Although Monte Zoncolan is one of the most epic places of the Giro d’Italia, young cyclingfans might be surprised, that it was introduced to the race only in 2003.
The Simoni-double
In 2003, for the first (and only one time) the ascent was used from the Sutrio side. It’s a 13,5 km long road with an average gradient of 9%, the maximum is 23%. The ascent was introduced also to the Giro Donne. Actually, the women visited the legend before the men, and Fabiana Luperini was the first conquer of the top in 1997.
Among the men, Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) won the first two occasions. In 2003, he was already in the maglia rosa when the race arrived at the foot of the Monte Zoncolan on the 12th stage. On the ascent Mercatone Uno was setting the pace, they rode for Marco Pantani, who was already more than 5 minutes behind Simoni in the general classification. But this was the Monte Zoncolan, and he was Marco Pantani, so,you never know.
The reduced peloton (again, thanks Mercatone Uno) was chasing Wladimir Belli (Lampre). But the real chase began when Simoni attacked with 4 km to go, and only Francesco Casagrande (Lampre) could go with him. Stefano Garzelli (Vini Cardiola-Sidermec) and Pantani were the first chasing duo. Simoni not only passed Belli very soon, but he also dropped Casagrande.
Gilberto Simoni won the stage, extended his led in the GC, later won the Giro with more than seven minutes ahead of second-placed Garzelli.
Next time Giro d’Italia visited Monte Zoncolan was in 2007. This time the riders climbed it from the Ovaro side. It’s “only” 10 km long, has an average of 11,9% steepness with the maximum gradient of 22%. This is the tougher side of the climb. This time Simoni (now riding for Saunier Duval) wasn’t in the leading position. He was 4th in the GC, more than 3 minutes behind maglia rosa man Danilo di Luca (Liquigas).
On the final kilometers, Simoni, his teammate, Leonardo Piepoli, Di Luca, Andy Schleck (CSC) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre) formed a group. At the end, only Simoni and Piepoli remained, and “Gibbo” won the stage up to the to of Monte Zoncolan for the second time.
Time for new conquerers
The final ascent on the 15th stage in the Giro d’Italia 2010 started with a five-man breakaway group. They had cca 3 minutes advantage. This time again, the road was the a field of a battle among the GC-favourites.
David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne) was in the maglia rosa, but the teamwork of Liquigas indicated, that this stage would be the place of Ivan Basso’s attack. Nevertheless, he was more than seven minutes behind Arroyo in the GC before the stage. The other protagonists of the day were Cadel Evans (BMC) and Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli), also more than 7 and 9 minutes behind the actual GC-leader.
And exactly that happened, what everyone expected. Basso attacked. Inside the final 6 km, the trio of him, Evans and Scarponi was leading the race, but soon Scarponi lost the connection, and also Evans was dropped by Basso. The Italian rode a 4 km long solo ride, won the stage, jumped up to the 3rd position in the GC. He gained the maglia rosa on the 19th stage and won the Giro d’Italia that year.
The race visited Monte Zoncolan also in the subsequent year. The 14th stage was shortened 35 km due safety reasons. The last man of the breakaway was Gianluca Brambilla (Colnago CSF Inox), but everybody was focusing on the upcoming battle of the GC riders. Alberto Contador (Saxo) was in the maglia rosa, his biggest rivals were Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre), although they both were more than 3 minutes behind Contador in the GC.
Also Igor Anton (Euskatel) had a relatively good position before the stage, no wonder he tried to gain a better GC-result.
The first important attack from the peloton happened by Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Anton came just after him, with 6,5 km to go. Only Contador could go with him, but also he was dropped a km later. Contador and Scarponi rode together, Nibali joined them a bit later.
At the end Anton celebrated his grandious solo victory. But Contador remained in pink until the end of the race.
Victory from the breakaway group
The 20th stage in the Giro d’Italia 2014 is a unique one, because this was the only time so far, when breakaway riders survived the road up to the Monte Zoncolan. The peloton, more precisely, the Movistar, riding for maglia rosa man Nairo Quintana started to loosen the harness around 60 km to go. From this moment on, the gap just kept rising. At the foot of the Monte Zoncolan, the escapees had already more than 7 minutes advantage.
At the head of the race Michael Rogers (Tinkoff-Saxo), Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocattoli- Venezuela) and Francesco Manuel Bongiorno (Bardiani-CSF) formed a group, but Pellizotti dropped soon. With 3,7 km to go Bongiorno rode away from Rogers, but the Australian rejoined quickly. A few hundred meters later he became the leader of the race and won the stage. Unfortunately, an overly obsessed fan (and there were plenty of them alongside of the road that day) prevented Bongiorno to fight with Rogers in a real battle for the stage win.
From the peloton Quintana and Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma -Quick Step) arrived in the finish together, Fabio Aru (Astana), Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2R) and some other GC-favourites a bit later. Because it was the penultimate stage, Quintana’s arriving in the finish ment that he was the winner of the Giro d’Italia 2014.
The last time (so far)
Last time the race visited Monte Zoncolan was in 2018, when Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) led the GC. Many of the cycling experts stressed out, that Yates had to attack on the Monte Zoncolan to maintain his lead against Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), who was his biggest threat at that moment. Few people expected the resurrection of Chris Froome.
With 9 km to go, Igor Anton (Dimension Data) attacked. At this time only Valerio Conti (UAE) rode at the front of the race. Anton soon joined Enrico Barbin (Bardiani-CFS), the other rider left from the original breakaway group, then, a bit later he has caught and passed also Conti.
Meanwhile in the peloton Wout Poels (Sky) was riding tempo and he rode the hell out of this stage. Froome, of course, behind him. Yates was about to attack any moment. He was watching Dumoulin, who started to loose the connection to this group. Meanwhile Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) was also in a good position behind Yates.
Chris Froome attacked with 4,3 km to go. Pozzovivo, Yates and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) were able to ride with him, but only just for a short time. Froome rode a 4 km long solo and won the stage. However, it wasn’t that simple, because with 3 km to go Yates dropped Lopez and Pozzovivo and started to chase Frooem alone. After the tunnel (800m) he has almost caught him.
At the end Froome has the right to celebrate the stage victory, meanwhile Yates extended his lead against Dumoulin with a few seconds. But it wasn’t enough for the overal win. Froome took over the lead on the 18th stage and won the Giro d’Italia that year.
Lead picture: Giro d’Italia @ Facebook