- Jun 30, 2022
- 5,376
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As always, thank you to @Devil‘s Elbow for the great Write-up.
Stage 7: Castel di Sangro – Tagliacozzo
The second-hardest MTF of the race. That makes things sound a lot more exciting than they are, but this is still a perfectly solid mountain stage for being in the first third of the race.Map and profile
Start
A third of the way in, we have finally made it to a stage host where I don’t have a reason to talk endlessly about things that have nothing to do with cycling. Sure, Castel di Sangro was founded in the 12th century at the potentially opportune confluence of routes to Napoli over the pass at Rionero Sannitico, to the Adriatic down the Sangro valley and up north over the Roccaraso plateau, but the historically bad state of the roads in this part of the Apennines meant trade was not as lucrative as it might have been and left it a remote, mostly pastural town. The arrival of the now-defunct railway in the late 19th century greatly improved Castel di Sangro’s fortunes, as the relatively easy access from Napoli in particular made the Alto Sangro region in general a favourite mountain getaway. The roads had also been improved by this time, and in 1909 the first Giro went up the aforementioned Rionero Sannitico and Roccaraso passes (the biggest climbs of that edition), thereby heading through Castel di Sangro. World War II was a disaster for the town: after the fall of the Mussolini regime and subsequent occupation by Germany, the Nazi armies chose the Sangro valley for the eastern half of their main line of defence. While Castel di Sangro was not one of the main theatres of the fighting along this Winter Line, large parts of the town were still in ruins by the end of it. After World War II, the Alto Sangro became the largest ski destination in the Apennines and tourism remains the key economic driver today.
As for sport, this will be its second time hosting the Giro (after the 2021 stage to Campo Felice, where Egan Bernal only found out after the finish that he had won), but it is more notable as the smallest town to have ever been represented in the Serie B, the second tier of Italian football (between 1996 and 1998).
(picture by Zitumassin at Wikimedia Commons)
Route
With all that talk about Roccaraso, it shouldn’t come as a surprise where the riders are immediately headed. This is the hardest uphill start of the entire race, so any climbers looking for stage glory should relish the opportunity.
A decent-length plateau section is followed by a long, gradual descent into the intermediate sprint in Sulmona, the birthplace of one of the great Roman poets in Ovid (or Ovidius to anyone who isn’t some barbaric first-language English speaker). We don’t stay in the valley for long, instead heading up the steep slopes of Monte Urano. To indicate the difficulty: on the only previous time the Giro went up here, José Rujano took the KOM, and that was the epic 2005 edition where he finished on the podium.
The descent is far more shallow, and backs directly into the next climb, Vado della Forcella. Annoyingly the Cyclingcols profile doesn’t match up exactly, but the final 17.7k are the same.
This time, the summit is followed by another plateau section, culminating at the second intermediate sprint in Ovindoli. The descent from here is interrupted by the Valico Fonte Capo La Maina, the final 7.9k of the profile below.
Finish
After some more easy, low-gradient descending and about 15k of flat, we make it into the town hosting today’s stage, Tagliacozzo. However, the role of the town centre itself is limited to the bonification sprint, as we have a MTF to get to. Said MTF is at the former ski station at Marsia. The climb consists of a long grind up the main road, then just before reaching the pass at Monte Bove we instead turn left onto a 2.4k at 10.1% ramp. The road then abruptly flattens out for the final 400 metres.
Founded in the 11th century, Tagliacozzo is simulataneously the penultimate stop inside the former Kingdom of Napoli and – save for the Albanian stages – the first outside it. Its main historic contribution came during the former era, and is the reason why I glossed over a key bit of both Neapolitan and Italian history on the last stage. The Hohenstaufen dynasty, rulers of among others Napoli, were the most powerful kings of their time. Under the aforementioned Frederick II, tensions with the papacy boiled over to an extent that all of Italy became embroiled. Thus, the peninsula became divided between the pro-Papal Guelphs and the pro-Hohenstaufen Ghibellines. Initially the latter had the upper hand, but after the death of Frederick in 1250, Hohenstaufen infighting allowed the pope to ally with the Angevins and conquer the still-united Kingdom of Sicily in 1266. Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufens, then raised an army in a bid to reconquer the kingdom, leading to the decisive Battle of Tagliacozzo in 1268. Despite a numerical advantage, the Ghibellines lost, Conradin was killed and the Hohenstaufens were extinguished. With that, the original casus belli was no more, but the Guelph-Ghibelline divisions has long since transcended the papal-Hohenstaufen rivalry and remained a driving force of Italian history for the rest of the Middle Ages. The Angevins, meanwhile, soon lost control of Sicily and were eventually forced out of Napoli by the Spanish, which was where I picked back up when discussing Napoli.
Tagliacozzo itself had by then been taken over by the Papal States in 1409, and reached the peak of its power in the next century. However, nearby Avezzano slowly started to grow at its expense, and after the Fucine Lake was drained in 1878 the latter was much better situated to profit from the new, highly fertile land. However, the old town centre is well-preserved and that, combined with its mountainous surroundings and its relative proximity to Rome, has led to a fairly tourism-based economy. Ironically, the town’s least successful tourist venture, the now-defunct ski area at Marsia, is also the one used for the finish here. Neither the town nor the ski station has ever hosted the Giro.
(picture by Zitumassin at Wikimedia Commons)
What to expect?
GC action will obviously be limited to the final 2.5 kilometres, but those are hard enough to produce gaps, even between the best climbers in the race. The breakaway also has a decent chance here, but some riders may prefer to keep their powder dry for the next stage.
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