The Stage - The queen stage of the race and the only summit finish to boot, coming off the back of an extremely hard effort yesterday. Crucial for the overall destination of the race.
The Route - They start with climbing from the gun, with a 17-kilometre climb of the Valico di Colfiorito. After that there’s some rolling roads before a long descent, starting at Serravalle di Chienti, and passing through Muccia and Sfrecia before reaching Caldora there’s a small climb to Cessapalombo and another sweeping descent to Belforte del Chienti.
The Serraponte climb is a short and sharp one, dropping the field straight into Le Grazie. This is the first of several ascents and descents that will take the peloton through Loro Piecro, Girola and Santa Croce before the finish. There are three marked climbs through this period, with San Ginesio, Gualdo and Penna San Giovanni all noted on the map.
After the last of the ‘spikes, the road begins to rise steadily from Piane towards the base of the finishing climb, the Sarano Sassoetto.
The Climb - The Sassoetto is listed as 14.2km at 5.8%., but the first 1.3km of it is a rather sharp downhill before we hit the climb first up.
The climb’s test is its length and consistency; The first three kilometres average 6.1% with 5.4% the lowest gradient through the opening section, before the hardest section comes – 4 kilometres at 8.8% with the gradient hitting 13% just before the gradient eases a little into Torrante.
That respite is brief, with a kilometre coming at nearly 9% before the road eases slightly coming out of Torrante. The last kilometre has 500 metres at 8%, with the last 500 at 4.5% before the finish on a straight which is 7m wide and 100 metres.
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The Winner - This is one for the proper climbers, and the overall contenders. Stamina is going to be key.
The Contenders - Sky have the powerhouse hand here and Geraint Thomas in the race lead. We know he’s in strong form already, having shown up well on the sharp finish, and last year he was second to the now absent Nairo Quintana on the queen stage. We’ll see how fit Chris Froome is today whilst Michal Kwiatkowski is also a potential option.
Many of the riders that were prominent at the finish in Trevi are prime contenders here and the fact that Lotto’s Primoz Roglic, who won yesterday with a fine kilometre long attack, is 2:07 down gives him a big chance of going away again as he’s not a big overall threat. Adam Yates (Michtelon-Scott) was the only rider who looked like catching him in the last kilometre and is in the same boat.
Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-First), Mikel Landa (Movistar), Strade Bianche runner-up Romain Bardet (AG2R), Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) and Quick-Step’s Bob Jungels are all contenders. We’ll see how fit Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) is too.
Miguel Lopez (Astana) had been in great form before the race but was disappointing yesterday – will this suit more? If so he’s going to go close based on his Middle East form.
