2019 Giro d'Italia, stage 7: Vasto - L'Aquila 185 km

[Laplaz]

Stage 7: Vasto - L'Aquila 185 km

Friday, May 17th

START TIME: 12.25 CEST

FINISH TIME: ~17.15 CEST

Technical Overview:
The Giro comes back to L'Aquila, 10 years after the tragic earthquake of 2009. The race has already visited L'Aquila the year after it, and the result was a much less tragic earthquake, this time in the GC, as a huge breakaway won with over 10' on the peloton, ravaging the GC and setting up the stage for one of the greatest Giros of this millennium. That stage had 262 km and various climbs... unlike the one of today. Today the route will be very similar only in the final part, while the rest is very different and significantly easier. Starting from the Adriatic sea, in the town of Vasto, the route follows the coast until the town of Ortona, from which it starts heading towards the mountains. However, it avoids most of them. The terrain is not flat, mind you. After an ascending and descending false flat, the small climb of Ripa Teatina leads to the uncategorized climb of Chieti (not the classic wall often used in Tirreno), whose descent brings to an actual flat section of 40 km that connects with the route of the 2010 stage and ends with the one categorized climb of the day, Svolte di Popoli (GPM2, 7.8 km at 6.3%). This is an decent climb, but it is too isolated and far from the finish (46 km to go) to be consequential. It has no descent, as at the top a 22 km long false flat starts, which terminates with a short and fast descent to reach the town of L'Aquila. Here, the final kms will be very interesting (slightly different from 2010, but with the same concept), featuring two consecutive small hills: first the climb of Torrione (3 km at 5%, but with the first 1.5 km at 7,3%), which is just the climb to Acquasanta of 2010 with a 1.5 km added false flat on top, making it twice as long. It tops at 6.5 km to go, and has a very irregular descent. After that, 1 km of false flat leads to the uphill finish (this one is the same as 2010), measuring 1 km at 7.6%.

The Climbs:
Svolte di Popoli, GPM2, 7.8 km at 6.3%
A nice climb with a few demanding ramps.

What to expect:
This should be a very entertaining finale, but with very few seconds up for grabs it's unclear whether GC contenders will go for it seriously.

L'Aquila

 

[Poursuivant]

Got a feeling the break will take this too. I’ll go for Cattaneo.

 

[Red Rick]

Breakaway city.

WIth UAE in the lead, could be a good time to sneak away for lesser GC contenders, or even riders who already took their chance today.

Think the GC guys will fight for seconds on the last km.

 

[tobydawq]

I think Sosa could be a good pick for this stage, provided he can manage to get in the break. If he does, I don't see anyone threatening him on the final kilometre (assuming the break is not caught).

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Re:

Breakaway city.

WIth UAE in the lead, could be a good time to sneak away for lesser GC contenders, or even riders who already took their chance today.

Think the GC guys will fight for seconds on the last km.

A few seconds might not be appetizing enough to put in a real effort. There may be a fight, but I'm guessing it will be a contender falling off the pace, rather than a contender going away.

But who knows.

 

[120mmStem]

Break for sure.

GC gonna wait for the TT, then reassess.

 

[Tonton]

I got a new job and a ton of work to do over the past couple of months. Catching up with the Giro on YouTube is no fun...

Dumoulin gone. Meh so far. Tomorrow looks like a defensive riding stage for the contenders. Last kilometer dig at best. Back loaded designs will do that to you, but keeping the GC close makes money. I'd like one of today's BOD guys to be in it and extend their lead with a final GC top-10 as a reward. Can't see it tho'...

 

[luckyboy]

Sosa/Tao/Dunbar, De Gendt, Cattaneo. Ciccone probably won't bother with just one climb again.

Hopefully Maestri/Frapporti get out there again for my Velogames team.

