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Penultimate day of Giro d’Italia 2023: uphill time trial of Mount Lussari. Saturday 27 May those 18 and a half kilometers will definitively close the fight for the pink jersey. Easy first 11 kilometres, with some slight undulations, then the vertical of 7,300 meters which leads to the finish line, at an altitude of 1766.
The bottom of the old forest road has been arranged specifically for the Giro, now all the attention of the prefecture, the organization and the police are concentrated on managing the enormous flow of enthusiasts who will want to witness the last decisive act that day of the pink race. «The Monte Lussari timed stage will be an event of extraordinary tourist and sporting attraction – observes the regional councilor Richard Riccardi – and therefore a safety plan must be activated which guarantees the regularity of the race and the protection of the spectators».
The reduced width of the roadway will not allow the presence of the public for most of the climb and therefore the spectators will have to distribute themselves between the finish area and the very first kilometers of the climb. The arrival of tens of thousands of fans is expected, coming both from Italy and from the very close Slovenia (the supporters of Primož Roglič who will reach Friuli that day could be no less than 20 thousand) and Austria, but the prefecture and the committee stage have established that access to the final part of the route will be limited to 6,000 people.
«In some places the roadway is so narrow – explains Paolo Urbani of the organizing committee – not to allow the passage and parking of the public, who will therefore only be able to access from above, with the cable car and for a maximum number of seats. From the valley floor, spectators will only be able to position themselves for a couple of kilometers along the road. The rest of the route, for safety reasons, will be reserved for cyclists and support bikes».
Therefore, only those will be able to climb Monte Lussari 6,000 spectators in possession of the ticket for the gondola lift which serves from Camporosso in Valcanale to the top. Tickets will be assigned Tuesday 16 Mayday in which a special will be organized clickday. The ticket will include a parking space in the car parks adjacent to the lower station of the cable car. All the others will have to use more distant parking lots, using the shuttle bus service.
Spectators will climb the Lussari according to predefined time slots. The gondola lift can transport 1,800 people per hour, but during the race it will be reserved only for the order service of the Tour. The safety plan also provides for the activation of two medical devices (at the start and near the finish line) and the use of a dedicated medical helicopter.
The prefecture, in consideration of the impressive influx of spectators, has also established the closure, for 27 May, of the Tarvisio motorway exit along the A23.
There timed stage will take off from Tarvisio (m. 752) and will cover the Alpe Adria cycle path up to Valbruna. At the end of the flat section along the Val Saisera, in Prati Oitzinger (m. 869) the final climb will begin which will lead to Sanctuary of Monte Lussari (m. 1766), with a height difference of 889 meters to overcome in 7.3 kilometres, average gradient of 12.1%, maximum of 22%.
The road improvement works, financed by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region with 4 million euros, have been the subject of controversy and disputes between local administrations and environmental associations. The bottom was made of concrete with the additional laying of a layer of special conglomerate which will make it less impactful. After the passage of the Giro, the road, which has been cleared of snow in recent days, will in any case be accessible only to emergency vehicles and to the service of the high-altitude village.
