Giuliano Bernardelle would have been proud. "My first race in Vicenza, as a novice, with about a hundred at the start, I finished fourth. My first victory in Vicenza, as a junior, at the finish line behind Monte Berico, I dropped everyone and arrived alone".

Berici Climbs is a cycling tourism area developed across the entire Berici Hills (Mountains) territory in the province of Vicenza (165 sq km, 17 municipalities involved), with 100 road bike climbs classified in five colors based on their difficulty level (green for the simplest, then blue, yellow and red up to black, the most difficult), totaling 402 km and 20,000 meters of positive elevation gain. The Park also includes 40 cycling routes, also classified by difficulty level, covering a total of 2,760 km and over 50,000 meters of elevation gain.

Giuliano Bernardelle, whose surname shares the same root as the Berici Hills, would have been happy. One year with Torpado, two with Atala, and two more with San Pellegrino, where Gino Bartali was the sports director. "It was a team that started without team leaders and domestiques, hierarchies were established along the way". "Bartali would prepare, organize, control, demand, then wait for us at the hotel and thunder: 'Everything wrong, everything to be redone', and 'You must give and do more'".

Berici Climbs is a project to enhance the Berici Hills, the Vicenza territory, and the entire Veneto region, to attract cycling tourism enthusiasts from Italy and abroad (the website has been translated into 20 languages). A permanent project. In collaboration with the 17 municipalities involved, the province of Vicenza, and the Veneto Region, the Park will have a permanent vertical signage that at the beginning of each of the 100 climbs will indicate the name, color, and main characteristics (length, average gradient, max, elevation gain) and will feature a QR code linked to the climb's profile on the website.

Giuliano Bernardelle would have been satisfied, with a professional victory at the 1959 Tour of Sicily. "After stopping racing, I bought a house with my savings. Then I always directed traffic: for 28 years I was a traffic warden and for 36 a sports director. Everything wrong, everything to be redone? Bartali wasn't exaggerating".

Berici Climbs proposes two challenges (the proceeds are mostly destined for the Michele Scarponi Foundation and projects against road violence): cyclists will measure themselves against their own limits to achieve the Berici brevetto and the jerseys of road cycling history. The beauty is that the thirteenth stage of the Giro d'Italia, the 180 km Rovigo-Vicenza, on Friday, May 23rd, will arrive right on the Monte Berico climb, covering the last 79 km of the stage within the Berici Climbs area, climbing five of the 100 climbs. And Giuliano Bernardelle will be there, spiritually.