The route of 2023 Giro del Veneto has been unveiled – and features a grandstand finish on the Monte Berico.
The race will roll out from Tombolo (Padova) and conclude atop the famous hill overlooking Vicenza after a 170km journey and five laps of the Monte Berico circuit. Now in its 86th edition, the event kicks off the Ride The Dreamland series organised by PP Sport Events on Wednesday October 11.
Steeped in tradition but equally committed to innovation, since 2021 the Ride the Dreamland events have been bringing some of the world’s best riders to the roads of the Veneto region. In the Giro del Veneto on October 11, they’ll take on a spectacular and explosive course designed by Filippo Pozzato to inspire and exalt a broad range of riders – and serve up an even broader range of possible race scenarios and outcomes.
From Tombolo, the race will head towards Cittadella and Fontaniva, then Camisano Vicentino and Grisagnano di Zocco, before crossing the Colli Euganei Regional Park via the Teolo climb – the first major obstacle of the day. From there, the peloton will turn towards another range of hills, the Colli Berici, with the short Villaga, Grancona and Brendola ascents – a further, three-stage escalation in the wearing-down process. The pièce de résistance then comes with the 15km Monte Berico circuit – four complete laps and five times up the climb itself.
That kilometre-long, 7.1% ramp to the basilica of the Madonna di Monte Berico, flanked by its portico-ed walkway, is an unmistakable, iconic landmark of the region. The climb comes in two distinct parts – benign at first, for 400 metres, then distinctly unforgiving for the final 600 metres, with a gradient never dipping below 8% and with pitches of up to 12%. Anyone wanting to join 2022 winner Matteo Trentin on the roll of honour will have to be shrewd in their timing but also employ the blunt instrument of brute force.
After last year’s Via Roma finale, then, Vicenza will play host to a different – but certainly no less gripping dénouement. “The Monte Berico location is visually iconic but no less compelling from a racing point of view,” says Filippo Pozzato, founder of PP Sport Events, the race organiser. “Having hosted the race finish last year, the City of Vicenza pushed to welcome us again in 2023, and that’s very gratifying. It shows that cycling’s a sport that our public bodies really appreciate – and it also shows we’re working in the right way. I’d like to personally thank all of the local councils who showed interest in hosting the race and particularly Tombolo, which will no doubt put on a wonderful party for the start of this historic and prestigious race.”
First contested in 1909, the Giro del Veneto is one of the oldest races on the Italian calendar and it’s no coincidence that many of the sport’s most illustrious names have left their mark here, on a dazzling palmarès that includes Costante Girardengo, Alfredo Binda, Fausto Coppi, Fiorenzo Magni, Roger De Vlaeminck, Giuseppe Saronni, Francesco Moser, Moreno Argentin, Davide Rebellin and Filippo Pozzato. Shelved, some feared extinct between 2013 and 2020, the race returned in 2021, rescued by PP Sport Events and the Regione Veneto. Their refusal to see the race die – or, rather, a desire to give a prized piece of cycling heritage back to the fans – has given the event a second life and new impetus, marrying tradition with the flourishes of innovation and modernity that Pozzato and his team are bringing to all of the Ride the Dreamland events, in their commitment to a brand of cycling with equal emphasis on sport, competition, celebration and enjoyment.
