MOUNT ETNA BIKE CLIMB
Everything You Need To Know About Ragalna – Piano Vetore bike route
With an overall distance of about 14 km, an altitude difference of almost 900 meters and an average gradient – albeit inconstant – of 7.5%, the climb called Ragalna – Piano Vetore represents one of the most irregular and verdant stretches to be tackled on bike along the flanks of Etna.
The stage starts at about 800 meters above sea level from the south-west side, from the town of Ragalna, and climbs for 14 kilometers up to the square of Piano Vetore, the plateau where the Nicolosi cross-country ski school was started.
We are therefore at an arrival altitude of about 1700 meters, and here is the beginning of the stage of the Giro d’ Italia 2018, snatched that year with an excellent double of 4h16-11 by the Mitchelton – Scott team, with Rubio Chaves and Philip Yates.
It is a slope that, while determining an average gradient of 7.5 percent, will force us to face great effort, alternating between continuous ups and downs, including two stretches of about 500 meters where the level ground starts to descend, the first at kilometer 6.6, the second at kilometer 8.5.
Here there will be a refreshment stop. Immediately after, at an altitude of 1,350 from the Milia district, an uphill climb with a challenging 20% gradient for one kilometer starts, which, alternating between the black lava rock and fatigue, will test your sporting determination and your fortitude.
The effort will be rewarded by the spectacle that awaits us at the end, as we enter the coolness and the scents of the pine forest at an altitude of 1,800 meters, at the height of the Ariel Refuge.
At the end, after the last bend, the imposing view of the mass of Etna awaits us, dominating Piano Vetore.
