The numbers are solid, the Garibaldi (Giro Race Bible) says 13.6k and 8.4%. That only tells about one slice of pizza worth of the story though.

On the road, riders will have about a 10k climb and 400 vertical meters to take care of right before they even get to the start Blockhaus. Call it a warm-up or something.

From there, the road gets smaller and smaller until it's about one and a half lanes wide for the vast portion of the climb. It's a small, perfect road that leaps upward at painful gradients.

Normally, this would be a negative for a Grand Tour. Grand Tour finishes don't like small road finishes. They're bad for the huge infrastructure that comes with a stage finish. Not to worry - the Giro found a solution! The race turns off the small road and on to a (what seems to be) six lane wide super highway with 200m to go, and voila - the perfect stage finish set-up, following the perfect climb.

April 14th, 2017

March 21st, 2017

March 7th, 2017

April 14^th, 2017

March 21^st, 2017

March 7^th, 2017