With ten ascents to choose from, and its slopes steeped in history, the Monte Grappa is a climb like few others.

Memorials lining the mountain – including the Sacraria Militaire del Monte Grappa, at the summit – are a reminder of the mountain’s bloody history; a strategic battlefield during World War One and site of mass killings of Partisan soldiers by the Nazis in World War Two.

Nowadays, the mountain boasts a reputation as one of the most difficult Italian cycling climbs, with each ascent to the top offering a very different, gruelling challenge.

A Giro d’Italia fixture in 1970s and 1980s, the race for the pink jersey returned to the Cima Grappa in 2014 for the mountain time trial, as Nairo Quintana closed in on victory.

And it is this route, from Bassano del Grappa, which the Col Collective have visited for their latest video instalment – 18.5km in length, with a thigh-numbing average gradient of 8.3 per cent and plenty of switchbacks to welcome you onto the climb.

Check out the video above, or see more from the Col Collective here.