- The Passo Croce d'Aune.
At 8.5 kilometers long with an average gradient of 7.8%,
it's a nice climb but it's nothing to write home about.
I mean, it's never been decisive in the Giro, for example.
But legend has it that it was the scene
of a pivotal moment, not in a race,
but for cycling as a whole.
(emotional music)
We're getting near to the top now
and it can't come any sooner.
Oh, god.
Look at my cadence!
Were it not for the Croce d'Aune,
then I'd not be riding this
but this.
It's just a shame that this pivotal moment in cycling
couldn't have occurred on a climb
that's bathed in year-round sunshine.
(old time music)
(epic, crescendoing music)
Let's rewind a little bit.
How has one climb changed the whole of cycling?
Well, Campagnolo,
Tullio Campagnolo.
(brisk, brooding music)
So legend has it, Tullio Campagnolo
was leading a late autumn race over this road
in foul conditions in November, 1927.
In those, changing gear meant removing your wheel
and swapping between one of two cogs.
However, the snow had frozen his hands
and he wasn't able to remove his wheel.
Shouting "bisogna cambià qualcossa de drio" into the wind,
he set about doing exactly that.
It translates as something must change at the back.
He invented the quick release and from there,
the modern groupset.
What misery has he helped us escape?
Well, I'm going to find out just how hard
was climbing before the invention of gears.
Wish me luck.
(mellow jazz music)
You may notice that I'm not riding a real 1920s bike
but Jon Cannings has done an excellent job
of accurately recreating one
and the intention was that Sy would come here and ride this
but two things have meant that's not happening.
Firstly, over the years at GCN,
Sy has broken a lot of priceless historical artifacts.
- No problem mate.
No, I think we've got a real problem.
- And it was considered
that it was no time to break anymore.
And the other reason is that well,
Sy is allergic to the rain.
But fear not because this bike has all the hallmarks
of one from the era.
So we've got a rubbish, heavy flexible steel frame,
tick.
Weird handlebars,
tick.
Really, really crap brakes,
tick.
Toe clips, rubbish!
And (grunting) and I've got gears, though,
two of them
and they're both massive,
meaning that I'm just grinding away
up these horrible gradients.
(tribal drumming)
The early sections of this climb
average just over 10%,
which is considered steep by modern standards
with modern gearing but on this,
it's something else.
I'm kind of learning that
you just have to pedal differently.
It's all about strength
and just trying to turn the gear over
but it's definitely slower and it's more painful.
I'm just going to have to hope
that the gradient eases a bit
so that I can keep going and make it to the top.
(grunting) Oh, I must just die.
(somber Italian music)
Back in the day, they would've never made it up climbs
like the Angliru or the Mortirolo,
not because they were lesser athletes,
far from it, just because with this gearing,
it would've been impossible.
They would've walked. (panting)
(tranquil music)
The legendary Campagnolo moment
came in the Gran Premio della Vittoria
and not the Giro d'Italia.
But it's worth talking about the Giro d'Italia of 1927
to give some historical context to the invention.
The Giro that year was won by a certain Alfredo Binda,
who had incredibly impressive career stats,
41 stages of the Giro d'Italia
and 11 Grand Tour victories in total.
But what's all the more remarkable
is the nature of the race then.
So in 1927, the Giro was 3,758 kilometers long
and that was spread over 15 stages.
In 2018 when Froome won,
it was 250 kilometers shorter
and spread over 21 stages.
Now, it gets really stark
when you realize that Binda's average speed
was 26 kilometers an hour
and that meant that his average time per stage
was 9.6 hours.
If you compare this to Froome in 2018,
well, his average speed was 40K an hour,
meaning that each stage was just over four hours.
In total, to win the Giro,
Binda rode 55 hour longer than Chris Froome
and this means that the Grand Tours back in the day
perhaps had more in common
with the ultra endurance events we have now,
like the Transcontinental.
(grunting) An amazing feat, amazing.
(tranquil music) (panting)
At the top of the climb is a monument
to Tullio Campagnolo.
I'm going to pay my respects when I get there,
if my knees don't explode.
(brisk Italian music)
Right, I'm going to do a gear change now
to show you what they had to do back in the day.
On the back, we've got these wingnuts.
We've got a cog on this side
and a slightly easier cog on this side.
It's completely pointless.
This one's like what, a 16 and this one's like a 17.
Good range.
(grunting) Oh god, it's stuck.
See, I'm finding it really difficult now
to get that unstuck
and this is exactly the problem that Tullio Campagnolo had.
His hands were cold, my hands were cold,
and we're on the same climb.
There's something very poetic about this.
Now I need to push it out of the dropouts.
Let's get the chain back on, if I can.
Now I'm just trying to tighten up this wingnut
on the back on both sides.
God, this is difficult.
Well I can tell you that
now I've switched into my bailout gear,
it feels positively magical riding up this climb.
For god's sake.
(inspirational music)
There's Tullio's monument.
Oh god, that was really hard.
I don't think these brakes
are very good at going downhill either.
Can I swap back to my bike now, please?
(exhaling) Thank god for that.
Well, I'm sure it's probably heresy
to bring a SRAM-equipped bike to a monument for Campagnolo
but I'm sure Tullio would approve of some eTap action
although it is slightly ironic
that my bike doesn't even have quick releases on it.
It's got thru axles.
Sorry about that.
(quiet, somber music)
Now when we think back earlier
to our story about Campagnolo's light bulb moment,
the fact that his very words are recorded in history
should make you immediately slightly skeptical
as to how much of that is actually fact
and how much is poetic license.
That skepticism could be well-placed.
According to research by the eminent cycling historian
David Herlihy, there was no snowy
Gran Premio della Vittoria in 1927
and Campagnolo wasn't even listed as a favorite
in any of the editions of the race in the 1920s.
More damningly than that, according to Herlihy,
there isn't even a patent for the quick release
in the 1930s.
Campagnolo does have them
but they're for smaller improvements to the original design
and the same is true for derailleurs after that.
However, let's not deny Campagolo his place in history.
He was a visionary, a true innovator,
someone who took existing ideas and made them better.
He's also responsible for creating
the concept of the groupset,
something we couldn't imagine cycling without today.
Now I hope you've enjoyed this video, if nothing else,
just for how cold and went I got making it
and if so, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to GCN.
And to see another video
where we take on the epic Passo di Nivolet,
the climb from the Italian Job, then click down here.
(restrained music)