Italy · Alps
Passo dello Stelvio
The legendary Stelvio Pass, with its 48 numbered hairpins on the Prato side, is one of the highest and most dramatic paved roads in the Alps. A crown jewel of the Giro d'Italia.
- Length
- 24.3 km
- Avg gradient
- 7.4%
- Max gradient
- 14%
- Elevation gain
- 1,808 m
- Summit
- 2,757 m
- Hairpins
- 48
Versants
- From Prato allo Stelvio — 24.3 km at 7.4% (max 14%)
- From Bormio — 21.5 km at 7.1% (max 12%)
History
The Stelvio didn't enter cycling history quietly. It debuted in the Giro d'Italia on 1 June 1953, the second-to-last stage of the race, and Fausto Coppi — then 33, riding what would be his fifth and final Giro win — went clear on the climb alone, crossing the summit 2'48" ahead of his old rival Gino Bartali. It was the Campionissimo's last great mountain victory, and the mountain has carried his name ever since: in 1965 the Giro organisers introduced the Cima Coppi, a bonus classification for the race's highest point each year, in his honour. The Stelvio is the climb most associated with the award — it has held the Cima Coppi more often than any other pass.
At 2,757 m the Stelvio is the second-highest paved road in the Alps, and the numbers on the way up are what people actually remember: 48 hairpins on the classic side from Prato allo Stelvio, each one numbered on a stone marker counting down to the summit. The road was originally built in the 1820s to connect the Austrian Empire's territories, decades before any bicycle raced up it — the switchbacks exist because the engineers had no choice, not because anyone was thinking about racing.
Since 1953 the Giro has returned to the Stelvio again and again whenever the route needs a defining, race-deciding climb — it's the mountain organisers reach for when a Giro needs a moment people will still be talking about years later.