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Giro d'Italia Stage 20 preview

Esteban Chaves is chasing his second Grand Tour podium of the year at the Vuelta a Espana. (Team Sky)
Roar Guru
27th May, 2016
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The final general classification shake up will occur on today’s penultimate from Guillestre to the finishing point in Sant’Anna di Vindadio. With three major mountain passes and a short climb to the finish, even though the stage is only 134 kilometres long it will be a brutal finale to a difficult race.

The riders will need to be on the rollers before the stage starts as immediately the race heads uphill to the first King of the Mountains point on the day’s stage, to the summit of the first category 19 kilometre test of Col de Vars. The climb has a changeable gradient, with the the first seven kilometres averaging 8.3 per cent with ramps of 13 per cent at the four kilometre mark, before the next four kilometres are a false flat.

The final 7.5 kilometres are also changeable, with the road averaging seven per cent until five kilometres to go, where the climb then averages only five per cent until the summit. Also incorporated in this climb is the first intermediate sprint.

The climb is crested inside the first 20 kilometres and the riders will immediately face a technical descent to the bottom of the second climb of the day, the first category climb of the Col de la Bonette. The climb is never ending, at 22 kilometres at seven per cent, however, the major factor will be the altitude, as the climb rises to over 2700 metres.

So two major climbs are covered within the first half of the race, with the Col de la Bonette being completed after 64 kilometres of racing. It is then a long descent of 40 kilometres to the bottom of the final major climb on the stage, the Colle della Lombarda.

The first category climb is another long one, at 20 kilometres with an average gradient of seven per cent. It is at it’s steepest in the first five kilometres, where it averages 8.3 per cent.

The climb is crested within the last ten kilometres and leads onto a fast and flowing descent before the road rises with two kilometres to go for the final third category climb to the finish.

The first kilometre of the climb is at only five per cent, but the final kilometre of the stage averages ten per cent. It will be a brutal way to finishing both a punishing stage, and a punishing final week.

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Esteban Chaves, Vincenzo Nibali, Steven Kruijswijk and Alejandro Valverde are within a two minutes of each other? So who wins? Who knows, and to be honest, I do not think it matters, we will get a brilliant race either way.

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