Cycling holidays in Italy

by Gennaro de Concilio
(Venice, Italy )

In the past saturday we have make a drop-off by a long-term bike rental service (hire lasted 4 months) .

Mr. Dean is our last customer, coming from USA for his holidays, have rent a big quality road bike (with drop bar) and have pay a very good rate !

During 4 months Mr. Dean have explored north Italian country, around Garda Lake, Como Lake, Giro di Lombardia bicycle race path (Bellagio and Ghisallo) , Trentino Alto Adige, Veneto region, Italian Alps, Julien Alps in Slovenia and Croatian country.

I would like write about Ghisallo hill, (a part by Tour of Lombardy's Itinerary): Colle del Ghisallo is a mountain pass road that connects the upper part of Valassina Larian Triangle. The point of the pass, at an altitude of 754 m above sea level, is located near Magreglio. A few meters from the pass is a small church, the sanctuary of the Madonna del Ghisallo. Its name comes from a certain Ghisallo which in medieval times in that place was attacked by bandits and made a vow to Our Lady to build a church in his honor if he survived.

The ascent of Ghisallo (from the north) is traditionally traveled by the Tour of Lombardy and was even more times into the course of the Tour of Italy. For this reason, the Madonna del Ghisallo is especially venerated by cyclists, and in 1948 Pope Pius XII proclaimed the universal patroness of cyclists. Occasion a torch votive, blessed by the Pope, was brought from Rome to the shrine by a relay team of cyclists, the last two torchbearers were Bartali and Coppi.

Next to the shrine stands the Museum of cycling (see below) in the forecourt there is a monument to the rider.

A steep slope of Ghisallo

You can climb to the shrine from two sides. When they say "Ghisallo" or "Madonna del Ghisallo" cyclists almost always means the road that climbs from Bellagio (north side), making the climb more challenging.

From the junction of highway 583, exit from Bellagio, it presents a stretch of about 4 km climb, followed by about 3 km in the plane with short stretches of downhill, and then again approximately 1.5 km climb to the Sanctuary. The height difference is slightly less than 500 meters, the crossing point is at 754 m above sea level. I have an uphill slope fairly constant with an average just under 9% and peaks up to 14%, include the flat segment, the average gradient is 5.5% approximately.

There are many hairpin species in the final stretch. The road is almost entirely surrounded by woods. The best professionals are able to make the journey in less than 20 minutes (Paolo Bettini took about 19'30 "in the Giro di Lombardia 2005).

A more demanding variant is known as "Superghisallo. It starts from Bellagio and follow the main road to Guello (where it ends on the first uphill stretch) and here you turn right towards Monte San Primo and go uphill for 4-5 km to a height of 969, in area Plan Ranch, where the crossroad, turn left and you reach the Piazzale del Santuario downhill.

The other side (south side), which reaches Magreglio Canzo through grass and Ace (a variant reaches Canzo coming from Pusiano and another for salt Onno Valbrona rejoining Asso above), goes much more smoothly, present major difficulties (slope up 10%) only in the last mile.

From Ace can also climb to the Colma of Sormano (altitude 1124 m) along the main road (about 9 km with an average gradient of around 8%) or through the grueling Wall Sormano recently resurfaced.

The Museum of cycling

For many decades there is between the champions of cycling (mostly Italian, but not only) the practice of donating their memorabilia to the Shrine of the Ghisallo: These include, for example, bicycles used by Bartali, Coppi and Merckx in their victories in the Tour de France, the bicycle used by special Moser for the record time, and different mesh pink, yellow and rainbow.

In the nineties, these relics were now so numerous that find no place in the small church: it was therefore conceived the project of a museum of cycling, to be erected beside the shrine. Chair the committee for the realization of the museum was named Fiorenzo Magni.

After several delays, the museum was finally inaugurated on 14 October 2006, at the Giro di Lombardia in 2006, a ceremony which was attended by several samples of the present and past. The museum is spread over three floors and includes a multimedia collection of material on cycling. The most important relics in any case continue to be exposed in the church sanctuary.

More about cycling in Italy here