Coffee and Chainrings Podcast

Stage 5 | Bormio > Malé

Distance
96,20 km

Altitude meters
3.254 hm

Level
5/5

This is the queen stage! You can’t pack more mountain adventure into a Transalp day: the highest pass, the most challenging trail, the greatest landscape cinema. Whoever completes this stage can put the crown on.

The most kilometres, the most metres in altitude and also the highest point of the whole week – Tataaa! The queen stage is set – without competition! It also deserves this honour because great things are happening between Bormio and Malé. Great scenery, mighty trails, venerable history. There is the 2621-metre-high Passo Gavia, a cycling legend, which is climbed on simple forest paths and the pass road. The giants of the Ortler group are within reach up here, as the narrow pass road winds through steep mountain slopes down to Ponte di Legno. But below the pass road, in equally steep meadows, runs a trail that, surrounded by gigantic mountains, does not shy to call itself the most demanding of the whole week. It’s a dream trail that shortens the road – with sections that are as easygoing as they are beautiful. But it also gets steep, and at a few key technical sections only the top downhillers will grin, while others will tend to walk.

At Sant‘ Appolonia it’s done and the second big climb of the day is tackled. Via Pezzo, a small road leads to Case di Viso, a lovingly restored historic mountain village that now accommodates holidaymakers. A serpentine path in steep meadow terrain now collects as many altitude metres as panoramic points, up to the entrance to the Alta Via Camuna. Now follows a path that is one of the most enchanting in Transalp history and refines this queen stage. Always far above the forest, the high-alpine meadow path winds around the mountain. Ponte di Legno lies below. Straight ahead, the Adamello and Presanella groups, with their ever-white peaks, build up. And this impressive trip finally ends at Passo Tonale, on the border with Trentino, at the upper end of the Val di Sole. The destination, Malé, is also in this valley – but it is waiting after another 40 kilometres. Through the forests at the foot of the Cima Presanella, the route now rolls swiftly out of the rugged mountain world into the mild climate of the sunny valley. Only at the end are there a few more metres of altitude. The valley cycle path is then left behind – too boring. And it goes once more along the edge of the valley into the forest on varied paths and trails of Dolomiti Brenta Bike.

Malé has had to wait a long time until the participants of the BIKE Transalp are once again allowed to ride through the finish arch at the church square. Unfortunately, this stage had to be cancelled last year due to thunderstorms in Bormio. So the last finish in Malè in 2010 was a long time ago. That’s why a few more minutes won’t matter, because the queen stage will take a little longer than the others. Now it’s just a case of keeping your fingers crossed that the 2024 edition works out. Despite all the effort, it offers a mountain experience in a class of its own.

• BIKE Transalp Stage 5: Bormio - Malé | DKEVENTS — event.delius-klasing.de