Some climbs are more than just Strava segments, they’re cathedrals of pain where cycling legends were made, and where mere mortals (hi 👋) go to find out just how human they really are…
Tre Cime di Lavaredo: Chasing Merckx, Losing to Gravity
The year is 1968, on a day where the weather turned the Dolomites apocalyptic with snow, hail, and freezing rain,Eddy Merckx starts the stage stage nearly nine minutes behind a breakaway full of top climbers. Just 22 at the time, Merckx wasn’t yet the all-conquering Cannibal.
Instead of cracking, Merckx unleashed a now mythical assault, catching up not just to the break but dropping them all, riding as though untouched by the misery and cold that saw many rivals walking or pushed up the slopes. He crossed the finish line solo, over four minutes ahead of anyone else, draped in a blanket, as Italian reporters wrote that “men cried” watching him. That day, Merckx took the maglia rosa and never let it go, clinching his first Grand Tour and launching his status as the greatest cyclist ever. Unless Pogacar will change that status.
The year is 2024, and yours truly tries to follow in the Cannibals footsteps. Riding Tre Cime, you still feel his ghost. Every switchback is haunted by Merckx’s superhuman grit, and the mountain remembers. Even Merckx later said it was his finest day in the mountains.
If Merckx had seen me, he might have offered a pat on the back, or a defibrillator. Still, I made it to the top. Just don’t ask how long it took.
Stelvio: De Gendt Did It Better
2012, the Breakaway King Thomas De Gendt faces a stage with 219km and two brutal climbs (the Mortirolo and the snow-capped Stelvio). Famous for his audacity, De Gendt attacks on the Mortirolo, flies past the breakaway. By the base of the Stelvio, snow was lining the roads. He dropped all challengers on the upper slopes, racing through hairpin after hairpin with only Italian TV helicopters, gaping fans, and the faintest hope of an upset following behind.
At the summit finish, De Gendt took the win by almost a minute. His legendary effort rocketed him to 4th overall, and a day later, after the time trial, he stood on the third step of the Giro podium.
Just like Merckx exploit on Tre Cime, the 2012 Stelvio stage remains a treasured Belgian cycling memory: how one attack, at the tail end of a Grand Tour, with snow falling turned De Gendt from a breakaway specialist into a Giro icon.
My own effort was less impressive, the scenery on the other hand made it all worth it. Altitude sickness? Almost. 48 switchbacks? Counted every cursed one.
Reality: no breakaways, but a close to break-down halfway up. Still, Belgian stubbornness is a performance enhancer, is what they told me.
Belgian DNA, Budget Legs
Tre Cime and Stelvio are carved into Belgian cycling history, riding them myself is living history. Will be back for more.