The Dolomites

The champions' graveyard. The Fedaia's average gradient is a lie told by the gentle valley to Malga Ciapela, because everything after that is a wall. The final five kilometres under the Marmolada average better than eleven percent, much of it on dead straight ramps where you can see every metre you have yet to suffer. Pantani lit up the 1998 Giro here. In 2022 the race finished on the pass and Jai Hindley broke Richard Carapaz on the straights to win the whole Giro two days later. The summit is worth all of it, a glacier lake at 2,057 metres beneath the highest wall in the Dolomites.

The spiritual home of the Giro in the Dolomites. The race has crossed the Pordoi 39 times, more than any other pass, and it has been the Cima Coppi a record 13 times. The legend was founded here in 1940, when Bartali drove a struggling 20 year old Coppi over the top with snowballs and encouragement, and Coppi went on to win the Giro. His bronze monument now stands at the 2,239 metre summit. The climb itself is the most elegant in the range, 33 hairpins from Arabba at a metronomic seven percent, one bend every 200 metres through the middle section, with the Sella towers overhead the whole way.

The scenic summit of the Sellaronda and the highest paved pass in the Dolomites proper at 2,244 metres. From Canazei the road climbs eleven kilometres at a steady seven percent, and the final act threads the gap between the Sassolungo's teeth and the Sella's fortress walls, close enough to touch both. The Giro has used it since the fabled 1940 stage and it anchors every Sellaronda crossing. Databases and guidebooks alike call this stretch the most beautiful road in the range. Ride it early on a June morning, before the motorbikes wake, and it is hard to argue.

Alta Badia's home pass and the photograph everyone keeps. From Corvara the Gardena climbs nine kilometres under the Sella's north wall, 17 hairpins swinging across meadows with the rock face hanging above the road like weather. The Giro has crossed it 16 times and the Maratona takes it every year as the fourth pass of the Sella circuit. It is the gentlest of the four on this side, six and a half percent with real rhythm, which leaves you the spare capacity to actually look up. Few climbs anywhere reward that more.

The gateway of the Sellaronda. The Campolongo is the smallest of the four Sella passes, under six kilometres from Corvara with 13 hairpins stacked into its first half, and it has opened the Maratona dles Dolomites every single year since 1987. The long course climbs it twice. Around 14 Giro crossings have used it the same way, as the corridor that links Alta Badia to Arabba and the bigger doors beyond. Do not mistake modest for meaningless. Every great Dolomites day starts or ends over this col, and its descent into Arabba is one of the most enjoyable 4 minutes in the range.

One ascent, two summits and a century of history. From Pocol above Cortina the road climbs through eleven steady kilometres to the Falzarego at 2,105 metres, then keeps rising another stretch to the Valparola at 2,168. This was the First World War's front line. The Lagazuoi's mine galleries honeycomb the cliffs above the road and the Forte Tre Sassi museum guards the upper pass. The Giro came through on the founding 1940 Coppi stage and has returned ever since, and both Maratona courses finish over the Valparola side. It is the connective tissue of every great route between Cortina, the Giau and Alta Badia.

The pilgrimage. The toll road from Lake Misurina to Rifugio Auronzo is where Eddy Merckx announced himself to the world, winning through a 1968 blizzard to take his first Grand Tour, and where Vincenzo Nibali rode through the snow to seal the 2013 Giro. Six times it has been the Cima Coppi. The climb is pure deception, an easy warm up past Lago d'Antorno and then four final kilometres at a constant twelve percent with ramps to eighteen, dead straight beneath the three great towers. Cars pay around 30 euros at the barrier. Bicycles ride free, which feels exactly right.