It can hurt your knees!

Rode this on the same day as the Giro went up (31/05/14). The gearing on my bike was a 34 x 32 - and I needed it to be every bit that low. Although the I had to stop at one point due to the crowds, it was achievable for a club B-grade rider like myself. A more experienced rider in our group had earlier expressed hesitation about riding it due to not wanting to "damage" his knees. At the time he said it, I didn't quite know what he meant - I've done hundreds of tough and steep climbs over the years without ever feeling pain in my knees. However, even though I felt fine on the day, I found that I experienced solid knee pain for about two weeks afterwards! It eventually resolved, but I can only imagine that it was due to the steep gradient and prolonged riding at high power output and low cadence - my knees obviously couldn't cope with it! For this reason, I would say don't try and be a hero by riding it in a biggish gear.

It is a bit of a freakishly steep climb - I'd recommend it if you want to climb at a very slow speed for a long period, but it otherwise doesn't allow you to feel like you're in much of a rhythm or anything. It is also quite a narrow road and decending it becomes quite tiresome being on the brakes for extended periods.

A highlight of the climb is the pictures of past Giro winners on each of the important bends! It took me 1:15 in total - which is a long time to be at that intensity.