The year was 2005. Paolo Salvodeli went into the final mountain stage with a 2 minute 9 second lead over second place Gilberto Simoni. They could see from the profile it was going to be tough. But no one was prepared for what was to come. As groups of riders went on the attack, Simoni managed to get himself into one with Di Luca and Rujano, and the race leader struggled to limit his losses.
The Finestre had caused the Malia Rosa to lose 2 minutes 23 seconds to his fierce challenger, making Gibo the virtual race leader with 15km to go. But with between 8 and 20 bonus seconds on the line The Falcon was in need of the performance of his life.
On the descent Salvodeli took back a whole minute putting him back in the lead but needing to put a good performance in on Sestrieres. As Simoni's group of 3 disintegrated into every man for himself , Gibo could only watch as with Rujano speeding away for the 20 bonus seconds, a potential 3rd Giro title flew out of his reach and Salvodeli took home the Maglia Rosa in extraordinary fashion.
For 6 years since, the Finestre has lay hidden from the Giro, deep in the Alpes.
Until now.
The stage starts in Verbania and is mostly flat for the next 200k. While for this reason the first part of the stage might seem relatively insignificant it should not be written off. Yes it is flat, but it is also very long. This is the longest stage of the 2011 Giro and it has been saved for last.
140km might not be felt by the riders. 200 however after 19 days in the saddle, will be felt big time.
And that’s where the Colle delle finestre comes into play.
Situated in Piemont and with a hight gain of : 1694 m, the Finestre is best described as unforgiving.
Unforgiving because it maintains a consistently high gradient, offering no flatter sections for even a little bit of a restbite.
Unforgiving because it is has an average gradient of 9.2%.
Unforgiving because it lasts for 18 and a half kilometres.
18 and a half kilometres, the last 17 of which don’t go under 8.3%
But that is not where the difficulties of the Finestre stop.
If the Zoncolan or Grossglockner, are adrelaline fuelled pschycos , packing in their high gradients into small spaces to put off riders, the Finestre is a cold calculated killer.
First, to break the riders, the climb throws in her steepest ramp early with a 14% section being hit at 1.9km , with over 16km of climbing still to go.
This is an early cull. Only the strongest survive. With the exception of a few superdomestiques and any riders up the road, the chances of individuals to help their team leader's ends here.
The climb then maintains a steady but very high average for kilometre after kilometre, breaking everyone and anyone who miscalculates their effort even slightly. The sharp turns the riders are forced to take every now and again, do little to help their situation.
“the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” To quote Thucydides.
By the 10k mark, the climb will have brought the the riders to breaking point. Climbs of over 9% generally tend to come to an end by this point.
That’s when the Finestre comes in for the kill.
It takes away from the riders the asphalt. The road becomes a glorified goat track. True to its nature, the mountain maintains the steady high grades which define it. We saw what unpaved road did to Nieve at Gardeccia. That was 150m and barely uphill. Try 8000m at 9%
On the gravel, the brutal turns become even more challenging, especially with 12% sections and nothing remotely flat in sight.
What will be in sight will be the signs telling the riders how far it is to the top. Unfortunately for them, after 14km of a 9% climb, they are not going to believe the signs. This is one of those very rare stretches of road in cycling, where every 2km can take 10 minutes to complete.
The good news for the riders is that at some point they will reach the top. But with a climb of this length and of this gradient after this many weeks of cycling, there is no way of knowing how long it will take.
Nevertheless, finally after 215k of racing and 20km of insane climbing, some time during the afternoon of May 28th 2011 the lead riders will fight it out for the prestigious kom title at the top of the Finestre.
That is when they will look down into the Olympic Valley.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram