Nowhere else are the great climbs stacked this close together. Four passes ring the Sella massif in a single loop, and a rider can take all four before lunch: Campolongo, Pordoi with its Coppi memorial at the top, Sella, Gardena. The Giro has crowned more Cima Coppi winners here than anywhere.
The famous names are only the frame. What the roads pass are the rifugi that feed the whole range, the Ladin villages of Alta Badia where the Maratona starts each July, the pale walls that made this a UNESCO site in 2009, and a cake culture that arrived from Vienna and never left.