Gran Fondo Matildica

Date
Friday 25.08.2023 - 27.08.2023
Distances
km
City
Reggio Emilia
Country
Italy

Granfondo Matildica in Reggio Emilia has a long tradition as high level Italian Granfondo and was host of the UEC European Championships Granfondo in 2022. In 2023, it will become a UCI Gran Fondo World Series on a challenging course in Emilia Romagna.

General

Reggio Emilia in Emilia Romagna has 170.000 inhabitants and the most important city of the province of Reggio Emilia. The old town has a hexagonal form coming from the old medieval walls and is split by the Crostolo river.

It has a lot of cultural and historical buildings like the Santa Maria Cathedral with its mosaic, the Basilica della Ghiara and the San Prospero church but also the Palazzo Ducale is famous. The city promotes itself as the city of Art and has a lot of piazzas (squares) where you can enjoy the hospitality and good food and wine.

The architecture of the train station is very modern in the historic city.

Road race

The road races on 27 August have two distances: a 169 km granfondo distance for all riders up to the age of 49 and a 130km mediofondo as qualifier distance for all riders over 50.

Both courses share the same roads for the big majority of the race, but the Granfondo has some additional loops added to the course.

The Granfondo course has a 10km climb at 6.5% average starting after 7.5km. The terrain keeps on going up and down with another steep 2km at 13% after 26km and also the climb between 31-37km with 10% average is hard and brutal.

The second half of the course is a bit easier, but with the distance and some punchy short climbs like another 2.5km at 8% after 146km on the course, there are enough chances for riders to make a gap.

Total elevation for the granfondo is 2915 meters while the mediofondo has 2004m of elevation, making these real mountain granfondos.

169 km Granfondo

130km Mediofondo

Time Trial

The time trial on Friday 25 August will be an uphill time trial over 8.6km in Castelnovo Ne’ Monti, 40km south of Reggio Emilia where the granfondo and mediofondo will be organized.

The start is at the Ponte di Pianello with the finish located at the Eremo della Pietra, also known as the Gate of Purgatory Dantesco given the citation of the Pietra di Bismantova made by Dante Alighieri in his most famous work: the “Divina Commedia”.

The course starts next to the Secchia river and has 468m of elevation meaning a gradient of 5.2% average with a steady climb until the last two kilometres where a short downhill leads into a steeper few hundred meters to then have a flat final kilometre to the finish line.