Looking upwards is part of the Tour of the Alps DNA, as the #LiveUphill payoff confirms. At the official presentation of the 45th edition, held on Friday, November 5th in Milan, the euro-regional event lived up to its roots, launching a 2022 event made of big ambitions, new openings and – as usual – the great show of the Euregio Tirol – Südtirol/Alto Adige – Trentino roads.
Little more than six months after the success of Simon Yates in a festive Riva del Garda, the GS Alto Garda organizers unveiled the 2022 route that from April 18th to 22nd, 2022, will test many of the best names in world cycling. In 2021, thirteen World Tour teams chose to take part in the Tour of the Alps, a result that the Euroregional race aims to equal, and possibly exceed, in the upcoming edition.
Five stages, 719 km and 13,750 metres of elevation gain: the figures presented to the media and stakeholders in the prestigious Sala Buzzati in Milan, and to the fans connected via streaming, bode for another exciting show, according to the technical framework that has characterized the recent history of the Tour of the Alps.
Plenty of climbs, but none of them exceeding two thousand metres of height, challenging routes with significant elevation gain but reduced distance (159 km for the longest one) and just 30 km of out-of-race transfers in the whole week: It will be another full-gas edition from the start in Cles (Trentino) to the grand finale in Lienz (Tirol), with sceneries and territories of rare beauty in the background.
Attending the presentation at the Sala Buzzati in Milan were, among others, Trentino Marketing CEO Maurizio Rossini, IDM Südtirol’s Head of Pr&Events Andreas Tschurtschenthaler, former pro cyclist and Tirol Werbung Ambassador Thomas Rohregger, along with GS Alto Garda President Giacomo Santini, Tour of the Alps General Manager Maurizio Evangelista and Gazzetta dello Sport Vice-Director Pier Bergonzi.Former Austrian pro cyclist and current Eurosport and GCN analyst Bernhard Eisel, together with ex cycling Champion Francesco Moser, Astana-Qazaqstan Sports Director Giuseppe Martinelli and Bahrain Victorius Sports Director Alberto Volpi provided their views on the 2022 Tour of the Alps’ route.
TOUR OF THE ALPS PIONEER OF EURO-REGIONAL COOPERATION
The upcoming year will be a special one for the UCI Pro Series event, which in 2022 celebrates five years and the fifth edition since the introduction of the new Tour of the Alps project, having picked up the baton of the Giro del Trentino in 2017.
Still in its youth years, the new project has already left its mark. In the wake of the Tour of the Alps. the new European Group of Territorial Cooperation (EGCT) “Euregio Connect” was created, with which Tirol, Südtirol/Alto Adige and Trentino look to start and manage new initiatives that will follow the path successfully tested in the sports world.
As a project that aims at connecting people, values and principles of a macro-region united by history and common roots, the TotA’s success goes beyond the borders of sport. For the Euroregion, the Tour of the Alps is more and more a symbol of how we can go better, stronger and further together.
START FROM TRENTINO, FINISH IN TIROL: FROM CLES TO LIENZ
The Tour of the Alps restarts from Trentino, the territory that hosted the final showdown of the 2021 edition. Val di Non’s main town, Cles, the home of the Melinda Consortium (sponsor of the GC leader’s jersey again in 2022), is ready to inaugurate the start of the euro-regional cycling event, hosting the take-off of stage 1, on Monday, April 18th. The finish line will be in Primiero/San Martino di Castrozza after 159 Km in the shadow of the famous Pale di San Martino. Passo Brocon and Passo Gobbera climbs will be the main hurdles of the stage before a nervous finale, characterized by the steep Via Molaren uphill drag, the final springboard for those targeting the first leader’s jersey.
On Tuesday, April 19th, the riders will face an uphill start in stage 2, of 153 Km from Primiero/San Martino di Castrozza to Lana, in South Tyrol. Right after the start, the highest peak of the 2022 Tour of the Alps, Passo Rolle, awaits the riders. This climb will be followed by the ascents of Mendelpass/Passo della Mendola and Gampenpass/Passo delle Palade before a fast finale to Lana.
Tour of the Alps’ stage 3 will be held entirely in South Tyrol on Wednesday, April 20th, 149 Km from Lana to Niederdorf/Villabassa. The peloton will cross the Pustertal/Val Pusteria, taking in two KOMs, Terenten/Terento and Furkelpass/Passo Furcia, the queen ascents of the 2022 Tour of the Alps, before the following downhill and a slight rise towards the finish line in Niederdorf/Villabassa.
With stage 4 scheduled on Thursday, April 21st, Niederdorf/Villabassa-Kals am Groβglockner, 142 Km, the Tour of the Alps makes its entrance in Tirol through the Pustertal/Val Pusteria. The climbs of Kartitscher Sattel and Gailberg Sattel, including a section in Carinthia, introduce a finale open to many interpretations, characterized by a 12,5-Km climb on the shadow of the highest peak of Austria, the Groβglockner.
The Osttirol, a friend region to the Tour of the Alps since the old Giro del Trentino days, will host stage 5 (Lienz-Lienz, 116 Km), on Friday, April 22nd. The athletes will face the well-known ascent of Bannberg twice, and the tough Stronach hill (3 km with double-digit gradients), never seen in a cycling race before. From the top, there will be 10 km left to the finish line: after a 5-km downhill, five flat kilometers will bring the race to the last finish of the 2022 Tour of the Alps in Lienz.
