By Bike

Bormio to Bormio via Passo di Mortirolo

The Passo di Mortirolo (1852 m.) is a high mountain pass in the Italian Alps. The road from Mazzo di Valtellina is one of the most demanding climbs in professional road bicycle racing, having been used in the Giro d’Italia stage race many times and often compared to Monte Zoncolan.

Starting from Mazzo, the Mortirolo ascent 1300m over 12.4 km at an average gradient of 10.5 %. The maximum slope is 18 %. I set out from Bormio early. Not far from Mazzo I’m joined by an Italian guided group from the US. Quite fortuitous, as I didn’t know where the climb started and it turned out to be hard to find. The group had a rest stop at the bottom, so I set off on my own.

In contrast to Zoncolan, this was a hard but much more manageable climb. I had warmed up properly. I had a weeks climbing under my belt. And I took my thermals off before starting. Most of the climb is over 12%. There is a really steep section is after about a 1/3 of the climb. The last section is steep at @ 9%, but feels almost flat after the earlier effort. At the top a Polish cyclist joins me. He goes on, I head back down.

Rain on the return journey. Fog and drizzle, the first encountered on my trip. Fortunately only for an hour or so.

Spent the afternoon wandering the old quarter of Bormio.

According to Garmin

Total distance: 82km

Max speed: 78.5km/hr

Calories: 3308

Ascent: 2417m

Descent: 2417m

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