The Maratona dles Dolomites route, printed

Seven passes, a full lap of the Sella group and the Giau as the day's sting: the Maratona has been Alta Badia's July ritual since 166 riders lined up in 1987.

The start is in La Villa, early, with thousands of riders packed into the Badia valley, and the first job is to reach Corvara and climb the Passo Campolongo to Arabba. That opens the Sellaronda, the loop around the Sella massif, ridden clockwise. The Passo Pordoi comes first, at 2,239 metres, then the road drops part of the way towards Canazei before turning up the Passo Sella, at 2,244 metres the highest point of the day, under the walls of the Sassolungo. The Passo Gardena follows at 2,121 metres, and the descent through Colfosco brings riders back to Corvara with the loop complete.

The Maratona then goes over the Campolongo a second time and drops past Arabba into the Livinallongo valley, a long run downhill towards Selva di Cadore, where the hardest climb of the day begins. The Passo Giau averages more than 9 per cent, with ramps of 15, and it rarely lets up on its way through the larches to the summit at 2,236 metres, where the Cinque Torri and the Tofane fill the view. From the top the road falls to Pocol above Cortina, then climbs again over the Falzarego to the Passo Valparola, at 2,200 metres the last of the big passes.

From Valparola the descent runs through San Cassiano down to La Villa, and then, with Corvara almost in reach, comes the Mür dl Giat: a wall of about 300 metres above La Villa that averages 13 per cent. After it the last stretch climbs gently up the valley to the finish in Corvara. The first Maratona, on 12 July 1987, celebrated the tenth year of the local cycling club, and its 166 riders came from Italy, Germany and Austria; its founders took the idea from long-distance ski races such as the Vasaloppet. The name is Ladin, the language still spoken in these valleys.