Guys, have any of you ridden the Stelivio. It goes up to 2758m. They are riding it in the Giro on Sunday during the Bormio stage. I think Ironguide (Marc Becker) did it as part of the RATA. This climb sounds insane, and its gonna be covered with rain and melting snow from the sound of things. I believe in 1988 when Hampsten kicked ass on the snow covered Gavia they were supposed to ride the Stelvio the same day, but they had to cancel due to snow.
I’d be interested in hearing some of your reports. I think Ironguide posted picks on a previous thread (hardest paved climbs thread).
Bump…there must be a few real riders in this forum who actually have ridden Stelvio…or is this forum only populated with posers obsessed with their aero positions on ultra cool bikes which they usually drive around in the back of their Ford SUV’s rather than actually using them for transportation or to scale some real passes ???
I plan on riding it - and many others, when I move to Milan this summer If there are any 'twitchers out there who live in that part of the world, and who would like to drag a newbie around the alps/dolomites, give me a shout…
I’ll be eagerly waiting for your report. Ironguide lives near Nice, Felix lives near Bern Switzerland. There are others in the vicinity. I hope to do a trip to the Dolomites some time in the next few years. Last time I was biking there was 85…caught the Giro stage out of Bolzano…holy crap, that was 20 years ago this week !
My wife and I rode it this past summer on a 2 wk cycling tour in Switzerland and Italy. We rode it from the north side (race side) and it was pretty wild!!! We did it on August 21 and had pretty much every type of precipitation you can imagine on the way up. The first 8k is pretty easy (~5.5% avg grade) but after that, hold on!! Averages about 8.5% 'til the top (another 16k). Pretty amazing getting passed by the hard core Euro dudes wearing just a jersey and shorts and then seeing 'em freezing their butts off up top. The bratwurst guy at the top let my wife warm her hands up on his grill!!! Had a blast riding it and may get a chance to give it a go again this summer. Some pics from that day are on our site here:
Moyes…very very cool. This is what I was looking for. Nice pics. Did you stay at the summit or ride back down ? If you rode in Switzerland, did you do Susten pass or Grimsel pass from the Meringen side, or Simplon from the Italian Side ? If so, would you say that Stelvio is 30-50% harder ? How would it compare to Telegraphe+Galibier from the St Michel side (if you have ridden in France).
stelvio is nuts (as are a lot of other passes in that area), my parents live fairly close by and my cousin keeps asking me to go riding with him (yeah, right, he rides those roads all year round, is a heck of a climber and has a super light carbon bike with a triple) every time I visit: definitely haven’t felt like taking him up on the offer (definitely would never do it with my p2k 53-39, I’d probably kill myself).
Moyes…very very cool. This is what I was looking for. Nice pics. Did you stay at the summit or ride back down ? If you rode in Switzerland, did you do Susten pass or Grimsel pass from the Meringen side, or Simplon from the Italian Side ? If so, would you say that Stelvio is 30-50% harder ? How would it compare to Telegraphe+Galibier from the St Michel side (if you have ridden in France).
Rode down to Bormio and froze our a**es off!! We weren’t quite prepared for the winter weather that we encountered!!
We rode Simplon from the Italian side and thought it was much easier physically but tougher mentally. A lot of that had to do with Simplon being on the first day of our tour and having never ridden in the mountains before (we’re from the eastern shore of Maryland). Grimsel was an option on one of the days but that was “The Day of 5 Flats” so we didn’t get to ride it.
The day after we rode the Stelvio, we rode the Gavia up the non-race side and thought it wasn’t so bad, but no way would I want to do the race side!! That sucker is just mean looking!!
oyes, I rode Simplon pass back in 1986 with a bike loaded down with 4 weeks worth of camping gear. It was a very cool climb. This is the same route that Hannibal took when invading the Roman empire crossing with an army of elephants and then a couple of thousand years later the same route that Napoleon took with his army, so it was a “must do climb”. If I recall, it is also the route that the “Orient Express” took (ie Simplon-Orient express).
I am really looking forward to this Stelvio stage coverage tomorrow. I hope they don’t have too much snow and rain. It should be pretty epic with Basso-Salvodelli-Cuenego etc leading the charge.
