In which RCS continues its extremely annoying recent trend of having a hilly stage in Le Marche, famous for its brutal walls, without actually using said walls. It’s still a decent stage, though.
The route
The start is in Martinsicuro, the northernmost town in the Abruzzo region. Its name is derived from the Spanish captain Martin de Siguera, who oversaw the construction of a watchtower (which doubled as a border post, as this was also the northernmost extent of Spain’s Italian possessions) here in the 16th century. Although a decent-sized town had been located here, it remained only a small village until the development of beach tourism from the 1960s onwards.
Immediately after the start, the peloton crosses the border with Le Marche, quickly passing through the traditional endpoint of Tirreno-Adriatico in San Benedetto del Tronto. From here, the route follows the coast until Civitanova Marche, where they turn inland for the Crocette di Montecosaro. This climb was categorised in the 2022 stage to Jesi (the one where Biniam Girmay almost blinded himself with a champagne bottle), a recurring theme for the central part of this stage.
It is followed by the uncategorised climb to Montelupone, the first 1.8k of the profile below.
https://climbfinder.com/CDN/montelupone-contrada-mazzagallo.png[/img
Next up is the hardest climb of the day, to Recanati. For reasons beyond human comprehension, it’s the intermediate sprint this time.
After Recanati, we deviate from the 2022 route to head for the first KOM, in Osimo. This side is far easier than the wall used for the 2018 finish won by Simon Yates, barely worth the KOM points. For those relying on the PCS profile, it is incorrect here at the time of writing: the actual stats are 6.7k at 2.5%, with a flat section in the middle but still rarely over 6%. I don’t have an actual profile, but I do for the harder, but uncategorised climb just after it to San Paterniano. It is the first 3.2k of the profile below, making for a climb of 3.1k at 4.4% with all the difficulty in the initial ramp.
The route then briefly rejoins the 2022 one for the final KOM of that stage, to Monsano.
After this, the going gets harder, with the short, but stingy little wall to Ostra.
The final KOM is just around the corner, with the two-stepped climb to La Croce. Atop the first step, in Ripe, there’s the Intergiro.
Following a short valley, there is the climb to the bonus second sprint in the village of Mondolfo.
From here, there are just over 30 kilometres to race. If those 30 kilometres were similar to the 30 before it, this stage would be a lot more exciting, but unfortunately there are almost 20 kilometres of nothing to stymie the hopes of long-range action. The final climb, to Monte Giove, is uncategorised, and really isn’t done justice by including the false flat at the end and breaking up the gradients into 500-metre intervals. In reality, the first 1.2 kilometres average over 9%, and even those are quite irregular given the maximum gradient. The highest point is just over 9k from the line.
Those 9 kilometres to the line could have been almost halved, but unfortunately they’ve seemingly tried to use every last road in Fano to get to the finish line. The final kilometres are flat and full of narrowings, road furniture that I hope will at least partially be removed, and twists and turns.
Fano was already of importance in the Roman era, when it was a religious centre known as Fanum Fortunae, and also the point where the Via Flaminia reached the Adriatic coast. Part of the fortifications, including a large arch, survive to the present day. It was destroyed in the 6th century by the Ostrogoths, but swiftly rebuilt by the Byzantines, and largely maintained its position as one of the main cities of what is now the Marche until today.
What to expect?
The route
The start is in Martinsicuro, the northernmost town in the Abruzzo region. Its name is derived from the Spanish captain Martin de Siguera, who oversaw the construction of a watchtower (which doubled as a border post, as this was also the northernmost extent of Spain’s Italian possessions) here in the 16th century. Although a decent-sized town had been located here, it remained only a small village until the development of beach tourism from the 1960s onwards.
Immediately after the start, the peloton crosses the border with Le Marche, quickly passing through the traditional endpoint of Tirreno-Adriatico in San Benedetto del Tronto. From here, the route follows the coast until Civitanova Marche, where they turn inland for the Crocette di Montecosaro. This climb was categorised in the 2022 stage to Jesi (the one where Biniam Girmay almost blinded himself with a champagne bottle), a recurring theme for the central part of this stage.
It is followed by the uncategorised climb to Montelupone, the first 1.8k of the profile below.
https://climbfinder.com/CDN/montelupone-contrada-mazzagallo.png[/img
Next up is the hardest climb of the day, to Recanati. For reasons beyond human comprehension, it’s the intermediate sprint this time.
After Recanati, we deviate from the 2022 route to head for the first KOM, in Osimo. This side is far easier than the wall used for the 2018 finish won by Simon Yates, barely worth the KOM points. For those relying on the PCS profile, it is incorrect here at the time of writing: the actual stats are 6.7k at 2.5%, with a flat section in the middle but still rarely over 6%. I don’t have an actual profile, but I do for the harder, but uncategorised climb just after it to San Paterniano. It is the first 3.2k of the profile below, making for a climb of 3.1k at 4.4% with all the difficulty in the initial ramp.
The route then briefly rejoins the 2022 one for the final KOM of that stage, to Monsano.
After this, the going gets harder, with the short, but stingy little wall to Ostra.
The final KOM is just around the corner, with the two-stepped climb to La Croce. Atop the first step, in Ripe, there’s the Intergiro.
Following a short valley, there is the climb to the bonus second sprint in the village of Mondolfo.
From here, there are just over 30 kilometres to race. If those 30 kilometres were similar to the 30 before it, this stage would be a lot more exciting, but unfortunately there are almost 20 kilometres of nothing to stymie the hopes of long-range action. The final climb, to Monte Giove, is uncategorised, and really isn’t done justice by including the false flat at the end and breaking up the gradients into 500-metre intervals. In reality, the first 1.2 kilometres average over 9%, and even those are quite irregular given the maximum gradient. The highest point is just over 9k from the line.
Those 9 kilometres to the line could have been almost halved, but unfortunately they’ve seemingly tried to use every last road in Fano to get to the finish line. The final kilometres are flat and full of narrowings, road furniture that I hope will at least partially be removed, and twists and turns.
Fano was already of importance in the Roman era, when it was a religious centre known as Fanum Fortunae, and also the point where the Via Flaminia reached the Adriatic coast. Part of the fortifications, including a large arch, survive to the present day. It was destroyed in the 6th century by the Ostrogoths, but swiftly rebuilt by the Byzantines, and largely maintained its position as one of the main cities of what is now the Marche until today.
What to expect?
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