Milano San Remo Stage 6 – the Finestre!

Susa to Sestriere via the Colle delle Finestre

Strava: 45.2 km, 2,153m, 4:21, 56 shifts

Phew, I am tired and used up from a 45 km ride! Now I can tell you from personal experience that it’s very different riding the Colle delle Finestre vs watching the Giro d’Italia coverage of it. Those guys are something else. Some of our fastest riders were talking about a goal of climbing in double the new Giro record time. [Simon Yates, in “the climbing performance of his career”, summited in 59:23 on May 31, 2025.] I found out later that our Portuguese hotshot, Raul, was the only one of us who managed double – he did it in 1:54:14. Sick old Nathan was trying for triple, beating ~3 hours, and I made it considering moving time, but not considering total time. Read this page describing the new record and the climb, “one of the hardest and longest climbs in cycling”.

We had a two km warm up, gently downhill from the center of Susa. Then the Finestre starts and the first section is the steepest. Something like two km at 14%. Since I was expecting it to be insane, it didn’t actually feel that bad but it woke me up, that’s for sure. Then there’s a section of about 30 switchbacks some of them ridiculously short. I think it averages 9-10%, but it goes through a nice forest and wasn’t super bad for me, although I was sweating a lot. At about 10 km, the pavement ends and there is a beautiful place to stop for cool, fresh mountain water. That was my first stop, after about 1,000m of climbing. I drank a whole bottle, had an electrolyte pill and a banana, then carried on, up the very famous 7.8 km long gravel section.

I was imagining that it would be all dusty but for most of the way it was somehow a little wet and lots of the way was pretty smooth. There were a ton of other cyclists riding up, some on E, some on mountain bikes, some on gravel bikes, but mostly on road bikes. There were also motorcyclists, and since it averages 10%, their tires spin a bit and kick up dirt and rocks. I really liked the signs every kilometer, although thanks to my recomputed GPS track, all the climbing features on my Garmin were working perfectly. The 7.8 km counted down and I made it to the top, with a couple of photo stops – it is stunning once you leave the trees. The final switchbacks do not let up but by then you can see the summit with lots of riders gathered.

Curt was up on top, having completed the climb despite barely being able to walk due to his crash the other day. Hard man. We took some photos and talked to some other riders and tried to dry off – my clothes were all soaked. I ate and drank, then headed down on the paved road.

The descent was nice, such a difference! I dried out but got stuck behind slow motorcyclists and one slow car for a while. My new brakes were breaking in, and all was good. I hit the main road far below and had a last 14 km section to go to our hotel, just before Sestriere. There were a few cooling rain drops at the bottom, but that dried up all too quickly. It got slowly steeper and hotter, and wow, was I working hard. When I finally got to the turn off and coasted down to the hotel I was so happy! I was cheered and sat in the shade for a few minutes before having a great lunch with a nice asparagus soup by Wijnand.

Our room is pretty nice but has the small kind of shower stall. It’s square shaped, tiny, and the doors open barely wide enough for me to get in. Is it not-so-subtle encouragement to stay slim and light? After putting my laundry out on the deck I went downstairs to the spacious living room and we hung out for a long time in the afternoon. I had one beer but bought lots and we ran out the whole supply (well, he was down to only Heineken which is essentially the same thing).

I wrote up this post, video chatted with Katie and did some reading before dinner. I don’t think anyone particularly loved it. The vegetarians were definitely an afterthought and ended up with various non-meat options. I had unseasoned tofu and vegetables. We all had to eat the lasagna course which the waiter swore had no meat but … maybe it did. Dessert was a chocolate blob for most but a couple of the vegetarians like me received a large serving of delicious berry ice-cream. I could see I wasn’t the only one pretty flamed from the ride. Luckily our ride to France tomorrow looks relatively easy on paper… I am going to sleep like a stone tonight.