Stage 7: Fermignano - Monte Nerone, 150 km
Official start at 09:55
Expected finish at around 14:30
Then queen stage has arrived. 150 km await the riders. 4 categorised climbs finishing off with the Monte Nerone and over 3500m of total elevation gain. I thought last year's race would be decided on Blockhaus, but it wasn't, so with Reusser and Longo Borghini having been fairly evenly matched so far it can no longer be ruled out that we'll get another very close fight for the Maglia Rosa. However, Nerone is both longer and steeper than Pianezze was so the gaps could very well be bigger as a result.
The Monte Soma between Apecchio to Acquapartita offers up an intermediate sprint, but with it being 7 km at 5.4% ir probably won't be won by a sprinter. Question is whether a break has been established during the first 44 km or if it will be duked out by between the GC riders.
After 13 km descent, the next 35 km of the stages consist of four climbs. Moria comes first, then La Croce, followed by a 2.8 km, 5.3% avg. hill (the last 1.5 km are at 7% with some parts above 10%), and finally La Forchetta. 56 km remain from the end of this sequence.
After 20 km of descent and flatter roads we'll have the penultimate climb of the day, Cuppia. After the top there's another 7 km of false flat/fake descent before the actual descent.
The descent could have been avoided entirely by turning left and climbing Nerone from the east, which would have made the stage 14 km shorter, but that's not what they've done. Instead we're starting from the north before heading west towards the finish, which is located at the pass, not at the highest paved point, around 1 km further up the mountain.
As you can see on the profile, the first half of the climb rarely goes above 7%, while the second half is nearly over 8% throughout. It's not as difficult as Blockhaus from last year, but you still wouldn't want to have un jour sans here. It could be won by the eventual winner, but it could also be another Bradbury/Gigante kind of victor, who is either the outright strongest or who takes advantage of tactical games between the riders fighting for the Giro title.