Where is the Lavaredo 80K decided?
On the first leg, the long way from Val Marzon Auronzo to Cimabanche, and at the cut-off at Malga Ra Stua just after it. With 25.9 km to the first aid station, it is the longest leg by far, and it holds more than a third of the whole effort. It opens with the biggest climb of the course, 662 m at a very steep average. A second very steep climb follows at once, then the biggest descent, 940 m down at a steep grade.
The cut-offs make that start count. Cimabanche and Malga Ra Stua have the two tightest of the race: at an even effort, only a finish time under 18:30 makes Malga Ra Stua. The 22:00 time limit holds for the finish only. At the first two aid stations the clock is far stricter.
Half the effort is done on the leg to Malga Travenanzes. Out of Malga Travenanzes the course climbs again, steep, and soon after comes the hardest leg per kilometre: Col Gallina to Passo Giau, 602 m of climbing in 7.6 km. The last of the big climbs, short and steep up to Rifugio Averau, lies on it. Even so, it is only a little harder than the average, because no leg of this course stands far above the rest. More than three quarters of the effort is done by Passo Giau. At an even pace for a 19-hour finish, already too slow for the first cut-offs, you reach Col Gallina at twenty to nine in the evening and Passo Giau at half past ten at night.
After Passo Giau the course loses more than it climbs. The last leg, from Rifugio Croda da Lago to Cortina d’Ampezzo, drops 973 m and barely climbs at all. It starts with the last big descent, steep, then runs on past Mortisa to the finish. Kilometre for kilometre it is the easiest leg of the race. At the same even pace, you finish at two on Sunday morning. After the first leg the aid stations come closer together: from then on, the longest gap between two of them is the 13.4 km from Malga Ra Stua to Malga Travenanzes.
Organiser's distances and heights; Pendio's shares and clock.