The toughest climbs in Europe: Monte Zoncolan - Steep, steeper, Monte Zoncolan

Even the bare data of this ladder to heaven sounds diabolical: the ten-kilometre climb up the 1,730-metre-high Zoncolan covers 1,203 metres in altitude, from kilometre two to seven the average gradient is 15.3 percent, at two points cyclists have to brave 20 and 22 percent steep ramps. We had been warned and were technically equipped: with a triple chainring (smallest ratio: 30/27) or with a 34 mm chainring on the compact crank and 29 mm sprocket. After the junction in Ovaro, the road winds gently through the village, but even at the last few houses, a gradient of more than eleven per cent gives us a foretaste of the difficult main course. Before Liariis verf, the road laughs. We have to get off our bikes in the village: workers are resurfacing the road for the Giro. The stretch from the summit to Liariis is already finished, now the last 1.5 kilometres down to Ovaro follow.

After the village, the "Strada al Zoncolan" begins - 8.2 kilometres dedicated to the great climbers of the Giro: A large plaque with their portraits is installed every few hundred metres. There are 18 of them, from Ottavio Bottecchia at kilometre zero to Gilberto Simoni at kilometre 7.6. The mountain was a stage finish of the Giro d'Italia in 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2014. Gilberto Simoni won the stage in 2003 and 2007, followed by Ivan Basso in 2010, Igor Antón as the first non-Italian in 2011 and Michael Rogers in 2014. In 2018, the Zoncolan was the gruelling finale of the 14th stage on 19 May, which began in San Vito al Tagliamento and initially had four small climbs over a distance of 181 kilometres.

You can find the route description in the free PDF download.

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Italy: Monte Zoncolan