Passo di Gavia, ITA

The Passo di Gavia sits inside the Stelvio National Park and links Bórmio in the north with Ponte di Legno in the south. Forty-three kilometres of pass road, ten hairpins on the north side, fifteen on the south. At the top, at 2,618 metres, you reach one of the highest paved Alpine passes there is, ringed by glaciers. The Giro d’Italia drops it into its hardest mountain stages now and then, and when it does, the Gavia is often the Cima Coppi, the highest point of the whole race.

Passo di Gavia at a glance

You ride the Gavia from two sides, and they are two different climbs. The north side from Bórmio runs about 26 kilometres and gathers roughly 1,401 metres of climbing, 5.4 percent on average. That sounds tame, but the average lies: the valley floor at the start drags it down, and it gets a lot steeper up top. The south side from Ponte di Legno is shorter and meaner, a good 17 kilometres averaging 7.6 percent. Both top out at 2,618 metres. Category HC, beyond first category, and you feel it.

The north side from Bórmio

The start out of Bórmio is deceptive. The first five kilometres roll across the valley floor, with only a short ramp after the first kilometre kicking up to eight percent before it flattens again. Push too early here and you pay for it later. From around kilometre six the pass starts to climb, first at about six percent, with a short flatter stretch around kilometre eleven to thirteen.

The real heart of the climb sits between kilometre thirteen and eighteen. Here the road holds a steady seven to eight percent with no real let-up. The hardest pitch comes just after: around kilometre nineteen the ramp rears up past eleven percent, the steepest point of the whole climb. Then the high plateau around the Lago Bianco opens out, the gradient eases, and a last flat kilometre before the summit gives your legs a breather. The Rifugio Berni at 2,541 metres, a good two kilometres below the pass, is the natural last stop before the top.

History and racing

The Gavia is an old crossing. The Venetians built a mule track over the pass back in the late Middle Ages, to bypass Habsburg Tyrol and Lombardy alike. They called it the Strada Imperiale. A proper road only came with the First World War. The south side has only been fully paved since the late 1990s, and in places you can still tell.

But it was the Giro d’Italia that made the Gavia famous. On 5 June 1988 the race sent the peloton over the pass in a snowstorm. The stage went down in Giro history as “the day the strong men cried”. Johan van der Velde crested first in shorts, then froze and lost 47 minutes that day. Erik Breukink won the stage, but the bigger story belonged to the American Andy Hampsten: he took the maglia rosa on the Gavia and went on to become the first American ever to win the Giro. When the Giro climbs the Gavia today, it is usually the Cima Coppi, the highest point of the race and the richest mountain prize.

Practical tips

The season is short. The pass is closed in winter and usually open from late May into October, depending on snow. If you want to be sure, plan for high summer. A few times a year the Gavia goes car-free, and that is the recommendation, especially for the narrow south side.

The road surface tells the two sides apart. The north side from Bórmio is well built and two lanes wide. The south side from Ponte di Legno narrows to barely two or three metres in places, with tight hairpins and a roughly 800 metre tunnel bypassing an old bottleneck. On busy days, two vehicles meeting there becomes a test of patience. There is plenty of food in Bórmio and Ponte di Legno, and up on the mountain at the Rifugio Berni and the summit. Park down in the valley, the pass is worth a loop.

How does the Gavia stack up?

The Gavia stands in the shadow of its famous neighbour, the Stelvio, and that is simply unfair. In scenery, with its glaciers and the Lago Bianco, it plays in the same league, only quieter and rawer. If it is pain you are after, the Passo del Mortirolo one valley over is the closer match: shorter, but pitilessly steep. The Gavia sits in between, long enough for real climbing, high enough for thin air, and on the south side steep enough to hurt.

Everyone knows the Stelvio.

But that another great highlight waits inside the Stelvio National Park for the climbing-minded road cyclist is maybe not so widely known. And yet the Gavia gives nothing away to the Stelvio in scenery. If anything the opposite: with its glaciers right there, the Passo di Gavia arguably outdoes the Stelvio. At 2,618 metres above sea level, there are only a handful of passes in Europe where you can wind yourself up this high.

We rode the north side from Bormio on a car-free day. You climb 1,400 metres over 24 km here, at a fairly friendly 5.4 percent on average. The south side from Ponte di Legno comes with slightly fewer absolute metres (1,360) but a far steeper average of 7.6 percent. The tarmac on that side can be described with no other word than “crap”. I was very glad to have caught one of the two car-free days at the Passo di Gavia, because the road is genuinely very narrow in places. Towards the bottom in the south I was sometimes unsure whether we were still on the pass or had ended up on a paved hiking trail.

But in general there is just one word for the Passo di Gavia: WOW! Stunning scenery, glaciers, a mountain lake, it does not get better. An absolute must-ride.

For us the Gavia is one of those climbs you have to ride once. If you want it on your wall, you will find it on our 100 Climbs posters, with the Top 50 edition also available in a more compact format.

Which side of the Passo di Gavia is harder?

The south side from Ponte di Legno. At a good 17 kilometres it is shorter than the north side, but at 7.6 percent on average it is clearly steeper, and it is narrow with rough tarmac on top of that. The north side from Bórmio is longer and steadier.

How high is the Passo di Gavia?

The pass tops out at 2,618 metres. That makes the Gavia one of the highest paved Alpine passes, and at the Giro d’Italia it is regularly the Cima Coppi, the highest point of the race.

When is the Gavia open for road cyclists?

Usually from late May into October, depending on snow. The pass is closed in winter. If you like it quiet, plan for one of the car-free days, especially for the narrow south side.