The Monte Zoncolan has opened its new ski chairlift dedicated to the Giro d'Italia, with each previous male winner on the mountain gaining a chair of honour.
The new chairlift is bright pink, of course, with the Giro logo on the chairs as well as at the top and bottom.
The chairlift only takes in the six male winners of the mountain with two-time winner Gilberto Simoni as well as the single winners of Chris Froome, Igor Antón, Michael Rogers, Ivan Basso and Lorenzo Fortunato all getting a chair.
The two women to have won on the climb in the Giro Donne, Fabiana Luperini and Annemiek van Vleuten, are not included on the lift.
The chairlift carries skiers, and occasionally cycling fans, and was opened to the public on Saturday, December 4 with the last rider to win on the mountain, Lorenzo Fortunato (EOLO-Kometa), in attendance.
Fortunato said: "[I'm] delighted to inaugurate the "Giro d'Italia" chairlift on the legendary Mount Zoncolan. Many thanks."
Also at the event were cyclists Matteo Fabbro and Enrico Gasparotto as well as former footballer Gigi De Agostini with Basso joining by video link.
Most of the raced climbs have been from the harder Ovaro side with the men only facing the slightly 'easier' Sutrio side twice, for the first ascent in 2003 and the most recent in May of 2021. The women have raced once up both sides with the first being way back in 1997.
The fight for victory on the climb has always been about who had the best legs rather than tactics, with big attacks not being way but rather who can hold on for the longest time.
Amazing moments have been seen on the climb with Chris Froome being chased by Simon Yates as Froome mounted the beginning of his amazing fight back to win the race overall as well as Rogers battling with Francesco Manuel Bongiorno to an astonishing win.
It is not known when the race will return to the mountain nicknamed the 'Kaiser' but we have not seen the last of this brutal climb.
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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