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Colle delle Finestre

The Giro announced it's 2011 route yesterday. In recent years, the Giro has been the most exciting of the Grand Tours. And 2011 looks like another innovative, mountainous route - complete with several unpaved sections. See Steephill for route details.

I thought I'd just give a small peak at one of the feature unpaved stretches.

The Hors Categorie Colle delle Finestre will be the main climb on the second last stage, and may well decide the Giro.

Colle delle Finestre

 

This giant is near the French border and the closest stage to me.  I go on a lot about French climbs .... but, even ignoring the challenging surface, this is harder than anything in the Tour.

I've (yet) to climb Finsestre - but it is now at the top of my hope-to-do list. But as luck would have it, my faithful Belgian domestique (good friend Eric) cycled it last year on one of his famous multi-day, sleep-in-the-wild, jaunts from Geneva. He has been kind enough to let me post a few photos. Bedankt.

Although just from a phone camera, it's clear what a beautiful climb this is.

The Colle delle Finestre has appeared one other time in the Giro - in 2005. There are a couple of monuments celebrating Danilo Di Luca as the first rider to reach the summit - photos below.

 

Colle dele Finestre Colle delle Finestre Colle delle Finestre Colle delle Finestre

 

The lower part of the climb hairpins up through the woods before getting above the tree line:

Colle delle Finestre

 

The top half of this monster climb is unpaved, exciting for a pro race:

 

Colle delle Finestre

 

Clearly this is one of those climbs that just keeps getting better the higher one gets:

 

Colle delle Finestre

 

Don't be surprised if we see a lot of snow during the race next May:

 

Colle delle Finestre