The Stage - One of the four days left that will decide the Giro, a 34.2-kilometre time trial from Trento to Roverto to shake up the overall standings.
The Route - Starts and finishes in urbanised areas, and for the most part is fairly flat, despite the profile hiding some undulating sections towards the second half of the stage.
There are stretches of stone pave, roundabouts and traffic islands in the opening as the riders leave Trento, but the roads are well surfaced and mostly straight, especially in the first half of the stage. There are some rises near the intermediate time check at Aldeno (and also short descents) and then a downhill run to Piazzo where the road begins to undulate properly.
There is a climb to the second time check in Nogaredo and then small downhills, but the road is only ever undulating, and these are mostly 3-4% sections which can be taken with big gears.
After a right-hand turn in Isera, there’s a descent before the road passes the Adige river and reaches Rovereto, where the route gets narrower and a number of 90-degree bends lead into wider avenues, heading for the finish.
The Wind - There’s set to be rain before the stage start in Romagno, but from 1pm local time – the stage start – conditions should ease off. There’s a light headwind, enough perhaps to make a difference although aerodynamic position was always going to be important anyway. The later starters should be advantaged by a drier surface.
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The Magalia Rosa - Can realistically be won by four riders, but really comes down to the first and second. Mitchelton-Scott’s Simon Yates took a stunning win into Sappada to stretch the gap between him and defending Champion Tom Dumoulin to 2 minutes and eleven seconds.
Dumoulin, the World Time Trial Champion and winner of the opening stage in Jerusalem, is the strong favourite for the stage, let alone to take time out of Yates, and according to Yates himself a loss of four seconds per kilometre – 136.8 seconds over the course of the time trial. That would be 2 minutes and 28 seconds, giving Dumoulin a lead of 17 seconds over Yates, a margin the Bury man would feel he could recover on the basis of his three stage wins so far.
However, this is the third week of the Giro, an extremely tough one so far, and it comes after a rest day, so the gaps could be bigger or smaller than expected.
Outside of those two, Thibaut Pinot has a reasonable time trial record and will be hoping to climb onto the podium. Chris Froome’s overall hopes are now surely gone following Sappada but he is a better time trialist than most and will aim to put minutes into Miguel Angel Lopez and Richard Carapaz, who are both fighting for the white jersey and perhaps to have an outside shot at the podium,
Time Trial Form - The opening stage of the race was a 9.7-kilometre time trial in Jerusalem, which took place over an undulating course with plenty of tight turns.
Tom Dumoulin took the Magalia Rosa with a time of 12:02, two seconds ahead of Rohan Dennis (BMC).
That was where Yates began his challenge, posting a fine time of 12:22 to finish seventh on the stage, just 20 seconds behind Dumoulin. Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) posted a huge surprise when his time of 12:29 equalled that of four-time time trial world champion Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin).
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) was to be the next best of the GC riders, 33 seconds behind Dumoulin and six seconds ahead of Chris Froome, who crashed on the recon and posted 12:39. Just ahead of him was Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) who posted 12:38, and behind Froome was Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) on 12:42, George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) on 12:51, and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) on 12:58. Richard Carapaz (Movistar) was six seconds behind with 13:01 and the battle between them for the white jersey will be intense.
The Stage Contenders - Dumoulin is the obvious choice for the stage but there were only two seconds between him and Rohan Dennis, who has ridden brilliantly so far this Giro and can climb into the top 10 with a big effort here – he’s 28 seconds behind Patrick Konrad and beat him by about that margin on the opening stage.
Dennis has won three-time trials so far this season, In January, he won his third national Australian time trialling title in a row.
European Time Trial Champion Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Fix All) was on the same time and is another major player here if he hasn’t suffered too much thanks to two weeks of racing.
Katusha have two contenders in Tony Martin and Alex Dowsett, with the former having shown plenty of strong form through the race. That said both performed well in the opening time trial and this will surely suit more.
Jos Van Emden (Lotto-Jumbo) beat Tom Dumoulin in the flat time trial to end the Giro last year but he was disappointing on the opening stage. This distance ought to suit better though, and the same could be said of Ryan Mullen of Trek-Segafredo.
