Categories: FolkloreNostalgiaRacing

Velominati Challenge: Name that Climb

As cyclists, our legs bristle with anticipation at the sight of a hairpin turn. Stitch a series of them together in close succession, and we lose the ability to speak in complete sentences. Show us a road that resembles a goat path, and we start to wonder aloud in fragmented sentences what it might be like to send a bunch of racers up it. Combine those things, add a dirt road surface, and we’re sporting serious Climbone.

A few weeks ago, our friend Roadslave queried us as to what climb was featured in some douchenozzle’s photograph at an art show. Not surprisingly, we were collectively able to nail it down in fairly short order, despite the considerable disadvantage of the photog himself having mislabeled where and when the photo was taken.

Attention to detail is what we do as Velominati, and many of us have gazed upon most of the famous climbs in Europe – if not with our own sweat-drowned eyes, then at least through the lenses of photographers who have (and were hopefully more successful than Roadslave’s pal at naming the time and location of the climbs).

I came across this photograph today and was instantly drawn to it for obvious reasons that don’t need to be restated from above. But it also gave me an uneasy feeling: I wasn’t sure what climb it was. A few minutes later, by chance, I came across a more modern and labeled version of the same climb and thought I’d test the collective knowledge of the community with a little challenge, which I have every confidence will be met in short order.

Please identify:

What climb is it? Name, location.
Is this climb currently paved or unpaved?
When did it last feature in a top-level Professional sporting event?
What was the climb, if any, immediately previous?
What was the climb, if any, immediately after?
Will it feature in the 2011 professional calendar?
Which rider used these slopes to reveal himself as being a contender in an event no one had considered him for prior?
What jersey was he wearing at the time?
Who was his eye wear sponsor at the time?
What bike was he riding? Brand, model.

Good luck!

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Durishin says:

Oct 26 2010 at 5:21 am

Hey frank,

Do you have a link to that shot that you could post?
Cyclops says:

Oct 26 2010 at 7:01 am

Not that I'm complaining but I just so happen to be watching the 2000 Giro at home and Di Luca was really tearing it up and Phil and Paul were creaming themselves over him so I did not think him an appropriate fit for question seven.
Marko says:

Oct 26 2010 at 8:27 am

Whoah, when did we get our very own youtube channel? V-TV.
Cyclops says:

Oct 26 2010 at 8:48 am

Since the IT Nazis have blocked YouTube at work I have no idea.
frank says:

Oct 26 2010 at 9:12 am

@Collin
That looks awesome! In fact, it resembles the Finestre a bit, doesn't it?
frank says:

Oct 26 2010 at 9:21 am

@Cyclops

Not that I'm complaining but I just so happen to be watching the 2000 Giro at home and Di Luca was really tearing it up and Phil and Paul were creaming themselves over him so I did not think him an appropriate fit for question seven.

Well, Di Luca had always bee a great racer, winning loads of one-days and one-week stage races. He wasn't considered a real GT threat, though. In 2005, fresh off his Liege win, he rode high in the GC and it wasn't until he hung with the best on the Finestre that people considered him a threat for the overall at the Giro. Of course, he won in 2007.

2005 was a great year, though, and Di Luca was the only rider to make the UCI ProTour Leader's jersey look good. That was the jersey he wore during the Giro, and I believe he won the overall that year.

Another reason I loved that season was it marked the height of the Bianchi's third Golden Era. Those EV model bikes were stunning. My VMH still has her EV4 as Bike Number 2, and my old EV2 still serves as my rain bike. The FG Lite did not differ from the EV4 in any material way that I could tell, and sported a flash paint job. Especially Danilo's white version which he rode during the Giro.

@Marko
Ah, old eagle-eye. A few of our readers have beat you to it, though. We did a soft launch of that to store all the XTranormal videos (one more coming) for embedding. The full launch will come when KRX-10 uploads all his old-school video archives, which he is in the process digitizing.
Geof says:

Oct 26 2010 at 11:12 am

@frank
V-TV! Outstanding!
mcsqueak says:

Oct 26 2010 at 11:12 am

OK, I apologize if I come off as a bit daft, but where do you watch all of these races?

I get the "pleasure" of being a Comcast "customer" here in my city, and the Versus channel only showed the Tour of California and the Tour de France this past year. Everything else is off of their radar I guess.

Is there a cycling website where you can pay to watch all of these races? I guess you could torrent old races, but I've never gotten into that whole mess.
Geoffrey Grosenbach says:

Oct 26 2010 at 11:32 am

@mcsqueak I'm in the same situation. I wish there was a way to get Eurosport in Seattle.

Universal Sports sells packages online, such as this year's Giro for about US$10: Universal Sports Premium

YouTube has a lot of older races back to the 60's and 70's (or at least the last 10 minutes): YouTube

CervÃ©lo's recent 2009-10 video podcast is also interesting: Beyond the Peloton
mcsqueak says:

Oct 26 2010 at 11:37 am

@Geoffrey Grosenbach

Thanks for the Universal Sports link! I totally forgot about them. I can hook my laptop into the TV, so I'm more than willing to pay to watch a good race, as long as I can do it on my time (say after work or whatever) and not just "live".

PS, the photo at the top of the page is beautiful.