 

[HelloDolly]

I am goingfor Jens Bakelants or Gianluca Brambilla from the break

 

[johnymax]

What should UAE do? They obviously want to protect the maglia rosa with Conti and the finale suits Ulissi perfectly. But they only have Bohli, Polanc, Marcato and Consonni to bring the break back. If a strong break goes I'm not sure they'll be able to catch them. The best would be to send Ulissi in the break but other teams probably won't let it happen. Maybe Polanc should try to go in the break. This way they'll force other teams to work behind. I don't see any other team happy to work to bring the break back. Maybe Katusha for Battaglin but I don't think he is 100% after the crash the other day. Teams of GC favourites won't bother surely even though some of them are well suited to tomorrow's finish.

 

[movingtarget]

Another one for the break with maybe a bit of shadow boxing from the GC riders at the finish.

 

[The Barb]

Re:

What should UAE do? They obviously want to protect the maglia rosa with Conti and the finale suits Ulissi perfectly. But they only have Bohli, Polanc, Marcato and Consonni to bring the break back. If a strong break goes I'm not sure they'll be able to catch them. The best would be to send Ulissi in the break but other teams probably won't let it happen. Maybe Polanc should try to go in the break. This way they'll force other teams to work behind. I don't see any other team happy to work to bring the break back. Maybe Katusha for Battaglin but I don't think he is 100% after the crash the other day. Teams of GC favourites won't bother surely even though some of them are well suited to tomorrow's finish.

Polanc in the break is a good idea actually. At 30th in the GC, virtually all the guys in front of him are either breakaway riders from yesterday or GC guys, so there would be a good chance of him being the highest placed rider in the break, in which case UAE could completely abandon doing any work.

I think the break succeeds but I'm not quite as certain as yesterday. Some teams might want to test out Roglic after his crash yesterday.

I'll be sticking with Gallopin for another day, with a couple of Sunweb riders (Hindley and Hamilton) as outsiders.

 

[Frankschleck]

Is Hugh Carthy riding GC, has he or garmin said that?

 

[Robert5091]

Tomorrow is a 239 km long snooze so hope someone gives it a go today. Last year Yates would have gone for some time on his GC rivals but now of course, he's "Mr TT Superstar with Epaulettes" so I'd guess a 200 m sprint at the finish. Otherwise, Go Madouas!

 

[wirral]

Re:

Is Hugh Carthy riding GC, has he or garmin said that?

A standard Hugh Carthy interview gives so little away, leaving all options open, that information is actually sucked from both the interviewer and listeners leaving them less informed than they were prior to the interview.

In answer to your question he didn't deny he may target GC when asked. But that means little.

 

[Laplaz]

Carapaz ftw! Otherwise Ciccone from the break.

 

[the chicken from T]

Will Astana let Ion in the break?

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

Sosa/Tao/Dunbar, De Gendt, Cattaneo. Ciccone probably won't bother with just one climb again.

Hopefully Maestri/Frapporti get out there again for my Velogames team.

Ciccone will most likely bother. He is from Chieti.

 

[Climbing]

Another breakaway win, unless MS wants to control it for Yates or UAE for Ulissi.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Another breakaway win, unless MS wants to control it for Yates or UAE for Ulissi.

UAE might as well chug Ulissi in the breakaway.

I there any chance Ulissi would be the highest ranked rider in a breakaway?

 

[spalco]

Re:

Got a feeling the break will take this too.

Yeah, my first though too.

 

[Gigs_98]

I think this will go to the break. Maybe uae will try to defend but 1. they might also send someone in the break instead and 2. I'm not sure they are even able to bring a break back

 

[tobydawq]

UAE will definitely defend but that does not equal bringing the break back. Conti has a healthy cushion.

 

[Climbing]

A controlled break will suit most GC teams as well, they want to take is somewhat easy to recover.
Roglic and Yates fell, TBM has Caruso with 39°C and Pozzo recovering (plus lost a rider). And tomorrow isn't a walk in the park either, with the TT looming Sunday.
We'll see.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Re:

A controlled break will suit most GC teams as well, they want to take is somewhat easy to recover.
Roglic and Yates fell, TBM has Caruso with 39°C and Pozzo recovering (plus lost a rider). And tomorrow isn't a walk in the park either, with the TT looming Sunday.
We'll see.

Apparently Carusos fever was already down yesterday, but they will still want to have him recover.
Astana could be the one team that tries to make the race hard, but tge final is rather bad for Lopez.