Sicily

The Giro's volcano. When the race wants a mountain the whole world recognises, it comes here. Etna's first summit finish in 1967 went to Franco Bitossi, Alberto Contador attacked up these slopes in 2011, and Jan Polanc soloed to the Sapienza in 2017. Race director Angelo Zomegnan put it plainly, Etna is our Mont Ventoux. From Nicolosi the road climbs 18.7 kilometres through vineyards and broom into a black desert of dated lava flows, past the craters of the eruption that reached Catania in 1669, to the ski station at 1,908 metres. There is nothing else in Europe like racing up a live volcano.

The quiet north face. From Linguaglossa the road climbs through the Ragabo pines before breaking out onto lava so recent the trees have not returned. The 2002 eruption erased the little resort of Piano Provenzana entirely, and the tarmac was re-laid straight over the flow, hairpins threading between streams of rock you can date by their colour. The Giro finished here in 2020, Jonathan Caicedo winning above the clouds, and in 2022 Damiano Caruso dropped Vincenzo Nibali on the final ramps to take the Giro di Sicilia. It is the least trafficked of Etna's four roads and the most haunting.

The long way, and the biggest single climb on the island. From Paternò the southwest road gains 1,640 metres over 26 kilometres, rolling up through Ragalna's olive terraces before a long exposed grind across the lava fields to the Sapienza. The Giro keeps choosing this axis. Acácio da Silva won here in 1989, Esteban Chaves in 2018 on the spur to the Astrophysical Observatory at 1,736 metres, and Lennard Kämna rode clear of the breakaway in 2022. The steepest ramps touch 14 percent high up. Bring food, bring layers and treat it like the small Alpine day it secretly is.

Ride the Targa Florio. From Campofelice di Roccella the road to Collesano follows the mountain leg of the Piccolo Circuito delle Madonie, the course of the world's oldest sports car race, run from 1906 to 1977 with around 800 corners per lap. Helmut Marko, who raced it, called it totally insane. Past Collesano the corners keep coming as the climb finds Portella Colla and finally Piano Battaglia, Sicily's improbable ski station at 1,600 metres. Faded Targa graffiti still marks the walls in the villages. It is the greatest motorsport pilgrimage you can make by bicycle.

The gentle south door to the Madonie's high ground. From the stone town of Petralia Sottana the road climbs 16 steady kilometres through holm oak and then beech, the southernmost beech forests in Europe, to the pass beside Piano Battaglia at 1,647 metres. This is Palermo's home mountain, busy with picnicking families on summer Sundays and snow chains in January, and all but empty midweek. Pair it with the Collesano side for the classic crossing of the massif. The gradient never bullies you, which on this island of volcano ramps counts as an act of mercy.