2016 Giro d’Italia on the Maratona route!
The 2016 Giro d’Italia course was unveiled today. Among the many revelations, one stand out in particular. To celebrate the 30th edition of the Maratona dles Dolomites next year, the 14th stage of the Giro will cross the iconic mountain roads of Europe’s premier Gran Fondo race.
This is an exceptional acknowledgement by the Giro organizers to a sports event that in its thirty years of existence has succeeded in bringing to fruition the full potential of the Dolomite-biking experience, increasing the importance and awareness of the strategic benefits of two-wheeled tourism, not only in the Dolomites, but in all of Alto Adige. The stage will give participants of the Maratona the possibility, at a distance, to measure their steel up against professional cyclists along all the passes that characterize the Dolomitic event.
Saturday, May 21st, the classic Dolomitic Queen Stage will leave Alpago and end in Alta Badia, in Corvara to be precise. When they reach the town of Arabba after 85 kilometers, riders will face the classic roads of the Maratona with its familiar pinwheel of breathtaking passes that overlook all the Ladin valleys: Pordoi, Sella, Gardena, Campolongo, Giau, Falzarego and Valparola.
Once the riders reach La Villa, they’ll head for the Mür dl giat (the cat wall), a grueling ramp about one kilometer long with gradients in the 19% range. Cyclists will tackle roads with an elevation change of 5,000+ meters on this 210 km-stage. The finish line is in Corvara, on the same finishing straight as the Maratona. The Giro hasn’t finished in Alta Badia since 2002: the last rider to win a stage with a finish line in Corvara was Spaniard Julio Perez Cuapio.
Giro d’Italia and Maratona dles Dolomites – Enel: a match made in heaven by virtue of a common passion – cycling and the bicycle – that each year increasingly renews the spirit and affirms its history, on a quest to achieve new horizons, new opportunities, and new dimensions.
The planimetry of the Maratona route reflects the 14th stage of the Giro d’Italia 2016.
For more information please visit: www.maratona.it