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The general classification favourites come out to play on Stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia, from Ponte to Roccaraso. Join The Roar for live coverage of the stage from 10pm (AEST).
The time trialists and the sprinters have had their chances for success, but now the mountain goats come out on the first summit finish of the race.
The 157-kilometre journey starts along flat roads until the 20 kilometre point, where the riders head uphill towards the first intermediate sprint point of the day, in the town of Cerreto Sannita after 25 kilometres.
The road continues to climb slightly uphill until the bottom of the first major difficulty of the race, the second category Bocca di Selva. The climb is long, at 18 kilometres, but the average gradient is only six per cent.
The climb is crested at 54 kilometres into the stage, and then descends for 20 kilometres before some flat roads. With 60 kilometres to go, the profile is lumpy for 20 kilometres until a difficult, unclassified climb, ten kilometres in length at four per cent gradient.
The riders then descend into the intermediate sprint point at Castel di Sangro, before setting up for the Category 2 summit finish.
The final climb is around 15 kilometres at around five to six per cent. Not overly difficult, but it is the first real test, so we could see some surprising results if any GC riders are not on form.
Alejandro Valverde is the main favourite for the stage win, as the final climb is not terribly steep, meaning it could come down to a group of ten contesting the finish-line sprint.
Although Vincenzo Nibali will be looking to take the opening mountain test on home soil to show that he is the biggest GC threat.
Other riders to look out for include Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale), Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE ), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), Illnur Zakarin (Katusha), Steven Kruisjwik (Lotto NL-Jumbo), Mikel Landa (Team Sky), Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) and Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo).
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