Received wisdom has it that the Giro d’Italia’s general classification contenders – with the obvious exception of the unfortunate Jean-Christophe Péraud – will be relieved to have safely negotiated the race’s treacherous opening days in the Netherlands, and will have breathed a collective sigh of relief on reaching Italian soil in Calabria on Monday.
A closer inspection of the road book, however, should serve as a warning: the race’s early pitfalls are still to come. The Chianti time trial on stage 9 may be, as Giuseppe Martinelli put it, “the most important thing” in the Giro’s opening two weeks, but the Astana directeur sportif will be keenly aware that the road from here to Tuscany is a fraught one.
On Tuesday, the Giro re-opens for business with a sinuous trek through Calabria, from the regional capital Catanzaro to the seaside town of Praia a Mare. It is, to borrow the local expression, a ‘mangi e bevi’ stage; that is, one where the road constantly rolls up and down as it winds its way over the headlands and outcrops of the Tyrrhenian coast.
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Although there are just two categorised climbs on the route, the raw statistics are cruelly deceptive. As is so often the case when the Giro visits this corner of the world, there is scarcely a metre of flat over the 200 kilometres, and the stage is rife with potential ambush sites. Small wonder, then, that the stage’s difficulty is rated at three stars (out of a maximum five) in the road book.
In many respects, it is not dissimilar to the dramatic stage to nearby Marina di Ascea in 2013, when Bradley Wiggins more or less withstood the first assault from Vincenzo Nibali et al, but learnt the harsh truth that the Giro operates to a different rhythm than the Tour de France, or the rolling day to La Spezia last year, when Ryder Hesjedal lost all hopes of a podium finish as Astana took the race in hand.
Tuesday’s finale also includes the uncategorised, 18% slopes of the Fortino. Coming just ten kilometres from the finish line, it might well signal the end of Marcel Kittel’s reign in pink – though on current form, nothing seems beyond the German, including a white knuckle descent to get back on – but it could also provide a springboard for willing attackers. In 2011, after all, Alberto Contador make significant gains on a seemingly less demanding finale further down the coast in Tropea. GC contenders beware.
Summit meeting
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