- Apr 30, 2011
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By @Devil's Elbow: https://forum.cyclingnews.com/threads/giro-ditalia-2025-stage-by-stage-analysis.40381/post-3178374
The final stage on Albanian soil features both the hardest climb and the best scenery,
Map and profile
Start
If you’ve been to the largest and second-largest cities in the country, where do you go next? You guessed it, this is the third-largest city in Albania. Just like Dürres, it was founded by the Greeks in the 7th century BC. As the closest harbour to Italy on the entire eastern Adriatic coast, it is actually quite surprising that it didn’t become the main port of the region following the Roman conquest, especially given how perilous sea voyages were at the time, and I can’t find any evidence on why the Via Egnatia started from Durrës rather than here. As a consequence, it remained a secondary port until the arrival of the Ottomans reversed its fortunes. What is now southern Albania fell to the Ottomans some sixty years before the areas further north (courtesy of Skanderbeg), and by the time Durrës was finally conquered, Vlorë had already been in Ottoman hands for almost a century and trade had long since mostly diverted here. It held the status of main Albanian port throughout the Ottoman age, although it eventually stagnated together with the rest of the empire. In 1912, independence was formally declared here and it served as the country’s first capital. This abruptly came to an end in 1914, when Italy seized the city. When occupation finally ended in 1920, the centre of Albanian gravity had shifted decisively away from the south and so Vlorë fell behind Durrës once more. Modern Vlorë remains mostly reliant on its port and on tourism, mirroring Durrës just as much as it did when both cities were founded 2700 years ago.
I couldn’t find a picture of the cityscape I was happy with, so enjoy the independence monument instead. (picture by Sharon Hahn Darlin on Flickr)
Route
A stage in two halves: first the inland section heading south out of Vlorë, then the seaside section back into town. Contrary to what you might expect, the inland section is by far the easier, as it follows the Shushicë valley most of the way. The only point of note is the intermediate sprint in Gjorm. However, to get from the valley to the coast, the only way is via Qafë Shakellës, a two-stepped climb with a nasty first section.
The coast we are descending to is the Albanian Riviera, the main tourist destination within the country. With the mountains rising up immediately out of the sea, the road along it is never flat, and immediately after the bonification sprint in Himarë it takes in the first ‘only the Giro and the Tour of the Alps wouldn’t categorise this’ climb of this edition, Qafa e Vishës.
The section after this climb looks like a bit of respite on the profile, but it’s actually pretty tricky with constantly twisting roads, some surprisingly tricky descents and a 2.2k at 6.7% climb with the final intermediate sprint part way up. Then, it’s time for the main obstacle of the day, Qafa e Llogarasë. This is the only major mountain pass near the Albanian coast, and due to the often-deplorable state of the road network (and infrastructure in general) in the interior, it is the defining climb in Albanian cycling. In fact, editions of the national tour can generally be divided into two groups: those that climb it, and those that don’t, because the latter rarely feature any real climbing (the only recent exception being that long climb they did on stage 1). In the Tour of Albania, it is most commonly seen from the other side, on stages from Vlorë to Sarandë, however last year they organised a MTF from this side on a stage that also started from Vlorë and featured the exact same route from there to the pass. Of course, here it comes almost 40 kilometres from the line, but it should still rule most of the peloton out of contention. RCS forgot to upload the official profile to their own site, thanks to Netserk for providing a non-grainy upload.
Qafa e Llogarasë near the summit. The island in the distance is Corfu/Kerkyra. (picture by Albinfo at Wikimedia Commons)
Finish
The descent is fairly testing until they join the new highway at about 400 metres of elevation. The remainder of the stage, along the Bay of Vlorë, is mostly featureless. This is the one stage where I really wish they had added yet another local circuit (there is a nice, well-paved murito out of Vlorë to Kaninë Castle), but sadly no dice.
What to expect?
The final climb should be too far from the finish for GC action, but it will also daunt any non-climber. Therefore, even though it’s only stage 3, this looks like a great opportunity to offload the pink to a non-threatening breakaway. If not, then probably an even smaller sprint than on stage 1.
