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Yesterday’s successful breakaway served as an important reminder to the importance of taking a punt in the Giro d’Italia, because sometimes taking a punt on what many saw as a futile effort brings just rewards to the victor.
Italy’s Marco Canola of Bardiani did just that and celebrated his second career victory as he successfully eluded the breakaway to claim Stage 13.
Today’s Stage is a genuine mountain stage and should be action packed on a number of fronts.
Riders will race the 164 kilometre ride from Agile to Oropa, traversing two Category 1 climbs and one Category 2 climb.
The Stage will culminate in an uphill finish, just in case any of the riders weren’t exhausted enough.
The day’s first climb, the Category 1 Alpe Noveis has gradients reaching as high as 16% with large amounts of the climb at around 10%.
The second climb of the day, the Category 2 Bielmonte is a long climb and will challenge the legs. The long descent of this climb may have those of you, who like me find watching cyclists descend at breakneck speeds fairly hair raising, clinging to our chairs.
I promise to do my best to keep typing but I may need a sedative to calm the nerves first.
The final climb of the day will bring the riders the relief of the finish line. A relief it should be too. The Oropa has gradients has high as 13% and an average of 7.5% in the final few ks.
So, what do we think may happen?
A breakaway could get going and especially after yesterday we shouldn’t discount that anything is possible.
I do wonder, if he weren’t in pink, would Rigoberto Uran have had this marked as a stage to attack on?
Being the Maglia Rosa wearer, it’s probably safe to assume he’ll spend the day watching his rivals. I suspect Cadel may do something similar.
Today’s stage could serve as an opportunity for GC contenders, Nairo Quintana or Domenico Pozzovivo to try and claw back some time on their rivals.
One thing that I think we can say with some certainty, is the sprinters will praying for the day to end as quickly as possible.
Join me for tonight’s stage from 10:30PM AEST.
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