Edizione Zero:done! One year of countdown!
3 August 2014
Exactly 365 days before the official start date a strong and highly motivated team of athletes led by Bergamo born Marco Zanchi completed the race route studied and designed for months by Piagames technical staff in three stages.
This test run enabled opinions and assessments to be collected on the route`s safety, practicability, logistics and technical characteristics. The route was deliberately sub-divided into three sections.
The first part starts from Piazza dell`Orologio in Clusone, climbs to the peak of Mt. Blum and continues in the direction of the west face of the Presolana massif before reaching the village of Valbondione with its meadows and limestone soils. The second embraces a totally Alpine environment passing the Brunone, Calvi, Gemelli, Alpe Corte and Capanna 2000 refuges and Mt. Alben and continuing to Selvino town. The third and last section descends to Monte di Nese on the Maresana hill before ending at the splendid backdrop of the Bergamo upper town.
The total distances and altitude gains and losses of these three sections have been mapped with GPS devices and add up to 140 km and 9500 metres of climb.
The athletes present, including two Spanish champions, Pablo Criado and Lucas Boix, gave excellent technical feedback and agreed that the route is extremely beautiful but also highly technical with a sequence of ups and downs and the natural characteristics of the footpaths. Non-optimal conditions this year as a result of the heavy snowfalls of the winter gave us a full understanding of the intensity of the race.
