Annemiek van Vleuten blog: Passo Gavia

Editor's note: The organisers of the 2019 Giro Rosa have been forced to cancel the summit finish on the Passo Gavia, which was to be the finish of stage 5 on July 9, due to unexpected landslides and bad weather in the area. The conditions have forced authorities to intermittently close the roads to traffic and organisers have re-routed the stage to finish at the Lago di Cancano.

Here we are at the start of the Giro Rosa!

I think it's the hardest parcours that the organisers have ever designed with a lot of climbing and not much for the sprinters. The addition of the Passo Gavia will be the highlight of this year's race, and it will be epic, but it's not the only ingredient that will make this Giro Rosa hard. It will probably be the first place where there are more significant time differences, but there will also be opportunities on the uphill time trial on stage 6 and the summit finish of stage 9. These will also be crucial stages.

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I was pleased when the organisers announced that this year's course would include the Passo Gavia because I know that climb very well. I've spent about 200 days during my career in that area, and it's always been my preferred region for altitude training. I feel at home in the Valtellina region of Italy. The people from the hotel there – I love them – have become such good friends.

Last year, they closed the hotel in September and invited me for their annual staff BBQ, which was a lovely evening for all the people that work in the hotel to celebrate the end of the summer season. It was two weeks before the Innsbruck World Championships, and there I was at this fantastic party singing karaoke songs with the manager and the maître d'hôtel. It was a lot of fun!

Leading Mitchelton-Scott

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