After a flew flater stages, Stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia returns to the mountains, with 4 categorised climbs on the days 170 kilometre route before a fast descent into the finish.
The races starts in the town of Palamanova and immediately goes uphill, with a gradual rise in front of the riders all the way to the first intermediate sprint point after 41.5 kilometres in the town of San Pietro al Natisone.
It is only five kilometres after the sprint before the peloton will face the first category climb to Montemaggiore. It is probably the most difficult climb of the tour to date, being around nine kilometres at nine per cent, with the final three kilometres averaging over ten per cent.
This climb is crested after 57 kilometres, and immediately hits a technical descent for 6.5 kilometres before the road rises sharply again for an uncategorised climb of 2.6 kilometres at seven per cent, before descending quickly again before hitting the slopes of the second climb of the day to Crai.
The second category climb to Crai is at six per cent for nine kilometres, but the first four kilometres average at nearly ten per cent. However, the last five kilometres average a measly 3.5 per cent, with a difficult last 500 metres to the crest of the climb.
At this stage in the race, the riders will have covered 81 kilometres and face another technical descent before hitting the flat roads for 30 kilometres before coming to the final intermediate sprint of the stage after 130 kilometres in the town of Attimis.
This sets up the riders for the next category one climb to Cima Porzus, with an average gradient of nine percent for 8.5 kilometres. This climb is crested just over 30 kilometres left on the stage and another short technical descent ensues before the final climb of the day, the second category test to the town of Valle.
The climb is at eight kilometres at 8.5 per cent, with the steepest section from two kilometres to four kilometres on the climb.
It is then 14 kilometres down hill before the finish in Cividale del Fruili.
A lot of points are on offer in the King of the Mountains classification, so expect riders like Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) and Damiano Cuengo (Nippo-Vini Fantini) to find themselves in the break looking for points and the potential stage win.
Also look for key domestiques like Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) to get in the move so they can be off assistance for their team leaders later into the stage.
In terms of the general classification favourites, we should look for a Nibali attack on the descent off the final climb, but potentially on the earlier slopes of the final climb. He will look to assert himself on the hardest tour of the stage to date.
Movistar have the numbers in terms of the general classification battle, with both Andrey Amador and Alejandro Valverde. They have used the two pronged attack to great effect in the past, including at last year’s Tour de France, where the combination of Nairo Quintana and Valverde cracked Chris Froome in the final few stages of the race last year.
Esteban Chaves should be let off the hook to attack today, as he has been quite reserved in his riding on the the hill stages thus far. He has looked to stay in the wheel of either Valverde and Nibali, but with the amount of climbing on today’s route, it should be much more selective for the pure climbers.
I don’t expect Bob Jungels to be in pink by the end of today.
Other riders to look out for include Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R), Jakub Fuglsang (Astana), Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale), Illnur Zakarin (Katusha), Steven Kruisjwik (Lotto NL-Jumbo) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff).
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