Valais Giro - Cycling Simulator - Online Cycling Manager

The Valais Giro is one of the hardest one day races there is in Switzerland but one of the newer races in the OCM calendar. The best climbers in division 4 will take on one another for one of the biggest cycling prizes in the OCM tour. For this race, the start will lie in the heart of the old town of Sion which hosts the Valais-Valais race just afterwards, so the cycling presence is every, with riders and managers mingling with the local population.
The cyclists will immediately start climbing to Les Esserts, which in itself is a tough climb. The early breakaway will make ground as the favourites and the teams will be perfectly happy just to keep everything together and moderate the breakaways gains. However, on occasion a captain will make an early move which will put the race on a different level. The descent is tricky with small roads and many hairpin bends. Eventually, 30km after starting the race, the peloton will have reached the Rhone Valley once more. They are on the flat for no more than two kilometers before another monster climb up to the Col Du Lein via the Col du Tronc and down via the Col Des Planches. This climb is very tough and will put some of the early pacemakers in trouble. The other two passes are just minor hills on the route compared to the average 9% gradient on the Col du Lein. The old roads are tricky both to climb and to descend and some of the favourites may struggle on the uneven surface. Once they reach Martigny they know that they only have one climb left in the day. This though is a terrible, terrible climb and will wrench the spirit from even the most dedicated riders. There is no flat land after Martigny, for although they climb slowly, they will start the climb immediately.
The serious climbing starts after the spectacular bridge of Pont Neuf Trient, a spectacular feat at 356 feet wide. The gorges are spectacular and worth a visit, but the riders will not worry about the stunning gorges below them, instead of the 15% gradients that the next six hairpin bends will bring. The road, recently rebuilt, is in a far better condition than the road up to the Col Du Lein. After those six corners, where a few of the lesser well known climbers will attack in order to prise open a gap and hope for victory, the climb settles down to a lesser gradient up to the village of Salvan and up most of the valley they then enter. With seven kilometers left however,the serious climbing gets going. With gradients reaching up to 25%, some will walk their bikes up the very narrow but horrendous stretch of 25 hairpin bends that climb up the side of a near sheer rock face. Attacks by favourites will occur here and the peloton will be whittled down to the final dozen or even less. During this 4km stretch, they have climbed up the wall of the Lac de Salanfe at 1925m. If anyone is still ahead of the favourites, the strongest rider will try to chase him down. However, anyone following the strongest man remaining will give the breakaway the faintest of hopes as they snake slowly up to the finishing point of the Col Du Jorat as cat and mouse games often occur lower down. It is a further 300m up to the top from the lake, and all of it is among the rocks. Only the grass grows up here due to the savage climate. The final three kilometers from the lake are also very tough, especially the first 500m with a sudden ramp of nearly 23%. The climbers will now be separate, no longer will groups exist at the front of the race. The climbing continues right to the top of the Col Du Jorat and the last 500m is particularly savage with gradients once again reaching the high teens.
The winner will cross the line first, but will not have celebrated before the line, for he will be turning himself inside out to struggle up to the line. Once up to the top he will feel incredibly happy to have won such a prestigious race. However, looking across the wide valley on the other side, he will realise that he has not conquered the extreme heights, with the Dents du Midi standing clearly defined above him. And he knows that others are still struggling up past the lake as he is crowned, while spectators begin the walk down the otherside of the Col Du Jorat to that of the race route, a climb for cyclists that is surely one step too far even for professionals.