Recently I wrote a 2019 Giro d’Italia Mountains Preview over at Podiumcafe.com. The article includes a ranking-by-difficulty of all the categorised climbs in the 3-week race. The 7th most difficult? Verrogne.
It’s a little village in the Val d’Aosta region of Italy above the city of Aosta. I’d never heard of it, so I decided to have a look. I was a touch tired so my ambitions were limited. Just a short loop up and down.
I was pleasantly surprised. Super quiet roads and lovely views throughout. It’s a perfect time of year for a climb of this altitude as it’s perfectly clear but all the nearby big mountains are nice and snow covered.
Here’s the official Giro profile of the climb – 13.8 kms at 7.1% average. I took a slightly different start, but quickly joined the official route.
See here for a map showing more climbs in Aosta and Piemonte regions,
I remember cycling Passo Gavia last year and they were resurfacing the road everywhere. We correctly guessed that it would be included in the 2019 Giro. There is plenty of brand new tarmac here too:
Honestly, I don’t have too much more to add except that it exceeded my expectations … and here are some more photos. My favourite photo of the day:
I will say that I did a good job looping back to the start. Instead of going to the very bottom of the valley – busy roads – I traversed a little jutting mountain and stayed on quiet roads. Verrogne: a pleasant surprise. Recommended.
