Last Saturday (June 26th 2010) I rode the famous Stelvio Pass. With a group of 130 riders I started as part of The Tristan Hoffman Challenge 2010 (a charity ride supported by the Dutch rider, supporting 3 different charities). Everyone had his or hers own challlenge ranging from climbing to the top once to climbing the Stelvio 3 times from different sides. Besides the cyclists, also a group of runners was trying to conquer the mountain.
The climb starting from Prato is just over 24K long and with 48 hairpins, it is regarded as one of the finest continuous hairpin sectors in the Alps. Over this distance of 24K, you climb 1808 heightmeters, the average percentage is thus 7.4 %. I also did a second ascent, starting from Santa Maria, Switzerland which isn’t actually the Stelvio Pass the first 13K but the Passo dell’Umbrail. The last 3K (of the total climb of 16K) is part of the ascent from Bormio. Both were great climbs and your suffering will be rewarded with the most amazing scenery in the world.