It’s been a spectacular week of climbing and bike racing across northern Italy, but thankfully the Giro has saved the best for last as the race tackles the truly epic Colle della Finestre as the final stage for glory for this year’s General classification battle. Alberto Contador has the race sewn up with 4:37 over second placed Fabio Aru, stage 20 is a long one at 200km, with a massive climb of 18km that starts at 15km to go. I first rode this climb in 2005, and it’s been on my list of Top Rides ever since.To set some perspective here – the Colle delle Finestre has it all – 18.5km long, gaining 1694 meters to 2178m height, so length & height? Check.The top 8km are on hard packed dirt road. It’s not too hard to ride on, nor is it really slippery, but it does take more work than pedalling on asphalt… and is obviously way cooler, in an epic ride sense.The bottom 10km are a twisting series of switchbacks that climb through a forest from the valley floor at Susa. The grades are steepest in this bottom section – averaging about 9% and getting as high as 14%, but the worst part is the humidity, it hangs in the trees on a hot day like your neighbor’s stinky sweaty t-shirt. These are some hard kms, and at 10km they’re as long as a lot of the other rated climbs in the race.The roads are narrow and it’s a...
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