A tour between lake, river, and hills with the culmination of the historic Colma di Arola Pass, which connects Lake Orta to Valsesia, risen to cycling honors with the passage of the 19th stage of the 104th Giro d’Italia on May 28, 2021.
We start from Omegna, climbing along the western slope of Lake Orta, passing under the rainbows of the Garden of the Pie in the Sky (Rodari-inspired) first, then through Brolo, Nonio, and Cesara. After the “décolletage” of Cesara (a town of peace in name and in fact), a short descent leads to the fork on the right to Arola and its Colma.
It is a scant 8 kilometers of climbing, with its most challenging part at the exit of Arola, with gradients approaching 16 %. It’s all condensed into a couple of kilometers, and then we are back to breathing easy until the Colma Pass at 942 m.a.s.l.