Why I chose this stage

• It is a Hill Top Finish in Livigno (Sondrio) at 2385 m of altitude. These are always the best stages to ride and watch. 
• It is one of the four stages of this year Giro, with 5 stars as type of difficulty: 224 km with over 5,000 meters of elevation gain. 
• In the same area, the Giro, two days later,  on stage 16, will come by the Stelvio Pass. So, staying in the same place, in Bormio, I will catch 2 stages in 3 days. Read here about stage 16. 
• From Bormio it is possible to climb more legendary passes of the Giro d’Italia, like the Gavia, Mortirolo and Foscagno. In fact, we will climb the Gavia Pass from Santa Caterina on Monday, during the Giro’s rest day, in between the two stages. 

What part of the stage we will ride

We will ride from Bormio to the finish line, on top of Livigno-Mottolino, through the Foscagno Pass and d’Eira Pass. It is ~32 km , but with steep hills, so it will take around 3-4 hours of riding.

After watching the pros crossing the finish line, we will have around 2 hours of nice downhill back to the hotel in Bormio. Usually, the mountain stages finish around 17-17:30. So, by 19:30 we should be back to the hotel, have time to shower and be ready for dinner. 

However, for mountain stages in May, the weather is always a big unpredictable variable, so it is a good idea to always have an alternative plan B ready.  For this stage plan B could be, depending on what type of bad weather (just cold or cold and rain or even snow), to ride from Bormio to the bottom of Foscagno Pass and then ride the last climb to the finish line. In this way the ride back in the evening will be much shorter and less cold.

The Climb 

The Foscagno Pass is 23.6 km long, with average grade of 4.8%. The real climb starts at “Isolaccia” after 8.5 km. The rest of the climb is between 5 and 7% grade. You can check the profile here

The real challenge is the last 2 km of the ascent. 
The gradient changes drastically at 2 km from the finish after the Eira Pass where the average gradient remains above 10% although the road has steep ramps interspersed with short less steep sections. 
In the last km, the final ramp has gradients of up to 19%. 

Where to watch the pros

Since the steepest part is in the last km, we will stop a few hundred meters from the finish line, the best spot will be at the 19% grade. This means that the pros will ride by at the lowest speed, allowing you to look at them closer to read the fatigue in their eyes and facial expressions of this very difficult stage. You will get the best photos. 

Usually, in this situation, I ride up until I cross the finish line to accomplish my own goal, then slowly I ride back a few switchbacks down until I see the steepest spot, and there I stop and wait for the peloton. 

Where to stay 

Use Bike Hotels. I will stay at the Bike Hotel Funivia. They have “bike packages” with all the services specific for cyclists at reasonable price. In this way I can enjoy some convenienece and still have my freedom to chose the stages, the routes and the best spot where to watch the pros.

Where to Rent a Bike

If you need, spot-on has great rental bikes, even high-end e-road bikes.

How to Train for this event

For base rules on how to train for a specific route length and a climb read here

Specific Training for This Stage

You need to be able to ride 80-100 km at least on hilly terrain, comfortably, keeping your HR in the aerobic zone. 
The challenge of riding this stage will be the altitude, so your aerobic base needs to be larger since you will need more oxygen for the same level of effort. 
For this stage the training needs to cover, progressively, a 60-80 km route that includes a long steady climb and ends with a steeper shorter climb.
Looking at the profile you need to train to be able to climb for over 10 km with 5% average grade but that gets much steeper at the end, or, if this type of climb is not available nearby, you need to find another hill that has above 10% grade for 2 km and train on both. 
Especially for this stage read about Rule 3 Train Progressively here