The Coppa delle Alpi 2021 is scheduled for January 21st-24th, 2021.

I grew up in Chicago, long held by myself as the coldest part of the planet.

XK-140 Running the Coppa Delle Alpi photo courtesy SportsCarDigest

Somewhere between mid-December and whenever the Gods decreed it spring, Chicago was cold.  Occasionally that meant snow in May, often greeted by mid-westerners with skyward single fingered salutes and rage, real piss and vinegar, as someone mentioning that it was that day, warmer in Juneau Alaska, than it was that particular moment in Chicago. The vernal equinox was bullshit.

Pushing cars out of a snow bank is just what you learned to do early.  If you were old enough to see over the trunk, someone would invariably recruit you to push as spinning tires heated up, turning the snow to watery ice, and the car got nowhere. 

To car people in Chicago, spring meant pulling off a car cover, praying the trickle charger had maintained a bit of crank,  and heading out, windows down, for the first drive of the season.  Cold be damned.

I never gave a moments thought that someone would do it the other way around, so when I heard about the Coppa delle Alpi, I again thought more bullshit.  No one runs expensive bits of tin through the mountains in winter.  Except in Europe.

Coppa delle Alpi and 1938 Alfa Romeo

The Coppa…is, well, the Millie Miglia for those who seem challenged to find the romance in balmy Italian weather, throngs of adoring fans, and glamorous rest stops, where drivers and teams enjoy la dolce vita as only the Italians can do it. Daft thinking to run a race attired in long johns and cossack hats. No, the drivers in the Coppa delle Alpi are only concerned about their self centered focus on… fun!

Coppa delle Alpi will take place across 15 of the most spectacular Alpine passes in Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany around the end of January next year.

The competition, officially included in the Italian Great Events Championship, will consist of four legs through some of the most evocative mountain locations in Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Coppa delle Alpi

The Coppa delle Alpi is open to cars built between 1919 and 1976.  Specific details of the route are still to be published, but this race will showcase 1,200 km route encompassing 60 time-trials and the 15 spectacular passes in the Alps. The race will begin in Brescia, snake up through Italy towards Bressanone, cross into Austria to Seefeld in the Tirol, wind back towards St Moritz in Switzerland and finish in Ponte di Legno, Italy.

Coppa delle Alpi

Snowball fights, frostbite, North Face underwear, I trained for this race most of my life.

Lucky bastards…