- Feb 18, 2015
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Taken from @Devil's Elbow's brilliant stage by stage analysis:
Stage 2: Tirana - Tirana
As per usual with a foreign Grande Partenza, there’s a short time trial. It’s a very typical route for a second-world capital city, with lots of out-and-backs along main thoroughfares. Normally that would make it ideal for the powerhouses, but this time they have a hill to contend with.
Map and profile
Route
The stage starts on Skanderbeg Square, the other main Tirana landmark. After looping around and then south, we have a section along the Lanë river and the inner ring road, before the route turns back on itself for the first time. The riders then pass very close to the finish, heading through Mother Teresa Square and around the new football stadium which hosted the inaugural UEFA Conference League final in 2022, and then onto the road towards Elbasan. This means we are going back up to Sauk, from a different side than in the previous stage, and this time with the sole time check and the KOM at its summit.
Finish
The remainder of the stage is almost entirely on roads already used the day before. There is one more out-and-back along the Lanë to be had, and after the turning point the final 2 kilometres are exactly the same as on stage 1.
The sprawling Skanderbeg Square is named after the Albanian national hero of the same name (Skënderbeu in Albanian). In the face of the rapid Ottoman expansion of the 15th century, Skanderbeg united an array of local lords in what is now northern and central Albania and, in later years together with the Venetians, managed to hold off the Ottomans for a full quarter of a century. After his death in 1468, the fragile coalition collapsed and the Ottomans completed their conquest of Albania a decade later (save for Durrës, which the Venetians held onto for a few decades). Skanderbeg was more or less mythologised by Albanian nationalists from the late 19th century onwards and the modern Albanian flag is based on his family’s coat of arms (picture by Meriboo at Wikimedia Commons)
Stage 2: Tirana - Tirana
As per usual with a foreign Grande Partenza, there’s a short time trial. It’s a very typical route for a second-world capital city, with lots of out-and-backs along main thoroughfares. Normally that would make it ideal for the powerhouses, but this time they have a hill to contend with.
Map and profile
Route
The stage starts on Skanderbeg Square, the other main Tirana landmark. After looping around and then south, we have a section along the Lanë river and the inner ring road, before the route turns back on itself for the first time. The riders then pass very close to the finish, heading through Mother Teresa Square and around the new football stadium which hosted the inaugural UEFA Conference League final in 2022, and then onto the road towards Elbasan. This means we are going back up to Sauk, from a different side than in the previous stage, and this time with the sole time check and the KOM at its summit.
Finish
The remainder of the stage is almost entirely on roads already used the day before. There is one more out-and-back along the Lanë to be had, and after the turning point the final 2 kilometres are exactly the same as on stage 1.
The sprawling Skanderbeg Square is named after the Albanian national hero of the same name (Skënderbeu in Albanian). In the face of the rapid Ottoman expansion of the 15th century, Skanderbeg united an array of local lords in what is now northern and central Albania and, in later years together with the Venetians, managed to hold off the Ottomans for a full quarter of a century. After his death in 1468, the fragile coalition collapsed and the Ottomans completed their conquest of Albania a decade later (save for Durrës, which the Venetians held onto for a few decades). Skanderbeg was more or less mythologised by Albanian nationalists from the late 19th century onwards and the modern Albanian flag is based on his family’s coat of arms (picture by Meriboo at Wikimedia Commons)
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