It may be. I can't remeber just now. But there are several other 2600+ climbs being used in the Giro. So one would think that Gavia could be used. The first option should be Carlo Magno-Tonale-Gavia. And if Gavia couldn't be used because of snow, they could have used Mortirolo.
It was scheduled in 2019. This year it was necessary for a good Bormio stage and the way the winter in the Alps has been going, the road could at least be cleared, so it‘s sad to not see an attempt.
It would have been used in 2019 until it got cancelled due to snow, then in 2020 they made the right call in doing Stelvio instead, in 2021 they didn’t go anywhere near it, in 2022 they did the dumbest Aprica stage ever instead (but the big problem there was not the lack of Gavia), in 2023 they didn’t go anywhere near it and in 2024 they scammed their audience with the presented route over Forcola di Livigno that they never actually seemed to plan on following through on (but would have been better than going via Gavia had they actually done it). So this is really the first year since then where using Gavia would have been a big improvement over the actually-presented stage, and even then I would have preferred Monte Padrio - Mortirolo from either the classic side or the 2012 route from Tovo - drag up the valley into Bormio.
To be fair I don’t think Roglic-Thomas-Almeida would have done anything on this Finestre stage.
I mean, that's the only positive thing about this Giro. Probably the biggest turd that Vegni has laid since 2014.
Lol true. People should just act like Tre Cime has not been climbed since 2013.
You can do sooo many better stages with it, but RCS are just as lazy as it gets.
the extra climb up to Motte is just the seasoning on the *** cake.
Was used as the final climb in Tirreno Adriatico 2015, 3.1km @9.3%. Came in the last 6km
Two TTs for 40km is bang normal, especially cause the main one is actually flat this time. If you had better mountains I'd agree it's too short.
If they needed to nerf one of the third-week mountain stages to limit the backloading (and I agree it's necessary not to go all out with all four of them), then they should have turned Champoluc into a breakaway day, not Bormio. It has the least exciting potential terrain (which says a lot when you can use the Valle d'Aosta finale) and it comes the day before Finestre, which makes it the only one of the four where you can't all but guarantee good GC action.
Agree on that. Now you have essentially a stage that tries to be a queen stage risking turning into a breakaway stage cause tomorrow is Finestre. The originally predicted route with less but steeper climbs was better for that reason IMO. Stage 18 of 2023 is an example. Hell, even Pratonevoso and Rabassa worked in that exact spot in 2018.
The final week pure unipuerto is actually quite underrated. Alpe di Mera was also good in 2021, Tentudía was shockingly decent for a climb of its difficulty in 2022, Bejes delivered in 2023, Moncalvillo was pretty good in 2024, and that's basically all the stages that fit the bill from 2019 onwards. I'm definitely at a point where I see it as a very good option to start your final mountain block with, especially if it's the only major MTF of said block.
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