Giro d'Italia Stage 16 preview: Three huge climbs provide backdrop to GC battleground
Today is a behemoth at 203km with 4,900m of altitude gain on the cards, riding from Piazzola sul Brenta to one of incredibly few summit finishes in this year's race, at San Valentino.
The route is flat to start but after 50km to warm up the legs it's all up and down for the rest of the day. The first climb is a category two at Carbonare (12.9km, averaging 4.6%, hitting 10% max), before a fast descent to Trento breaks up the climbing.
The next is the Monte Bondone, 10.1% maxing out at 13%, up to Candriai, with the pattern repeating of descent and then another climb, this one uncategorised to Cavedine, with the day's second intermediate sprint towards the top of that rise.
A sharp descent and a short valley road takes them onto the category-one Santa Barbara climb, a 12.7km ascent averaging nearly 9%, with maximum gradients of 14%. Another descent takes the riders onto the final climb, the 18.2km San Valentino.
The San Valentino climb is almost three climbs in one, with two short plateaux or descents interrupting the upper slopes.
The first is at Brentonico, home of the Red Bull kilometre, and from there it gets tougher, hitting 14% shortly after and averaging 9.2% for around 4km.
The second is at San Giacomo, from which the riders get the brief respite of a short descent until the 2km to go mark, before the final 8.9% rise to the finish. It's utterly relentless, all day. No time for the GC riders to switch off and plenty of places to make potentially race-winning moves.
Route map and profile
Start time
Stage 15 is set to start a bit earlier than normal, with plenty of climbing on the menu: at 11.20am local time (10.20am BST). It will conclude at around 5.15pm local time (4.15pm BST).
Prediction
Stage 15 turned the race on its head as pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic was distanced on a medium-mountains stage and lost even more time, while maglia rosa Isaac del Toro looks as sharp as ever at the head of the pack. This final week could change everything, of course, but amid speculation that Roglic wouldn't even start today, it seems unlikely that the Slovenian will put in a race-winning move on the latter climbs.
This in theory could be a day for either the breakaway or GC: veterans Romain Bardet and Nairo Quintana have climbed well and are both still searching for one final moment of glory, especially important for Bardet in his final grand tour, while Luke Plapp already has a stage win to his name and looked sharp in the breakaway on stage 11. Pello Bilbao and Wout Poels are other picks from a potential break, but if UAE sense any more weakness in Roglic, this could come down to a stage win for either Juan Ayuso and Isaac del Toro.
However, Ineos Grenadiers have lit up the race with their attacking tactics and while they haven't really borne fruit so far, this could be an opportunity for Egan Bernal to capitalise on his momentum.
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