GF - Gran Fondo dei Colli Bolognesi (2018 Restyling)

Since the first few miles the valley slowly begins to rise. Without a single flat, the path is a constant up and down through the beautiful woods and hills of Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. One by one we climb the hills, as small dunes: Cà Bortolami (length of 1 km, with a maximum slope of 8.6%), Crocetta (length of 1 km, with a maximum slope of 7%), Passo Sella della Croce, a name that evokes the Dolomites in the heart of Emilia (length of 2 km, with a maximum slope of 8%), and Passo Brasa (length of 3 km, with a maximum slope of 5.9%).
Near the village of Iola we end the first part of the race.
We start with the second part from Iola, after which we will have a long descent, very technical, along which we let go the bike contemplating the beautiful landscape that surrounds us, the small villages of the Emilia made of handfuls of houses and perched at the foot of the peaks, visible on the horizon.
After the village of Lizzano, we begin again to rise: towards Corona (length of 4.2 km, with a maximum slope of 6.9%), and immediately after a new descent to peak, winding through the woods, and then resume again to ride a new uphill.
We get to Zocca, the birthplace of the Italian rock star Vasco Rossi.
But Zocca is not the final roughness of the day, and after the long descent that follows, Montemaggiore the last climb of the day, wait us for another challenge to our muscles. The climb of Montemaggiore is 3 km long, with an average slope of 10% and peaks of 13.6%. A corner of the Mortirolo near Bologna. At the end of this challenging ramp, you just have to walk the last kilometers to Bologna.