The final stage on Albanian soil features both the hardest climb and the best scenery,
Map and profile
Start
If you’ve been to the largest and second-largest cities in the country, where do you go next? You guessed it, this is the third-largest city in Albania. Just like Dürres, it was founded by the Greeks in the 7th century BC. As the closest harbour to Italy on the entire eastern Adriatic coast, it is actually quite surprising that it didn’t become the main port of the region following the Roman conquest, especially given how perilous sea voyages were at the time, and I can’t find any evidence on why the Via Egnatia started from Durrës rather than here. As a consequence, it remained a secondary port until the arrival of the Ottomans reversed its fortunes. What is now southern Albania fell to the Ottomans some sixty years before the areas further north (courtesy of Skanderbeg), and by the time Durrës was finally conquered, Vlorë had already been in Ottoman hands for almost a century and trade had long since mostly diverted here. It held the status of main Albanian port throughout the Ottoman age, although it eventually stagnated together with the rest of the empire. In 1912, independence was formally declared here and it served as the country’s first capital. This abruptly came to an end in 1914, when Italy seized the city. When occupation finally ended in 1920, the centre of Albanian gravity had shifted decisively away from the south and so Vlorë fell behind Durrës once more. Modern Vlorë remains mostly reliant on its port and on tourism, mirroring Durrës just as much as it did when both cities were founded 2700 years ago.
I couldn’t find a picture of the cityscape I was happy with, so enjoy the independence monument instead. (picture by Sharon Hahn Darlin on Flickr)
Route
A stage in two halves: first the inland section heading south out of Vlorë, then the seaside section back into town. Contrary to what you might expect, the inland section is by far the easier, as it follows the Shushicë valley most of the way. The only point of note is the intermediate sprint in Gjorm. However, to get from the valley to the coast, the only way is via Qafë Shakellës, a two-stepped climb with a nasty first section.
The coast we are descending to is the Albanian Riviera, the main tourist destination within the country. With the mountains rising up immediately out of the sea, the road along it is never flat, and immediately after the bonification sprint in Himarë it takes in the first ‘only the Giro and the Tour of the Alps wouldn’t categorise this’ climb of this edition, Qafa e Vishës.
The section after this climb looks like a bit of respite on the profile, but it’s actually pretty tricky with constantly twisting roads, some surprisingly tricky descents and a 2.2k at 6.7% climb with the final intermediate sprint part way up. Then, it’s time for the main obstacle of the day, Qafa e Llogarasë. This is the only major mountain pass near the Albanian coast, and due to the often-deplorable state of the road network (and infrastructure in general) in the interior, it is the defining climb in Albanian cycling. In fact, editions of the national tour can generally be divided into two groups: those that climb it, and those that don’t, because the latter rarely feature any real climbing (the only recent exception being that long climb they did on stage 1). In the Tour of Albania, it is most commonly seen from the other side, on stages from Vlorë to Sarandë, however last year they organised a MTF from this side on a stage that also started from Vlorë and featured the exact same route from there to the pass. Of course, here it comes almost 40 kilometres from the line, but it should still rule most of the peloton out of contention. RCS forgot to upload the official profile to their own site, thanks to Netserk for providing a non-grainy upload.
Qafa e Llogarasë near the summit. The island in the distance is Corfu/Kerkyra. (picture by Albinfo at Wikimedia Commons)
Finish
The descent is fairly testing until they join the new highway at about 400 metres of elevation. The remainder of the stage, along the Bay of Vlorë, is mostly featureless. This is the one stage where I really wish they had added yet another local circuit (there is a nice, well-paved murito out of Vlorë to Kaninë Castle), but sadly no dice.
What to expect?
The final climb should be too far from the finish for GC action, but it will also daunt any non-climber. Therefore, even though it’s only stage 3, this looks like a great opportunity to offload the pink to a non-threatening breakaway. If not, then probably an even smaller sprint than on stage 1.
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