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Stage 7, the longest of the 2015 Giro d’Italia has been taken out by Diego Ulissi of team Lampre – Merida in a much reduced bunch sprint.
After over 7 hours of riding and with some hills in the way of the riders and the finish line, including a couple in the last 10 km it was never a true stage for the sprinters.
However the biggest question on stage 7 was what about race leader Alberto Contador. Of course at the end of stage 6, he was involved in a massive crash caused by a spectator. The first question was whether Contador was going to start the stage. He not only managed to do that, but rode most of the 264 km near the front of the peloton. His seemed to be coping with his shoulder injury alright until he got to the podium presentation to receive the pink jersey of the unchanged General Classification and couldn’t lift his left arm. His recovery still has a long way to go, and it may not be enough time as the riders hit the mountains tomorrow.
Earlier in the stage a 4 man breakaway featuring (Marco Bandiera (Androni Giocattoli), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF), Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC Sprandi), and Pier Paolo De Negri (Nippo-Vini Fantini) went away from the peloton. At one stage they managed to get to an 11 minute advantage before it fluctuated between 8 and 10 minutes for a majority of the stage.
The 4 riders ended up being in the lead of the race for over 210 km and it wasn’t until the BMC, Movistar and Cannondale Garmin joined forces at the front of the peloton that they looked like getting caught.
Once they were caught Saxo Tinkoff took over the peloton and rode all the way into the last 5 km on the front. Once inside the final 3 km however they almost seemed to implode and disappear from the front.
They were replaced by Team Sky before Lampre and Orica battled for control. Orica lead into the final km before Lampre put the foot down. With a couple of hundred meters to go Simon Gerrans managed to get himself boxed in twice which stunted his sprint without teammates. Meanwhile Lampre’s main lead out failed and Ulissi put the foot down who was on the other side of the road.
Ulissi found space and managed to outsprint Lobato (Movistar) and Gerrans. The outpouring of emotion from Ulissi after the finish was really quite something.
In the end a much deserved win for Lampre based on how they rode the final couple of kilometres before we move into the mountains tomorrow.
Stage 7 of the 2015 Giro d’Italia on Friday Night will be the longest of this year’s race as the riders make the 264 km trek from Grosseto to Fiuggi along the west coast of Italy. Join The Roar from 10pm (AEST) for our live coverage.
Looking back on yesterday’s flat Stage 6 though and it was Andre Greipel (Lotto – Soudal) who was able to take victory in the final sprint ahead of Matteo Peluuchi (IAM) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre).
Before that, however, Alberto Contador crashed and dislocated his shoulder. Will he be able to continue?
Being the longest stage of the Giro, and one of the longest race on this year’s world cycling calendar (second only to the classic Milan – San Remo) will make life hard for the riders. This stage will take up to two hours longer than the average Giro stage.
The route for Stage 7 will start in Grosseto and head south for the coast on what is a very flat first 100km. Following the opening exchanges, which no doubt will be very quick as teams battle to get riders into the breakaway they turn away from the coast towards Tuscania.
After about 200km of racing the stage starts to undulate a lot and it this that says a breakaway should go all the way. Whilst there is only one categorised climb on route being the Monterotondo which comes after 184.5 km, there are a number of uncategorised ramps and climbs following this. They will wear down the sprinters and play into the breakaways favour.
The final 10 km of the route is very interesting in itself. The 5 km after they come under the 10 km to go banner are all up hill at an average gradient of close to 4.5%. This should be enough to eliminate some of the pure sprinters in the bunch before they descend for just a single kilometre.
The next three kilometres will see a bit of up and down before a left hand turn will be made with just 500 meters to go and the road briefly ramps back up to a 4-5% gradient. This will only be for a short while though because the last 350 meters are more or less flat.
There are also two intermediate sprints out on course which come after 95 and 168 km respectively.
If a breakaway was to go away, the rider to win the stage will have to be quick, but able to get over the hills on route. Riders such as Diego Ulissi (Lampre), Phillipe Gilbert (BMC), Simon Gerrans (Orica), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM) or former world champion Rinaldo Notcentini (AG2R). If it does come down to a bunch sprint, it wont be the pure sprinters but rather riders like Michael Matthews (Orica), Tom Boonen (Etixx – Quickstep), Heinrich Haussler (IAM) or Fabio Felline (Trek).
PREDICTION: I have to tip a breakaway to go away after building a monster lead early in the stage. None of the General Classification teams will be keen to work with what is to come and with the undulating nature of the finish I cant see the peloton coming back. Out of that I really think Diego Ulissi is the man who will hardest to get into a breakaway but these things are just about impossible to predict.
With an interesting stage that is just about impossible to predict, join the Roar from 10pm (AEST) for our live coverage and don’t forget to leave your comments in the section below if you’re following along!