The ancient coral reef that became a fabled rock of the Giro d’Italia
Words MARK BAILEY Photography PATRIK LUNDIN
As afternoon melts into evening in the Italian Dolomites, the grey limestone walls of the Sella massif blush a glorious shade of rose-red. It is a phenomenon that locals call enrosadira (literally ‘turning pink’, but so much more evocative in Italian). And on Stage 17 of the 1998 Giro d’Italia, on the storied slopes of the 2,240m Passo Sella, the jersey of Marco Pantani underwent the same magical rose-tinted transformation.
Cheered on by tricolore-waving tifosi, the Italian cyclist’s gloriously aggressive acceleration on the Passo Sella turned his jersey from the maglia verde of the mountains leader – which was only changed from green to blue in 2012 – into the iconic maglia rosa of the Giro leader. It was the first time Pantani, 28, had worn pink. And he would retain the jersey for the final five stages to claim an emotional Giro title and send the host nation into raptures.
It is just one of the historic scenes that have played out on the Passo Sella, a stunning climb near Alta Badia that borders Trentino and South Tyrol and connects Val di Fassa with Val Gardena. The Sella’s oxygen-starved hairpins torment the body but enchant the mind, unlocking sublime views of the fortress-shaped Sella and the sheer 3,181m wall of the Sassolungo.
Around 250 million years ago, these turrets and towers lay deep underwater, forming part of an ancient coral reef in the primordial ocean of Tethys. But today the roads to the Sella are caked in the sediment of cycling history, having appeared in the Giro 17 times, and hosted the heroics of riders from Gino Bartali in 1940 to Laurent Fignon in 1984 and Gilberto Simoni in 2000 – all of whom summited the Sella first.
Sella of stories
The roads to the Passo Sella soar from mountain meadows, past isolated wooden chalets, into a majestic limestone arena of rock-hewn towers and grey-white cliffs. The pass was built in the 1870s and first appeared in the Giro on Stage 17 in 1940, with Gino Bartali first over the top. That year, Bartali – a two-time Giro winner – was on the same Legnano team as 20-year-old wonderkid Fausto Coppi. When Coppi punctured, Bartali waited. When Bartali had technical issues, the young tearaway tried to race on, until their sports director, Eberardo Pavesi, reined him in. Coppi later faded so badly on the punishing Sell
