Monte Bondone (from Trento)
Climb · Dolomites
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Monte Bondone (from Trento) is a 16.9 km cycling climb averaging 8.1% (+1363 m), rising from 281 m to 1644 m in Dolomites.
16.9 km · +1363 m · 8.1% avg · ~16.6% max · 281 → 1644 m · 38 hairpins
Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.
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Gradient by colour: ● <3% ● 3–6% ● 6–9% ● 9%+
Where it bites
Steepest 500 m: 16.6% (km 0.7–1.1).
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 410 m | 13.2% |
| 2 | 507 m | 10.1% |
| 3 | 576 m | 6.5% |
| 4 | 650 m | 8.3% |
| 5 | 712 m | 6.0% |
| 6 | 805 m | 9.7% |
| 7 | 903 m | 9.3% |
| 8 | 974 m | 6.9% |
| 9 | 1060 m | 9.1% |
| 10 | 1121 m | 5.8% |
| 11 | 1205 m | 8.6% |
| 12 | 1279 m | 7.7% |
| 13 | 1347 m | 6.8% |
| 14 | 1417 m | 6.5% |
| 15 | 1497 m | 8.3% |
| 16 | 1577 m | 7.9% |
What it’s like to ride
The road leaves Trento near the San Lorenzo bridge and turns onto the SP 85, where a plaque at the foot names the climb for Charly Gaul. A long straight gets you clear of the city before the woods close in and the hairpins begin, close to forty of them, most stacked in the trees with the Adige valley opening below each time the road doubles back. Sardagna comes first, with a fountain on its small piazza, then a steep ramp back into the forest and more bends up to Candriai, which has another fountain at the roadside. The gradient sits around 8% for almost the whole 17 km and touches 15% in places, so it is a climb of rhythm rather than surprises. Past Vaneze, the resort village where the ski lifts appear on the slopes above, the road finally leaves the trees at Norge and the last three kilometres of hairpins run through open meadow with the Paganella and the Brenta Dolomites across the valley. Vason at 1,650 m is the top, with bars, restaurants and hotels, and plenty of other cyclists on a summer weekend.
History
The first road from Trento up to Vaneze was built in 1909 and 1910, and the tarmac was pushed on to Vason after the Second World War. Motor racing got there first: the Trento-Bondone hillclimb was first run on 5 July 1925 over 17.3 km from Montevideo to Vason and its forty hairpins, it is still part of the European Hill Climb Championship, and Simone Faggioli's 9:00.53 from 2017 stands as the record. The climb entered cycling on 8 June 1956, when Charly Gaul finished the Merano to Monte Bondone stage of the Giro d'Italia in a snowstorm almost eight minutes clear of Alessandro Fantini, took the race lead and went on to win the Giro; around half the field abandoned that day, the pink jersey Pasquale Fornara among them. Gaul came back up the same road in 1957 on the Como to Monte Bondone stage and lost the pink jersey there after stopping for a nature break while the favourites rode away, and the Trento side was used again in 1976 and 1978. The road is signed as the Salita Charly Gaul, and the Leggendaria Charly Gaul granfondo weekend still starts in Trento and includes a timed hillclimb from Sardagna to Vason.
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Common questions
- How long and steep is Monte Bondone (from Trento)?
- Monte Bondone (from Trento) is a 16.9 km cycling climb averaging 8.1% (+1363 m), rising from 281 m to 1644 m in Dolomites.
- Where is Monte Bondone (from Trento) steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 16.6%, between km 0.7 and km 1.1 of the climb.
- How many hairpins does Monte Bondone (from Trento) have?
- Monte Bondone (from Trento) has 38 hairpin bends, counted from the road's map geometry (a hairpin here means at least 150 degrees of turning completed within 150 metres of road). Painted corner numbers on some climbs count gentler bends too, so the two figures can differ.