Two mountain stages and an individual time trial are on program.
Stage 19 – Treviso – San Martino di Castrozza (151,0 km)
Friday’s stage doesn’t provide big mountains. “Only” a 3rd, a 4th and a 2nd category climbs.
But as we could see several time at this Giro, the ascents are sometimes a bit underrated. I mean, a 6,3 km long climb with an averages slope of 6,8% and with maximum 10%, like the Passo di San Boldo, really just a 3rd category? Anyway, the stage is 151 km long, and we know exactly, what it means: the shorter the stage, the more sure, that the teams of the GC-contenders keep the peloton under control.
The second and final ascent is the San Martino di Castrozza (13,6 km à 5,6%, max. 10,0%). After a 2 km short part of a 2,4% slope the road rises steeper, but mostly steadly. The steepest part comes at 5 and a half km to go.
As you can see, the final 4,5 kilometres are the same, mostly with 6,5 or 7% of steepness. Only the final 400 m will be slighly easier.
I’ve mentioned before, that this stage is easy to control, but this is even the paradox of this stage: wich GC-team is willing to waste energy for this?
Stage 20- Feltre – Monte Avena (194,0 km)
The penultimate stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia is a monster. There are three 2nd category and two 1st category climbs on program. It’s a hilltop finish after almost 200 km heroic efforts of up and down and up and down…
The stage literally starts with the Cima Campo, the road begins to rise after 8,5 km. The ascent is 18,7 km long with an average slope of 5,9% (steepest part 10%). This lenght is the pure promise of big dramas.
As does the next hill, the Passo Manghen too, which is even 200 m longer than the Cima Campo (18,9 km à 7,6%, max. 15,0%) The most crutial part of this ascent comes after 13 km.
But the longest climb of the day comes at 81 km to go: the 20,6 km long Passo Rolle. Whit its “only” 4,7 % steepness it is a realy sneaky one. so I think, this will be the real game changer.
And then we have the Croce d’Anue (11,1 km à 5,5%, max. 16,0%)
before the riders head to the final category 1 climb of the Giro, although it seems to be the easiest one on this Saturday.
Stage 21 – Verona – Verona (17,0 km)
During the last few days there have been many words about the final ITT of the race. As you can see, it’s not flat, but not a mountain time trial either.
Just take a closer look at the climb of the day:
Depending on how the previous days is going to playing out, the tension will be high till the end of the stage.
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