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Please join us for live blogging of stage eight of the Giro d’Italia. Live coverage will begin at 7.00pm AEST with comments being added to this post as the race progresses.
Today’s 229km stage from Sulmona to Lago Laceno is similar to yesterday’s with its ups and downs. The hard work starts straight away with 20kms up uncategorised climb Piano delle Cinque Miglia (1284m).
The Cat 4, four kilometre climb up Valico di Macerone (684m) comes at the 61.9km mark after another set of roller coaster climbs. There’s yet another series of smaller hills preceding the 43km climb to Montemarano (836m) starting from the 164.km mark.
After 214kms completed, the final Category 2 climb up Colle Molella (1087m) begins with a total average gradient of 6.0 percent. 7kms in to the 10km ascent, it hits an average gradient of 9.4 percent for three kilometres, reaching a max of 12 percent.
Except for a couple of bumps, it’s then a 4km flat ride around the lake and across the line.
This should be an action packed finish. Emphasis on the word, should. I rarely get my punditry right so it was no surprise I was wrong about the breakaway yesterday.
It was almost shock – you rarely see GC contenders factoring so early in a Grand Tour these days on a relatively “easy” climbing day actually looking to race, not just limit losses or defend time gaps.
While Scarponi’s efforts for the stage win went unrewarded, his fight to gain valuable seconds was beautiful to watch.
Just as fabulous was watching the first Canadian ever to pull on a pink jersey. While I’m happy to see Ryder Hesjedal in pink, I hope it’s not too early for Garmin, although they seem to always have a plan.
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