Marco, why would you not do these climbs even with an overgeared P2K. This is like being at Everest Camp 4 on a perfectly sunny day with no wind and not attempting the summit ?
I crawled up the stelvio from the ‘easy’ side (depart bormio) last May, because the ‘right’ way was still snowed in.
stelvio_snow
I’m hoping that round 2 (planned for september this year will) allow for an improved performance and from the correct side this time.
Yes Ironguide has done this climb, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t still have a ‘kids, don’t try this at home’ disclaimer on it. I would suggest the opposite is true.
According to www.salite.ch the telegraphe+galibier combo is slightly harder than stelvio. Of the 9 climbs we are planning for our september cycling trip, telegraphe+galibier and stelvio are rated 2nd and 3rd for difficulty.
I climbed all over that place back in 85. They have an annual Giro della Dolomiti that is a 1 week cyclo tour and climbs all over the Bolzano area. You do three to 5 passes a day and the Italian army feeds you pasta out of the worlds largest army pasta cooker.
I think the Italian Alps can be harder as they attack the hills more, by that I mean they have sections that are so steep and tightly packed switchbacks. It was hard to go down as fast as in France because of this. Last year Lance did one of the local climbs, can’t remember the name, and claimed it to be the hardest he’s ever done. Either way it’s one of my favorite places on the planet. Very hospitable and they do German and Italian. Most signs have two names on it like, Bolzano is also Bozen.
L’homme rouge (aka the aussie with a french name ???), thanks for the update. I did telegraphe+galibier 5 hours into an 8 hour riding day in 35 plus degree heat after having done Croix de Fer earlier in the day and it nearly killed me. At the summit of Galibier, I was barely going 10 kph in my 34x26 gear and I was passing people ! Marko, that Tour sounds very interesting. Last time I was in Bozen/Bolzano in 85, I was loaded down on a touring bike. Next time, I’ll be on a sub 20 lb road bike. I’ll need the help as my engine is not what it was like when I was 19
…and yes, someone is a poser if they buy a $40,0000 SUV to carry their bike in rather than buying a $20K car and then spending the other $20K on 4-6 euro trips to climb big mtns using their hot bike (at least in my book) (please don’t take the latter point to seriously, I actually own a toy-like SUV…aka 2000 Toyota RAV4)
Guys, by any chance there were there any of you Euro slowtwitchers on the slopes of Stelvio when the shattered peleton made their way up yesterday. If so, can you post pics, or do you know a source with pics that you can point us too. I’d like to see how much snow they still have at the summit. I am surprised that at 2758m, the pass is even open at this time of year ! Anyway, Basso showed some class by still hanging in there and finishing off the stage. And how about Parra. That Parra family sure has some serious climbing genetics !
I missed the live coverage as I was out on a 4.5 hour ride with a lame 4000 ft of climbing :-(.
forget the Stelvio…ride the Pico Veleta in Sierra Nevada, Granada which is officially the highest…get a plane to Malaga in Spain and do it…there’s a cicloturista race in July (basically like mountain TT but everyone starts off at the same time, all standards do it…) and it’s over 40km going up…check out this great site for mountain passes in Spain. Do a search for mountain passses in Granada and the following will have a link:
Sierra Nevada-Pico Veleta (there are fots included!)
I live near Lausanne in Switzerland, so I may be one of the closest on Slowtwitch to the Stelvio. I planned to do all the mythical climbs of the Giro with friends a few years back, but unfortunately it did not happen. We did this in France about 12 years ago, starting from Switzerland and then doing the Petit saint-Bernard, Iseran, Galibier, Isoard, Var and Bonnette passes before ending up in Nice by the sea. Great experience and we wanted to do the same in the Italian alps.
We have plenty of great passes within riding distance anyway, so it’s not that much disheartening not having done it.
If you want to do an epic Italian pass, go for the Mortirolo. Not as long as the Stelvio or Telegraph/Galibier, but very steep (and still about 12ks I think).
If there are any 'twitchers out there who live in that part of the world, and who would like to drag a newbie around the alps/dolomites, give me a shout…
Had a blast riding it and may get a chance to give it a go again this summer. Some pics from that day are on our site here: