Today I decided to get my last climbing training ride in before heading off to France later in the week. My friend Stefano came along, it would be his first time up Peri Fosse. The climb from Peri to Fosse is one of the most popular local climbs to test your legs and heart. It's so popular that you can buy a card for 1Euro to use a timing mechanism that will print out your time. You insert your card at the bottom and at the top. Viola, now you can show your friends how fast you went up.
The climb is 9Km (5.7 miles) in length, averages 9.45% to 10% (depends what source you use), and the steepest pitch of 15% comes near the top at the 8th hairpin. It was at this hairpin that Stefano started repeating, "Oh my god."
It takes approximately 1 hr 40 minutes to get there from Verona so there is always that factor as to how you feel when you arrive at the climb. Today I went up in 59 minutes. The bad news is that some guys can really motor up this climb. Next weekend there is a time trial (named the "Coppa Lessinia") up Peri-Fosse and looking at last year's results I see that the winner won in 33 minutes 11 seconds (18.08 Km/h). Wow. When I met Rasmussen on the road last year we chatted about this climb and he thought, if he recalled correctly, that he had done it in 29 minutes or so. Pros are just in another universe.
This climb is also on the Granfondo Avesani that starts here in Verona. I know that discourages some people from entering.
Photos: a view into the valley below, a group coming up
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