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Please join us for live blogging of Stage 7 of the Giro d’Italia. Live coverage will begin at 19.45 AEST with comments being added to this post as the race progresses.
Only a Category 3 climb and the Category 2 uphill finish on the menu today. By Giro standards that’s easy, right? Nothing is easy about today’s stage because there’s nothing really all that flat about it.
Things go uphill fast with the 4kms up Macerata (291m) coming at the 13.9km mark followed by a 5km descent. By this point, you can expect a breakaway to build on its lead. Then comes the 26km jaunt up Santa Maria Pieca (468m).
After a few more down and ups and 96kms of undulation in the legs, the riders face a 5km run to the top of the Cat 3 Colle Gallucio (1190m).
Relief arrives with 10kms of descending to Trisungo (608m) but soon leaves as the peloton pianos up Piano Palasone (1152m) for 32kms.
What comes next is a 36km descent to L’Aquila (707m), a slight bump, a dip and it’s on: 15kms to the summit of the Rocco di Cambio with some switchbacks. It’s still not over: a short descent and a 1.5km stab up a 5.9% gradient finishes the stage.
Each climb up the categorised and non categorised medium mountains in the Appenini seems easy. After a relatively odd week and yesterday’s not so simple stage, stage 7 has the potential to be relentless.
If that’s the case, sprinters will catch the mini autobus and GC contenders will ride with an eye out for hazards and time losses. Some of the GC teams will no doubt send a domestique up the road early on.
Unless pink Italian pride gets in the way, Scarponi’s (and Cunego’s) Lampre won’t fight too hard for Adriano Malori. With Miguel Rubiano only 30 seconds down on GC and leading the mountains classification, Androni Giocattoli look ready to battle for rosa glory.
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