Climbing to Piano Margi

If you like climbing in excellent weather, then cycling in Sicily will be a blast! There are many nice climbs in my area, both for road bikes and for mountain bikes. The climb to Piano Margi is one of those climbs. The first part can be done on a road bike and an MTB, but if you’d like to go all the way to the top you’ll have to do the climb on a mountain bike (like we did here). The climb starts in the small town of Cinisi, pretty close to the airport of Palermo.

The climb:
The climb is over 8 km long and when you’ve reached the top, you’ll have climbed 540 meters. The average grade is more than 6%, but you will encounter a few short steep parts up to around 15%. If you’re as strong as Giovanni Visconti, it will take you 24.5 minutes to reach Piano Margi. Many of us aren’t, so Strava times range from 25:17 to 1:18:13…

Strava route:
I created a Strava route from the climb that you can export to a tcx file for your Garmin.

Photos:
I chose to take pictures in the autumn, so you’ll have a good idea about what to expect when you go and ride your bike in the months of October or November in Sicily. The following pictures were taken on October 18, on a beautiful sunny day. It was around 27°C, so excellent cycling weather!

Follow the signs

Cows grazing 1 km into the climb

View of the Golf and the town of Terrasini

One of the steeper parts of the climb

Near the sanctuary

At the sanctuary of Madonna del Furi

The small church of the sanctuary of Madonna del Furi

Rocky mountains with Cinisi and the airport of Palermo in the background

My Ridley Helium SL in one of the hairpins

At around 5 km into the climb

A beautiful green area on a sunny October day

Don’t be surprised to find cows on or near the road

One of the many bends in the road

Fields with fichi d’india

On the descent

A fast stretch on the descent

The view of the town of Terrasini