Back - Part IV

Day 4 saw us do a single climb up the Gavia. With its summit at 2652 metres it is one of the highest in Italy just behind Stelvio. The climb is about 16km with the first 4km flat. The road then pitches up to its average gradient of 8% with plenty of long ramps at 14-18%!

You certainly could notice the thin air at altitude, although not debilitating I'd hate to be trying to race up this climb!

Around 4 km from the summit was a 800m tunnel which was not internally lit. We had no lights on our bikes so were riding in total darkness, felt very weird and the mind started to play games a little bit.

The Lazye climbing machine made it look all so easy.
This was the Gavia on the day the Giro passed through. The Gavia is completely enveloped in a cloud. It was a miserable day up there for the riders as it rained and the temperature was close to 0 degrees.
The snowline in the Italian Alps is at 2000 metres at the moment. We got to see a lot of snow!
You can just make out the road way way down below. The Gavia's backdrop was the most dramatic of all the climbs we did.
I highly recommend the Speck and Cheese panini at the top of the summit. There is no ski resort at the top of the Gavia, so the single shop at the summit caters mainly for cyclists and has a great memorabilia section and amazing photos of when the Giro passed over the Gavia.