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All the way back in 1971. That said, in the Österreichrundfahrt there has actually been a mtf on the Edelweißspitze not too long ago which is basically an additional 2 km at 10% on cobbles after the hardest part of this Großglockner side. So yeah, way to go giro.
Edit: Oh man, Mayo beat me to it.
Edit2: As this was about really hard giro passes though, also a shoutout to the Timmelsjoch/Passo del Rombo used in 1988. That's another monster I'd really like to see
They finished at the main parking lot at Rettenbachferner at 2669m in the Tour de Suisse so it could be done in an edition with Stelvio or Agnello. Otherwise, you'd be doing a descent finish or the climb to Hochsölden, both of which would be excellent too...
I mean in a way it's just crazy. You have two of the hardest climbs in the Alps right next to each other and yet they've never been used together. Timmelsjoch - Rettenbachferner (if only the lower parking lot to keep the Cima Coppi in Italy) is probably the combination of climbs I want to see in a gt more badly than any other one.
Ah yeah, you may be right, there were different finish locations in the past. I was thinking of the finish at the parking lot after the tunnel that we had in the Tour de Suisse a couple of years ago. I think Spilak won ahead of Ion Izagirre. The parking lot is at 2805 m and the highest point of the road at 2830 m. 14 km @ 10.3 % is quite something at that altitude.
It's even crazier because Sölden has paid up for not one, but two foreign races over the years.
Iirc they did the tunnel finish in 2017 and the regular finish in 2015 and 2016.
My wishlist is mainly more to the south cause I used to holiday at Lago di Garda every summer. Prato di Nago (Rifugio Altissimu I don't even think is a road from there), but mainly Passo di Tremalzo is what I wanna see, but I fear Finestre is the sole option in dirt climbs in the Giro
All the way back in 1971. That said, in the Österreichrundfahrt there has actually been a mtf on the Edelweißspitze not too long ago which is basically an additional 2 km at 10% on cobbles after the hardest part of this Großglockner side. So yeah, way to go giro.
Edit: Oh man, Mayo beat me to it.
Edit2: As this was about really hard giro passes though, also a shoutout to the Timmelsjoch/Passo del Rombo used in 1988. That's another monster I'd really like to see
Lol that's like 9000 mt of vertical gain.BTW if you want to have as difficult stage as possible then Western Alps rules. Combos indluding Fauniera, Agnello, Sampeyre, Izoard etc are staggering! One can even connect them with Finestre.
It only takes two minutes looking at satelite images of the ravine between the Lago Cancano dam and the Stelvio road from Bormio to see that some people smokes really hard suff. That belongs to the fantasy cycling subforum.
There are none. The French climb that comes closest (but still a long way of), and is feasable in a road cycling race, is probably the newly paved col de la loze.
I love how small a real HC climb like Izoard looks on that profile.BTW if you want to have as difficult stage as possible then Western Alps rules. Combos indluding Fauniera, Agnello, Sampeyre, Izoard etc are staggering! One can even connect them with Finestre.
I'm not sure I do, these profiles etc are fun to mess around with but I think putting 2 climbs like this in one stage basically makes the entire rest of a GT irrelevant, and it does so in a way that doesn't really require attacking but having climb so hard that the best float to the top naturally. If riders roflcrack the excitement is also not gonna last very long. Also, using multiple such climbs in a day will typically massively neutralize the first one. Take Agnello 2011, Madeleine 2020, etc, Mortirolo 2012, there's enough of them.
Okay.
What i like to do is to put the hardest finishes rather early in the race, sort of what Vuelta likes to do from time to time and put the easier but tricky stages in week 3. A lot of hard climbs in Italy are at a quite low altitude. I think even Mortirolo could be held quite early in the race like end of week 1 or start of week 2.
Yeah the backloading is probably by far the worst thing about Giro routes. Especially when the first 2 weeks medium mountains tend to be the type where fear of the 3rd week shuts the race down adn there's not really a standard point to attack as you would probably have if you'd have a Sassotetto finish or just a straighforwards good climb + descent finish. Also think that Mortirolo is the big climb most suited to this as it's only a 45 minute climb, it's probably the most reliable in creating carnage but not the most likely to decide the GC too early.
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