Edited by Stefano Brambilla
Today is Stelvio day, and Stelvio is perhaps the place that is most identified with the Giro d’Italia in the collective imagination. But stage 18 reserves much more, in an extraordinary cross-section of the Alps straddling three provinces and two regions: fragrant apple orchards, ever-silent valleys, churches and castles, larch forests and high peaks dominated by perennial snow. In total, there are only four climbs but what climbs, given that the elevation gain is 5,400 m, for what in all respects is a real “stage” worthy of the history of the Giro. Even the start is uphill, from Pinzolo to Madonna di Campiglio and then on to the Campo Carlo Magno Pass; from here the landscape opens onto the thriving Val di Sole, home of mountain biking, but it is a fleeting moment as the recently opened road immediately begins to climb again towards the Castrin/Hofmandjoch Pass. This is an area rarely visited by tourists: the Val d’Ultimo, where you descend, is a secluded world of dense woods, meadows and wooden farmhouses with flowered balconies. A completely different universe opens up at the end of the busy Adige valley: pass the elegant town of Merano, the apple orchards of the Val Venosta, the church with the acrobatic priest in Naturno. Then it is again time to change gears and head up the steep side of the Stelvio. Hairpin bends both uphill and down, the quintessence of the alpine road in the memories of the champions. But it’s not over: because in Bormio there is no time to relax at the spa, not yet at least. To close the stage, the final climb leads to the Cancano lakes, with the “Fraele stairs” and 21 hairpin bends in perfect rhythm along the mountainside. Even the most inveterate cyclist will be fascinated by the two medieval towers, built to defend the route that connected Valtellina to Engadina and Germany, and by the fantastic panorama of the peaks, especially the snowfields of Cima Piazzi.
Prima il paese di Stelvio e quello di Trafoi. Poi i 48 ripidissimi tornanti, tra scorci mozzafiato di creste e ghiacciai. Fino a giungere – dopo un dislivello di 1870 metri – al passo dello Stelvio, che è a quota 2758 e che da sempre mette in comunicazione la val Venosta con la Valtellina lombarda. La strada del Passo dello Stelvio, costruita dagli austriaci per scopi militari nel 1820-25, è una delle più suggestive delle Alpi; e ancor di più lo è per i ciclisti, da quando Fausto Coppi per primo raggiunse il passo nel 1953 dopo un’epica salita. L’impresa del Campionissimo viene ricordata ogni anno anche dalla manifestazione cicloturistica non competitiva Stelviobike, con migliaia di appassionati che si cimentano sui due versanti partendo da Prato allo Stelvio o da Bormio.
