the Finestre, well, we needed to witness that one live. But the month of May wasn’t on the radar of TV stations in Australia back then, and even July only got selective attention. If you were lucky enough (meaning you could afford it) to have pay tv, the genius idea was to subscribe to Italian station RAI for the month, and watch every stage of the Giro live, complete with Italian commentary. It didn’t matter if we weren’t proficient in the language, we could recognise the riders’ names, dammit.
So we gathered that Saturday night, with a gut-full of pizza and Nastro Azzuro to fuel us through the late/early hours. We had an interpreter, or so we told one of the gathered throng who spent the night believing the updates coming from the K-Man were actually genuine. “What are they saying now?” “Ah, still climbing.” “Getting tired.” “Di Luca still on the front.” To this day, that guy probably thinks Italian cycling commentators are the masters of stating the bleedin’ obvious.
What was bleedin’ obvious was that the racing was pretty good, but the spectacle on the mountain was amazing. Thousands lined the roadside and clung to craggy cliffs, creating a stadium-type atmosphere on the higher reaches of the Alpine pass. Being on the tail-end of the EPO era (I mean, Gonchar climbing with those guys? Come on!), the combatants rode the climb at a fast, even tempo; Di Luca, resplendent in all-white of the Pro Tour leader, never left the front for the entire climb, with Simoni and Rujano (an Evanescent if ever there was one) in wheels two and three. They never budged. Maglia Rosa Savoldelli was losing time each kilometre, and Simoni was virtual leader on the road as they summited. Il Falcone used his famed descending skills to pull back time on the descent and save his GC lead. Luckily, Frank wasn’t on the descent and Paolo made it down in one piece this time.
If the stage had finished on the gravelly summit, it would have been decisive, but just for shits and giggles they sent the riders up to Sestriere for some added cruelty. But the Finestre had made its mark on the race, and on me.
Full video of the climb and stage finish:
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@Ron un corridore is literally a runner, from the verb: correre - to run. It is used here to mean simply racer.
@PeakInTwoYears
Ooo now will be the kind of bike you pull out on a day when you feel like dishing out the V to all that come across you! Looks sweet!
Great article and the footage is stunning. On the 2011 version early on there is some Enrico Moricone in the background, could be from a fistful of dollars or a few dollars more, and later there is some of the soundtrack from the good the bad and the ugly, those tracks would be awesome backing the whole thing!
Great to be firmly in to the summer stories and living the dream through watching a Grand Tour once more!
@Tartan1749
Interesting point, I have been using ridewithgps now for a few years, dabbled with Strava and binned it but also use Garmin connect, simply as a backup for my Garmin device.
Ridewithgps is by far the most accurate on gradients, distances and calories (I am sans powermeter), and I not am sure why. I get some ridiculous gradients on my Garmin and some stupid calorific figures which, if I believed them would make me wonder why I was on 65kgs!! You would have thought that Garmin would be the most accurate seeing as it is their data.....
I would have thought that too, but my home location regularly drifts in elevation as much as 100 metres. 'Oh, right, -74 metres, that was when I chose to ignore the bridge and instead rode on the river bottom. Clearly, the virtual power figures were 'way off!' given the 5 metres/second head current. Dodging those fucking sturgeon....no indication of said hazard ANYWHERE. WTF?'
After witnessing two KT riders with two Garmins getting two different sets of directions trying to get us around L-B-L, all I can say is thank Merckx for roadworkers and locals.
@brett
Word. The only thing worse than no data is bad data, and I've never known my Garmin to be right, even when riding in lightly shaded areas.
I'd rather ride on feel than have a machine feed me the Anti V.
@RedRanger
Really digging the seat stays - can't wait to see it built up!
@Tobin
Kirk?
@Tobin, @DerHoggz
Yes, Kirk. Major hooky will be in effect for build-up day.