Ed’s Letter
When, a couple of years ago, we produced our list of the Top 100 Classic Climbs (still available to view at cyclist.co.uk), the undisputed number one was the Passo dello Stelvio – or simply ‘the Stelvio’. It truly has everything. It has the location, tucked as it is amid the grandeur of the Eastern Alps on the border between Italy and Switzerland. It has the stats, measuring 24.1km in length (from its eastern side) at an average of 8% gradient and rising to 2,757m. It has the hairpins – 48 of them in all, carved like coiled spaghetti into the mountainside and held in place by magnificent stone walls. It also has the history, being the place where Fausto Coppi cemented his legend with a blistering attack on its slopes when the…