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Giro d'Italia 2021 Giro d'Italia, Stage 4: Piacenza - Sestola 186 km

Poll?

  • Yes

    Votes: 37 53.6%
  • No

    Votes: 32 46.4%

  • Total voters
    69
  • Poll closed .
Now the fun can really start :cool:

Stage 4: Piacenza – Sestola 186 km

Tuesday, May 11th, 12.05 CEST


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Technical Overview:

A very demanding medium mountain stage with likely GC implications. Starting from Piacenza, the riders will head south-east, initially following the Via Emilia until Parma and then heading into the Appennines. After a total of 77 km of flat at the start, the terrain becomes rougher, with a gentle ascent to the intermediate sprint of Canossa, which gives way to a series of small climbs and descents culminating with the first categorized climb of the day, Castello di Carpineti (GPM3, 3.5 km at 8.6%). This is a very steep wall, and will definitely wear some legs down, but it is too far from the finish and too isolated to see any action. Its pretty complicated descent will bring the peloton to 26 km of ascending false flat, followed by the second climb of the day, Montemolino (GPM3, 8.6 km at 5.7%), that features another very steep wall (1.95 km at 11.6%) that this time is closer to the finish, topping at 44 km to go. At the top there is a plateau of 13 km and then a descent of 7 km. At 24 km to go another climb starts, uncategorized: Montecreto (3.7 km at 7.8%), which tops at 20 km to go. At the top there is another plateau of 7 km and a descent of 6 km that ends at the second intermediate sprint of Fanano. There, the riders will face the final climb of the day, which is also the hardest one. Colle Passerino (GPM2, 4.3 km at 9.9%) a very hard climb that might see the first skirmishes for the GC. The top is at 2.5 km to the finish line in Sestola, all on rough terrain.



Final Kilometers

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The Climbs:

Castello di Carpineti: GPM3, 3.5 km at 8.6%


A steep wall some double digit gradients. No official profile. Here is Cyclingcols (the first km differs)

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Montemolino: GPM3, 8.6 km at 5.7%

First 5 km of very gentle descent, then a short false flat and finally a 2 km wall at 11.6%.

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Colle Passerino: GPM2, 4.3 km at 9.9%

The first serious ascent of this Giro, short but really steep, especially in the middle. The road can actually bring even higher, eventually reaching the Passo del Lupo, climbed in 2014 (but not using this road).

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What to expect:

The final climb is definitely enough for GC guys to attack each other. Gaps should not be large but the stage has very good potential. With the GC still wide open breakaways might also be a problem to keep in check.



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Castello di Carpineti
 
Hopefully the stage that will give us answers to some of the biggest questions we are currently having. Although stages 6 and 9 are probably looking more frightening on paper I think that this will be the most important stage of the first week and I can see pretty big time gaps between gc guys happening. This might be were they are able to kill off Evenepoel (and to a lesser extent Nibali) before they can develop into actual threats for the third week. Then again Evenepoel might turn out to be back to his best already and win this by 2 minutes after an attack on the penultimate climb.
 
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How technical is the run in to the final climb?

There is a very technical part from 4 km to 2 km before the climb with 6 hairpins and 4 90° corners. Then it gets easier. But there is a last not to tight hairpin 600m before the climb: hairpin. After that it is relatively straight into a tight 90° right-hand corner into the climb (which is not that steep in the beginning): corner into the climb. The sprint is 200 meter after the corner.
 

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