Cannondale Pro Cycling’s Rigoberto Urán says he is prepared to be in the thick of the Giro d’Italia action this weekend where two very difficult stages could see the Colombian hit new heights in the general classification.
Currently tenth overall at 51 seconds behind race leader Tom Dumoulin, Urán rode impressively on the stage 6 summit finish at Roccaraso, finishing eighth after a driving late counter-attack that netted him a handful of seconds on top rivals Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Mikel Landa (Sky) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
Although his climbing condition is clearly good, it’s Uran’s time trialling potential, which with stage 9's 40.5 kilometre chrono through the rolling hills of Chianti on Sunday, is arguably of most interest right now. Given his superb ride in the Barolo time trial of the 2014 Giro d’Italia; winning the stage and moving into the overall lead for four days, the Colombian’s performance on Sunday in very similar terrain and distance could well be key to his final overall result in Turin.
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Before that, though, Saturday’s 186 kilometre stage 8 from Foligno to Arezzo features a tricky second category climb of Alpe di Poti in its finale: the climb features 6.5 kilometres of gravel roads as well as some steep ramps reaching up to 14 per cent at one point. With the summit 18.4 kilometres from the finish in Arezzo, the twisting, difficult descent then flattens out, prior to an tough, technical little uphill climb in the last kilometre including one 11 per cent section inside the old city walls.
Urán has done his homework for both stages, say Cannondale Pro Cycling staff. Earlier this year, Urán checked out both the finale of stage 8, riding over the second category ascent twice, and also the time trial in Chianti on Sunday.
“It was a hard stage, but I’m doing fine,” Urán, the Giro runner-up overall in 2013 and 2014, told Cyclingnews after coming through stage 7 to Foligno without incident. “Overall I am very pleased with the way I was climbing and that’s good for my morale before stage 8, where there’s sure to be a big fight on that last ascent. The really important stage, though, will be Sunday’s time trial."
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