This Mortirolo Coil

The Mortirolo’s name derives from the Italian for ‘dead’ and its 32 torturous turns certainly make you long for the end, as Paul Knott found out.

Never again. In the lucky position I find myself, there aren’t too many moments when I travel overseas with my bike and wish to be elsewhere. However, having stopped for the umpteenth time in sheer exhaustion three-quarters of the way up the seemingly never-ending small track in northern Italy that is the Mortirolo, this was one of them.

Rolling into the town of Mazzo di Valtellina an hour before wasn’t exactly comparable to what Le Bourg d’Oisans is to Alpe d’Huez. With a population of just over 1,000, the commune has an almost derelict feel to it.

A quick lap around the small but quaint town suggests that 1,000 may be a generous estimate — either that or it’s a warning that those who have passed through to ride the Mortirolo never return. As I pass the signs for the climb pointing eastwards to what looks like a forest wall, I wonder if this will be the last time I pass through Mazzo.

The climb nicknamed Salita de Pirata or ‘Pirate’s Ascent’ in honour of Marco Pantani, is a tricky climb to find among the narrow streets of Mazzo. As I ride up Via delle Fontane I pass the Mortirolo sign, before the road gently rises upwards and left onto Via Valle where the harsh gradients really begin. This is the last piece of navigation I’ll have to worry about until joining up with the Strada dello Mortirolo 2.5 kilometres up the road, as I begin my slow-motion ascent to the summit.

Despite being well aware from researching the Mortirolo before I arrived in Italy that this wasn’t just an odd 14 per cent pitch in the gradient, but rather the general theme of the next 10 kilometres, nothing could prepare me for the seemingly endless grind of double-digit gradients that lay ahead. The silence of the valley continues up the climb, with just a few houses dotted either side. Shortly I pass the last smattering of buildings before the top.