Stelvio Pass – Passo dello Stelvio – Stilfserjoch

You see the pictures of the mighty Stelvio Pass on the Internet and you instantly feel the urge to get on your bicycle.

Especially the pictures from the Prato side of the climb are renowned. However, also the – similar – pictures from the Bormio end are jaw-dropping.

With a summit at 2,758 meters, it’s second on the list of Europe’s highest passes, after the Iseran – a few dead ends are higher, but not all cycle-able with a road bike.

And I do not count the artificial loop around the Bonette (the Cime) as that is just a frill…

The Stelvio Pass was included in a Giro d’Italia stage 13 times since 1953, lastly in 2020.

Whenever it is included, it is – obviously – the Cima Coppi, the highest pass of that year’s edition.

The Stelvio Pass is also included in a Gran Fondo – like “La Stelvio Santini” – and on several days a year it’s closed to motorized traffic.

During the Stelvio Bike Day, the roads from Prad, Bormio and Santa Maria (CH, Umbrail) are closed

I’ve enjoyed another one of these: the Mapei Day 2011, on my birthday 🙂

The advantage of that is clear, but you will be sharing the road with thousands of other cyclists (or skaters, hand bikers, etc.).

Which is better than sharing it with motorized traffic – as with many of these famous passes, the Stelvio Pass is a magnet to motorists and (wannabee) Formula 1 car drivers.

Also when planning to climb the Stelvio Pass, you’d do well to inform yourself about the weather conditions.

I have experienced 30+ degrees in the valley on either side and close to zero degrees at the summit.

It may even snow up there, any given day…

Profiles from Prato and Bormio

Stelvio Pass from Prato

Starting from Prato, the Stelvio Pass has a length of roughly 25 km and an elevation gain of just over 1,800 meters.

In 2008, I climbed up the Stelvio Pass from this end for the first time.

In 2015 I had a round trip up both ends consecutively.

And in 2020, I ended up on its summit three times, once from Prato.

Both in 2008 and in 2015, I got on the bike at the Hotel Gasthof Stern in Prato, in 2020, I started a little further out and took the fork to Solda first.

⚠️ Be advised that there is now a mandatory bike path between Prato and Stilfser Brücke – this will probably be extended to Trafoi.

The first eight kilometers of the Stelvio Pass, up to Gomagoi where you can take a left to Solda, and then on to Trafoi are not too hard.

Bonus: the climb (from Gomagoi) to Solda / Sulden is 8.4 kilometers long with an elevation gain of 554 meters.

Not too crowded with traffic and with a nice restaurant next to the cable car entrance, where the road ends in a parking.

This is my climb up to Solda from Prato, i.e. the first half of my 2020 stage:

Shortly before Trafoi you pass through the first 2 hairpins – these are just after the gallery between Gomagoi and Trafoi.

The Stelvio Pass counts 48 hairpins in total from this end – the next 2 you encounter when leaving Trafoi, at Hotel Bellavista.

After that, you’ll cycle quite some distance through a reasonably sheltered – tree covered – area, changing between slightly winding sections and more challenging bits with hairpins.

This pretty much goes on until “tornante” 32, from where the next kilometers and hairpin sections have a more open character.

From “tornante” 24, just before hotel restaurant Franzenshöhe in nr. 22, you finally get to look at the view of the remaining hairpins, winding up (far) above you…

From there, until you reach the summit of the Stelvio Pass, you are rewarded with the ever more breathtaking views downwards, for which the Stelvio is known so well.

At the usually very crowded summit, you are met with the smell of bratwurst – Bruno’s hot dog and “wurstel” trolley is the first thing you encounter.

If you want to have some good food, ride on to Albergo Genziana, just past the shopping gallery.

That area is one of the biggest arrays of souvenir shops I have encountered on any summit…

From this end, you can enjoy a day without motorized traffic during the Stelvio Bike Day.

Video of the Stelvio Pass from Prato by the Col Collective

From Bormio

On paper, the ascend of the Stelvio Pass from the south may look less challenging than the one from the north side

It’s just over 21 kilometers long with some 1,500 altimeters.

I’ve done this end four times: during my Giro of 2011 / Mapei Day 2011  and Stelvio revisited in 2015 and in 2020.

If you consider the finish on the Stelvio Pass summit from Santa Maria (CH), i.e. via de Umbrail, a separate climb: I did that twice – in 2011 and as the prologue of my Giro d’Italia 2020.

Despite its lower ranking, the grades are almost equal to the Prato end, and the final can be demanding if the biting cold wind happens to be a strong head wind.

Also from Bormio, you can look forward to a beautiful climb, with similarly numbered hairpins.

The Stelvio Pass from Bormio has 40: number 40 you will find just outside Bormio, where the “BORMIO m 1225” sign is on the wall.

(The smaller sign reads 1256 s.l.m. because Bormio village is at 1225 and you have gained 31 meters up to that hairpin.)

Passing Bagni di Bormio, you turn away from Bormio and when you’re some 6 kilometers and a couple more hairpins in, you reach the series of short tunnels.

Luckily, the bike lights and reflectors for these – some of them were pitch dark – are advisable, but no longer really necessary, because they are now (well) lit, albeit narrow.

❗️Be careful when passing through these on your way down, as they have some nasty turns inside and they are usually wet.

After you pass these tunnels, this end of the Stelvio Pass will throw some short, stinging, sections of 14, 15% at you.

However, you also have a stunning view on the most beautiful part of the climb, the series of 14 hairpins – 28 to 15 – snaking up along the rocks above you.

As you climb these, the views on the part of the Stelvio Pass below you are similar to the ones found in the top half of the Prato ascend.

After looking back one final time, you will be able to catch your breath a bit on the fairly straight and later somewhat flatter passage towards the final part of the climb.

If you’re not confronted by a – bitterly cold – headwind that is, because if you are, it’s not so much fun…

Once you get past the chapel, you can already see the start of that “grand finale” of the Stelvio Pass in the distance.

Approaching the summit of / split with the Umbrail, the grades go up to 10% again, but after that, it gets really tough when that becomes 12, 13, 14%.

This last part of the climb seems to go on forever and if you do get that headwind there, you’ll be extremely happy once you finally reach the summit.

At least Bruno’s bratwurst smell is not welcoming you here…

This end is – besides for the Stelvio Bike Day – the scene of the Mapei day, or Re Stelvio-Mapei Day as it is called now.

A video of the Stelvio Pass from Bormio by the Col Collective.

Bonus: Stelvio Pass via the Umbrail

This only counts when you climb the Umbrail from Santa Maria.

Just past the summit, you’ll end up on the Bormio end of the Stelvio – you can then climb the final stretch as described above.

More info on the Umbrail on this page.