La Maddalena Classica
Turin, Italy
A loop every Turin rider has under their wheels a hundred times over, climbing straight off the river to summit both Superga and Colle della Maddalena along the ridge road locals call la Panoramica. Doubletrack and proper gravel weave through the woods for those chasing dirt.
Every rider in Turin has done this one, and most have done it a hundred times. It's the loop you ride when you've got a spare morning and want some ascent without leaving the city behind. It climbs the Collina Torinese straight up from the river to touch the two high points that watch over Turin, Superga and La Maddalena, strung together along the ridge road everyone just calls la Panoramica.
Superga comes first, its baroque basilica sitting at around 670 m. It's also where the Grande Torino play on, forever: on 4 May 1949 the aircraft carrying the entire Torino team crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga, and all thirty-one people aboard were killed. This was the Grande Torino, five-time champions of Italy, the backbone of the national side. The memorial still stands at the rear of the basilica, and every year the club climbs up to read the names aloud. You ride past it whether you meant to or not.
From Superga, the Panoramica runs south along the crest to the Colle della Maddalena, the loop's true high point at roughly 711 m, crowned by the Parco della Rimembranza and the Faro della Vittoria. You can take either summit from more than one direction, with plenty of doubletrack or proper gravel through the woods, so the loop reshuffles easily depending on how much dirt you're after.
One warning that costs tubes: as autumn arrives the trails fill with chestnut husks, and those spines are no friend to a non-tubeless tire. Run sealant, or resign yourself to walking the worst of it.
