Monte Zoncolan (1,750 m) is located in the Carnic Alps, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy.
It is one of the toughest and most demanding climbs in road bicycle racing, feared by many, including the pros.
If you average all three climbs, you’re looking at near 12% over the 30+ kilometers.
You can’t prepare yourself for this, no strategy works.
The hard bits are constantly 15%.
For 5 kilometers…
Giro d’Italia
The Monte Zoncolan featured in a Giro stage nine times: seven times for the men and twice for the women.
When the Vuelta came up with the Angliru as a harder climb than the Mortirolo, the Italians where not impressed and introduced the Monte Zoncolan…
The most frequently cycled ascend is the one from Ovaro.
It was included in a stage six times: for men five times and for women once.
The ascend from Sutrio, deemed less of a monster (not really), has been included three times: twice for men and once for women.
Heed the warning signs
Just outside Ovaro, the Church of the Holy Trinity is a fitting last opportunity to confess your sins and get absolved before you cycle on…
A bit further on, in Lliariis, people are extremely helpful, offering several warnings written on the walls of their houses:
- ‘lasciate ogni speranza voi che entrate’ – leave all hope, ye who enter
- ‘chi sa soffrire puo’ osare tutto’ – those who know how to suffer can dare everything
- ‘qui si va sulle salita dolente qui si va nell’eterno dolore’ – here we go on the painful climb here we go into eternal pain
While you may have missed these and did not turn around by now, there was a final warning which was harder to overlook.
Or ignore…
It reads ‘Gateway to Hell’ – no kidding – but this sign is now gone, so you’re on your own if you missed the heartfelt warnings.
On the upside: if you want to go on this suicide mission when there’s a Giro stage planned with a Monte Zoncolan finish, there will be additional ornaments along the road.
Honoring Cycling’s Legends
Speaking of ornaments: there are commemorate signs along the Ovaro ascend of the Monte Zoncolan every ~500 meters:
- Ottavio Bottecchia
- Alfredo Binda
- Louison Bobet
- Federico Bahamontes
- Jacques Anquetil
- Felice Gimondi
- Eddy Merckx
- Francesco Moser
- Bernard Hinault
- Giuseppe Saronni
- Gianni Bugno
- Miguel Indurain
- Marco Pantani
- Gino Bartali
- Fausto Coppi.
Near the summit there are three more:
- Gilberto Simoni (twice, as he was twice a stage winner)
- Annemiek van Vleuten (the only woman winning a stage from this end)
- Franco Ballerini.
The latter was posthumously honored as ‘friend of the Friuli region’ and promotor of the Monte Zoncolan in the Giro.
Did that make him the devil’s advocate?
Bike Rebel’s Monte Zoncolan
In 2011, I took on the ascend from Ovaro, after a three-hour drive to get there.
Shortly before 1pm, with a temperature of well over 30 degrees Celsius at the foot, I got on my bike.
Feeling the fatigue from the days before, the temperature rising to 37 degrees didn’t do me any good.
To date, this is the only ascend during which I thought several times that I would not make it…
Read the report of that struggle and weep.
For the Giro of 2015, I considered a new attempt at the Monte Zoncolan, but I wisely put a lid on that.
Monte Zoncolan from Ovaro
From Ovaro, the ascend of the Monte Zoncolan is ‘only’ 9.8 kilometers long.
With an elevation gain of 1,206 meters, the average grade is a staggering 12.3%.
Read the stories of people – like me – that have done it and lived to tell about it.
If that doesn’t make you shit your pants, even a professional cyclist like Damiano Cunego is on record:
“The Monte Zoncolan is not hell, it is not a monster. It is much worse than that…”
The steepest kilometer has an average of 17.2%.
The steepest 5-kilometer stretch is 15.4%.
And during either, you will encounter sections up to 23%…
Every time you think it cannot get any worse, or if you hope you will be able to catch your breath around the next corner, you will be confronted with an even more impossible stretch.
It’s only between kilometers 8.5 and 9.5 – the part with the galleries – that you are offered a short respite.
The galleries are now neatly tarmac-paved and lit – that wasn’t the case when I cycled them.
You may expect a nice little tavern at the summit of the Monte Zoncolan, a place where you can recover and enjoy a well-deserved snack.
You will be disappointed: other than the summit monument, there is absolutely nothing there…
There may be an “off the track” tavern/rifugio left or right of the summit, but the one I could see at the time was closed.
Oh well, the cows were friendly.
A video from the Col Collective here.
From Sutrio
At first glance, the climb on the eastern flank of the Monte Zoncolan, from Sutrio, seems less of mission impossible than the one from Ovaro.
It has 1,183 meters of elevation gain, but over 13.2 kilometers – an average of ‘only’ 9%…
The first 8 kilometers are definitely less hard, but the final 3 are just ridiculously steep.
Actually even worse than the final out of Ovaro.
It averages 12.9% and has a kilometer at 14.1%, maxing out at 27%…
So, use the ‘flat-ish’ bit between kilometers 9.8 and 11.2 to the max to ‘recover’ before tackling this final…
And Monte Zoncolan from Priola
The climb from Sutrio has an alternative climb up Monte Zoncolan.
Possibly even more ridiculous than the Ovaro ascend, starting in Priola.
This was actually the ascend of Monte Zoncolan from the east, until the road from Sutrio was constructed.
It’s 8.4 kms long and has the last ~4 kilometers in common with Sutrio.
Like the Ovaro end, it features a steepest kilometer of 17.2%, plus a 5-kilometer stretch at 14%.
However, the entire climb has an average of 13.5%, which is worse than the Ovaro climb.
Mathematically, this climb scores less than the Ovaro ascend on ClimbFinder, though.
But if you apply a flat “average gradient * average gradient * distance” factor to both, Sutrio scores 1,531 points and Ovaro 1,483…
Bonus fun fact: if you’re not impressed by the Monte Zoncolan and want something harder, you don’t need to go very far: at the other end of the valley, there’s the Passo della Forcella.
That one scores 2,299 points…
