Colle della Guardia San Luca

The Colle della Guardia San Luca is a col with a length of 1.9 kilometer. This is a category 3 col. It is located in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The average grade of this col is 10.4% with a maximum of 16.5%. The Colle della Guardia San Luca ascents from 73 meter at the start, to 267 meter at the top, with a total of 194 ascending meters.

Description

Colle della Guardia, the hill northwest of Bologna, is better known as the San Luca, a reference to the basilica of the eighteenth century, which rises in full glory on top of the two hundred meter high 'mountain'. It's the major climb of the Giro dell'Emilia. The climb is steep with a less steep section in the middle. This section signals the hardest part is yet to come. You ride under the footbridge and then are suddenly confronted by a steep S-bend, the curva delle orfanelle or orphan’s corner which is chased by a long straight section.

It’s been used three times in the Giro, in 1956 they held an uphill time trial (won by Charly Gaul), in 1984 Moreno Argentin won a stage and in 2009 Simon Gerrans took the stage. The 2009 moment is interesting as much for the brief duel between Gerrans and a then-unknown Anglo-Kenyan rider with the Barloworld team called Chris Froome.

Since 1999 (won by Michael Boogerd) the San Luca finish was added in the Giro dell’Emilia and now the race features a finishing circuit that includes a grueling four climbs of the San Luca.

In 2019 Primož Roglič delivered a sensitive blow to the competition by winning the opening time trial in the 102nd edition of the Giro d'Italia. The Slovenian was 23 seconds faster than Vincenzo Nibali, 19 seconds faster than Simon Yates and 28 seconds faster than Miguel Ángel López and Tom Dumoulin in the eight-kilometer time trial that ended on the San Luca.

- Giro dell'Emilia 1999-2020
- Giro d'Italia 1954
- Giro d'Italia 1984
- Giro d'Italia 2019 - Stage 1

Nearby Cols