Sella Ronda

New Gran Fondo Pages

As an ongoing display of “Too much time on my hands”, “I have no life” and “Do you not understand the futility of what you’re doing?”, the answer to that being “Bite me – I know you love it”, I have added pages for my favorite Gran Fondos.

They are: the Maratona dles Dolomites, the Marmotte Alpes and the Sella Ronda Bike Day.

Yes, I could have spared myself the effort of creating a page for the latter, as it is part of the long version of the Maratona.

Did you not understand the first sentence of this post?

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Sella Ronda Bike Day

Sella Ronda Bike Day LogoThis page shows the track of the popular Sella Ronda Bike Day.

It doesn’t really matter where you start and/but course direction can change from year to year, i.e clock- or anti-clockwise.

However, I believe there is no (official) rule stating that you cannot go against the “advised” direction for the official event, but it would be silly to do so.

This loop is also part of the even more popular, but harder to enter, Maratona dles Dolomites. That starts just north of Corvara, in La Villa and includes two ascends of the Campolongo.

Because of those, the course direction of the Sella Ronda part for the Maratona is always clockwise. The counter-clockwise version of the Sella Ronda Bike Day, has the Campolongo as a descend.

It is free to enter the Sella Ronda Bike Day and does not require you to register, the Maratona is neither.

I have completed the counter-clockwise Sella Ronda Bike Day on an official occasion in 2011 and the Maratona dles Dolomites “on my own” in 2020 (Stage 6).

Giro d’Italia 2020 Report

stelvio-stage-9So, how did I fare this Giro d’Italia 2020, compared to what I had in mind beforehand?

Well, I choked on the Mortirolo (from Mazzo) again and – barely – made it up the Bernina, all the way from Tirano.

The difference with last year being, that this did not happen during the same stage and that the Mortirolo was just as hot, but the Bernina was the coldest of all.

But, I kinda, sorta, had my revenge on the Mortirolo, as I was on its summit no less than four times, twice during the same stage.

I also ended up on the Stelvio summit three times, during my prologue and as finishes for stages 7 and 9.

And, I was able to complete the Maratona dles Dolomites, which had been on my to-do/wish list, since I first visited the Dolomites in 2011.

Not surprisingly, that stage (6) also came with the highest elevation difference (D+) of all stages: almost 4,250 meters.

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Giro d’Italia 2020 Plans

Contrary to my past ‘Grand Tours’, I’m not going to write a road book for my Giro d’Italia 2020.

Every time I put a lot of effort in it and while I usually manage to generally follow the stages I had in mind, I frequently have to change plans anyway.

This can be for any number of reasons, my advancing age probably not being the least important.

But, I’ve also suffered from a cyclist nodule and intense, hernia induced or incident related (back) pains.

Plus, the weather can be a force to reckon with and not seldom have I been cycling in near freezing conditions or ice cold rain one day, only to have my brain blown out because of the heat the next.

And while I have new climbs to discover during this Giro, I am already quite familiar with the area(s) and most of its climbs.

So, I can leave it that and you can stop reading if you’re no longer interested, but I’m writing down a few (loose) ideas anyway…

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Giro d’Italia 2011 – Stage 2

Sella Ronda Bike Day

GPS Sella Ronda DayTwice a year, the ‘Sella Ronda Bike Day‘ – a combination of four passes in a 55 kilometer loop around the Sella group – is open for bicyclists only.

Between 8:30 and 15:30 the roads are closed to motor vehicles and thousands of cyclists go out for their ‘Sella Ronda’.

Since he was in the area anyway, C. joined them…

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