#vigianno

Viganno. Taken from the town's website, comuneviggiano.it

Stage 5 takes us from Tarranto (an hour’s drive from stage 4 finish town Bari) on Italy’s Ionian Coast (the bit which isn’t always called the Mediteranean and isn’t the Adriatic), famed as the city which produces nearly 9% of Europe’s polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, which are as healthy as they sound. It’s not all bad though; mathematician and philosopher Philolaus might have been born here (or in Metaponto or even Crotone). No, but seriously, it looks quite nice.

It’s a medium mountain stage; 3 categorised climbs, with a maximum of 11 mountains classification points on offer, so Maarten Tjallingii could well lose his Mountains lead, but only if he’s really inattentive. It also has what’s technically the first uphill finish. Okay, it’s the smallest climb on the day and only a 4th cat, so we should have a small group sprinting for this one, and do you know what? I fancy Cadel Evans will want to show his face on, although the finishing climb being reasonably short favours a lightweight sprinter like Swift or Matthews. Hey, today’s probably also the only day that favours a breakaway. Sadly, a little too early in the race for that.

  Procession of the Black Madonna, 2012

Viggiano is a tiny mountainside town. There’s not much notable about it, other than it was the site of an uprising in 1806 against the then french ruled Kingdom of Naples. Once the rising had been put down, the order went out that 1 in every 100 inhabitants were to be shot as collective punishment.

It also has a Black Madonna (common in France, but one of only 12 in Italy) - a wooden statue covered in gold which has corroded over time. Buried on the hillside to hide it from raiding Saracens, it was discovered by shepherds in the 14th century, and now they have a parade every year to celebrate. The more you know, eh?

In numbers:

Length: 203km

Total altitude gain: 1692m

Categorised climbs: 3.

Valico de Serra di San Chirico (3rd cat),

Viggiano (4th cat, 11km remaining, 4% over 8.1% including 6% over the final 0.9km),

Viggiano (4th cat, to finish line, 6% over 1.8km

Distance in tunnels: 100m