Giro d'Italia 2014: Stage 18 preview
The view down the Sugana valley, which we finish at the top of today.
The second toughest day in terms of the climbing - get through this and Nairo Quintana will have taken a significant step towards winning the whole thing. There’s the mountain time trial on stage 19, and the final summit finish the day after that, and then we’re in Trieste for a nice, mostly flat stage.
We’re setting off from Belluno, and last time we were setting off from here, it was the Mountain Time Trial in 2011. Notably (not) won by Alberto Contador, I had a dig through my photos and here’s the only one I can find that is both (a) in focus and (b) the rider hasn’t abandoned yet. Przemyslaw Niemiec everybody!
Przemyslaw Niemiec, Belluno 2011
We’re heading up to the ski station of Rifugio Panarotta, which like most Italian ski stations, has a webcam at the top. Aces. It looks quite nice. 8% over 16.2km with a few slopes over 10% - there’s one right at the end. It’s only the second time the Giro has been here, since, you guessed it, Andy Hampsten, 1988 and all that.
The first climb of the day is the Passo San Pellegrino, followed by the Passo del Redebus. There’s a good 30km from the top of the Passo del Redebus to the start of Monte Panarotta, so there’s plenty of time for it all to come back together. Can anyone beat Quintana? After stage 16, part of me hopes so, but the form he’s in, I doubt it.
He’s in a class of his own, and everyone else is just fighting to hang on to as much of his coat tails for as long as possible. Which Pierre Rolland seems to have done quite successfully so far - he’s but a sniff away from a podium, and would be the first frenchman to do so since John Gadret in 2011. And lo, here is Gadret, doing the Giro in 2011.
John Gadret, Belluno 2011
In numbers:
Length: 171km
Total altitude gain: 3575m
Categorised climbs: 3
1st cat. Passo San Pellegrino. 18.5km. 6.2% average, ramps up to 15%
2nd cat. Passo del Redebus. 4.6km. 8.7% average, ramps up to 15%
1st cat. Rifugio Panarotta. 16.2km. 8% average, ramps up to 10.2%
Distance in tunnels: 3.4km
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