The Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria cycling tour is back on the calendar on Sunday 16 April 2023, after an eleven-year absence, with a very interesting route from an altitude and technical point of view, which will measure 162.4 km with 1,800 meters in altitude.
The number of starters is still being defined, even though today there are already 105 registered athletes and 15 confirmed teams, including one World Tour (Team Jayco AlUla), five Professionals and eight Continentals, as well as the Italian national team. A qualified participation, with athletes partly from the Giro di Sicilia, which will make the outcome of the race particularly uncertain and exciting, which features challenging climbs to activate the athletes’ imagination, but also space for the pursuers to recover.
The technical organization of the Reggio Calabria Metropolitan City Cycling Tour was entrusted by the Professional Cycling League to Extragiro, a company directed by Marco Selleri and Marco Pavarini which, in recent years, has organized the 2020 Road Cycling World Championships in Imola in full pandemic, as well as having relaunched the Giro d’Italia Giovani since 2017 and having set up many other important events in the U23 and professional categories, including the recent Laigueglia Trophy.
Extragiro sees the bicycle at the center of its business, as an engine of economic development, a relaunch for the territories, for mobility and sustainable tourism. The new organizational challenge of the Reggio Calabria Metropolitan City Cycling Tour started from this premise, a classic of Italian cycling born in 1920 and today relaunched thanks to the idea of the Metropolitan City, espoused by the Calabria Region, the Municipalities and the highest sports institutions Italian.
The route – From the start of Riace, a tribute to the anniversary of the discovery of the Bronze statues of the waters in front in 1972, the first 30 kilometers are completely flat: you take the SS106 Ionica and, when you reach Locri, you leave the state road to immerse yourself in the Aspromonte natural park. Leaving Locri, the ascent begins with what is called the Zomaro climb, a 22 km ascent with an average gradient of 4.2%. It starts from a minimum altitude of 31 m to reach the 960 m of Piano Maschera, where the first Mountain Grand Prix (GPM) is located. Immediately after the brow begins the demanding descent of about 14 km, which alternates between fast sections and other technical ones, especially in the initial part. At km 70 you reach Taurianova and up to Polistena (km 78) it is a real up-and-down. From Polistena to Gioia Tauro (km 103) you go down, then you start up again up to Palmi (km 113), where you approach Monte Sant’Elia, a 5 km climb that can make a difference, with an average gradient of 6 % and peaks at 10%; at the top is the second GPM of the race. The descent, fast and very technical, is 11.5 km long and leads to Bagnara Calabra. From here on the road is favorable to a possible pursuit, with the road always tending to descend to the gates of Reggio Calabria and to the finish line on the Italo Falcomatà seafront in Reggio Calabria, one of the oldest cities in Europe, with the its legendary “most beautiful kilometer in Italy”.
