The big-name overall contenders will finally emerge at Tirreno-Adriatico on Saturday, on the climb of Terminillo in the heart of the Apennines east of Rome.
The central Italian mountain has often sparked an early shake-up at the Giro d’Italia in years past. This season it returns to Tirreno-Adriatico, hosting the queen stage of the race and the fight to try to beat natural favourite Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and so set up overall victory.
Terminillo is a power climb. The road snakes up the side of the mountain from Rieti for almost 16km, with an average and largely constant gradient of 8% with only a brief mid-section at 4% offering any respite. Known as the Rome’s Mountain because it is a weekend ski resort for the residents of the capital, the road surface is wide and fast, and includes long straight sections of road divided by sweeping hairpins.
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The stages ends at an altitude of 1675m, with temperatures expected to be close to zero despite the sun. Snow is not expected this time, with the largely flat stage meaning riders will be fresh and ready when they hit the lower slopes and climb through the trees.
The road to Terminillo should suit Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) and new race leader Rohan Dennis (BMC) as much as pure climbers Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) and Fabio Aru (Astana). The power climbers will be able to put out big watts and hope their speed will be an adequate response to any surges and some threshold attacks from the pure climbers.
Just like in in the snow in 2015?
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