2022 Giro d'Italia: an exhausted Jai Hindley after winning on the Blockhaus (Image credit: Getty Images) Such is the status of the Blockhaus in Giro d’Italia climbing mythology that no matter what other legendary ascents - Etna, the Stelvio, the Zoncolan - precede or follow it, whenever the peloton begins to tackle the Blockhaus’ 13.8 kilometre slopes deep in the Apennine mountains of central Italy, it’s invariably a red-letter race day. No other climb, after all, has the honour of being the finish of the first-ever Grand Tour stage won by all-time great Eddy Merckx back in 1967. Or of being one of the handful of scenarios where Merckx was truly put up against the ropes when in his prime, on that occasion in 1972 on the Blockhaus by Spanish climbing genius Jose Manuel Fuente.…