One of our favorite things to do as bike riding photographers is to pre-ride important climbs/stages ahead of the race. It’s how we got started back in 2009/2010. We rode some stages, took some pictures, wrote some words. It’s a simple formula, and it’s my favorite work of all.
This time around, we headed into the far western part of Italy to visit the Col dell’Agnello - the focal point of Friday’s, Stage 19, which finishes at the French ski station of Risoul.
The last nine kilometers of the Col dell’Agnello average close to 10% - nearly all of that over 2000m in elevation and that final wall of difficult comes after 40 or so kilometers and well over a thousand meters of climbing. The Agnello will never be mentioned in the same breath as the Zoncolan or Mortirolo, but it should be: it’s every bit as terrible.
We stayed near the town of Casteldelfino, so we didn’t have to do the entire 50+ kilometers of the stage - just the hard part, the beautiful part.
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There are many, many, many climbs in Europe that can boast double digit uphill percentages. The Agnello is not special in that regard. It is very special though, and VERY hard - and that’s all courtesy of the altitude. The hard part of this climb begins around the 2000m mark - and continues all the way to the top at over 2700m. For that reason, it’s a monster - a beautiful one, but a monster nonetheless.
The forecast for Friday is overcast with a chance of afternoon showers - pretty much what we had earlier in the week. I don’t like to imagine how cold it will be at the top if it does start to rain. It will be bad for the racers - yes - but if that happens, I think the fans standing on the side of the road for hours and hours will get it worst.
It doesn’t look like this even slightly right now, but I like to remember our trip over this pass last summer with a small group of friends and inGamba Tours. That was a good time.
Once the hard part begins, it doesn’t really end until the top. There’s a slight reprieve at one point, but it’s only slight, and it will be over in three deep breaths for the racers.
In the pictures, it looks like there’s a LOT of snow. You’ll see lots of big snow images, but don’t be fooled - it’s really not all that much. There are some hefty clumps of snow along the climb, especially toward the top, but considering that it isn’t even June yet, we were surprised that there wasn’t more.
The north side of the Agnello (the French side), rather, the Agnel - has even more snow, as you’d expect. The road is perfect on both sides though - not a trace of snow on the pavement.
We took a quick turn to check out the small village of Chianale at the end of the day. Definitely worth it. I haven’t seen too many places like this before.
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