MOUNT ETNA BIKE CLIMB
Everything You Need To Know About Pedara – Rifugio Sapienza bike route
The “Tom Doumoulin” side, which from Pedara leads, going up from the south, to the Sapienza Refuge, a stage that in the 2017 Giro d’ Italia recorded Jan Polanc’s victory, represents the ideal solution for cyclists who shy away from crowds and love to compete with tougher challenges: a 17 kilometer track with an average gradient of 7% but which alternates short plateaus with challenging 18% peaks that require preparation and willpower.
The perfect challenge to confront not only the volcano but also yourself and discover your limits. Pedara, suspended between the sea and the mountains.
If the first part of the stage is rather cool, when cutting through a beautiful chestnut forest, it is immediately after, from an altitude of one thousand kilometers, that constant sunny slopes, never less than 10% in gradient, begin.
But be careful: after an easy path of about 350 meters, the second part of the climb, the so-called Salto del Cane, with a 10% slope, will test our preparation.
So we will return to pedaling alongside the lava flow of 2001, between black lava and constant slopes of 8%. At an altitude of 1,800, the Pedara side rejoins the Zafferana side, entrance to the plateau of Rifugio Sapienza of Nicolosi, the main tourist resort of the volcano and the gateway to Etna.
