Granfondo Pantani Reccy

Our plan was to leave early to get as much of the 172km course covered in good weather. As we got out our bikes and starting riding the Gavia, the weather was already looking bad.  Thick low-lying cloud was starting to envelope the mountain tops and rolling down the mountain sides towards us. On the steep lower slopes of the Gavia we recalled the epic battle of 1988 Giro where Andy Hampsten braved the blizzard conditions to distance the other contenders and lay the foundations for his eventual victory in Milan. The road surface had recently been renewed for the passing of this year's Giro. The sections of unmetalled road that once existed must have presented a much greater challenge to Hampsten and his contemporaries.

As we climbed into the mist our support car was invisible only twenty metres behind us. The road is very narrow at this stage as it climbs through the woods. Jamie was already making my legs hurt more than I wanted and we were only about six kilometres into the 17 kilometre climb. The Gavia is a giant reaching up to 2652m and I knew I had to pace myself. We were reasonably warm despite the rain and the mist thanks to our efforts against gravity. As we reached the last five or six kilometres, the road surface turned rough only adding to the toughness of the climb.

As we got close to the top, the trees disappeared and I expect on a clear day you would be rewarded with a stunning view. Eventually we climbed out of the mist as we approached the summit and were greeted by a steep section through an unlit tunnel. Shortly after, Jamie attacked to stretch his legs and I could see him disappear up the hairpins in front of me. The gradient eased and for the first time you got the sense that you were making progress. The last kilometre winds it way across a rocky plateau to the refuge on the top. As we huddled under the official sign the hail came on and we once again thought back to that fateful day in 1988.

What I didn't expect was the severity of the descent that now faced us. It was unbelievably rough and narrow with a steep drop on one side. After about 500m I couldn't feel my fingers any longer and was having trouble braking. I was relying on sheer gut instinct to keep my two wheels in the rough strip of tarmac clinging to the side of the mountain. Fortunately, as we passed Bormio the sun was shining brightly and we stopped briefly for coffee and lunch. The next 25 kilometres were just rolling down the valley road to the bottom of the main obstacle of the day... The Mortirolo.

The climb described by Lance as the hardest climb he has ever ridden. It zig-zags up 1300m in 12km with an average gradient of over ten percent. What that average hides is the middle section with gradients around 18 percent for close to four kilometres. Jamie left me soon into the climb. I was remembering his advice, don't try and go with anyone else's pace, just ride your own. Pantani holds the record for the climb at 42:32, Jamie sailed up there exactly 10 minutes slower than Pantani and I grovelled 1hr and 5 mins and suffered the whole way. There is just no respite on the climb, constantly out of the saddle just fatigues you so quickly but there is no other way to get up this climb.

Even equipped with 34x25 I was struggling. The hair pins seemed easier than the rest of the climb, the converse is normally true on normal climbs. The steepest sections between kilometre three and nine were extremely tough; the Marco Pantani memorial which clings to the side of the wall on a tight hairpin around the eight kilometre mark provides a useful visual clue that the steep section is almost at an end. The memorial immortalises Pantani climbing out of the saddle in the style for which he was famous and is reportedly erected at the point where he chose to launch his attack and win the stage in the '94 giro. He took massive amounts of time out of Evgeni Berzin that year but it wasn't enough to take the pink jersey from Berzin who secured his win with excellent time trial skills.

After finally getting to the top (finding Jamie actually coming down the hill towards me) my legs were shot. I had nothing left. The descent didn't start for another few kilometres as the route traces the top of the ridge towards Aprica. Eventually the road descended to the finish line in the main street in Aprica. The mediofondo finishes here but the granfondo carries on to take in an additional twenty kilometre loop that includes the 'small' climb of Santa Cristina. At only seven kilometres long its the shortest climb on the route and the least severe at eight percent average gradient but it is unbelievable tough at this stage in the event. We hit the bottom of the climb cursing the height we had just lost in the descent to Aprica.

For the first time in the day, Jamie looked to be finding the going tough, much tougher he confessed than he had remembered in the event itself but together we reached the summit and continued straight onto the descent. After arriving back in Aprica having retraced the last few kilometres of descent from the Mortirolo, we had a celebratory beer and thought back to the climbs we had faced today, and the champions who had risen to the challenge of these infamous peaks and cemented their places in cycling history.

La Fuga are offering a weekend tour to the Granfondo Pantani for 2009. Sign up to our newsletter to receive more details as they are released.