Although stage 6 did not produce a spectacular favorite on favorite war, it did produce a nice battle of breakaways, which certainly as a certain charm and excitement to it.
Stage 7.... Ahhh stage seven. How beautiful you are. Had I been a member of the peleton I might have been too tempted to abandon the race just to go off and experience the beauty of the Tuscan countryside. At 222km we go have one of the longer stages of this year's Giro. Setting off from today's finishing city of Carrara, the stages snakes down Tuscany, passing by, but sadly not through all, cities as stunning as they are famous: Lucca, Pisa, Siena, Volterra and many smaller ones too numerous to name. In my opinion there are few lands more beautiful and idyllic than this. Mountains, hills, vinyards, olive groves, old family farms, small rivers and forests clash in a country as wild and beautiful as it is ancient and civilized. These are the lands that have inspired poets and musicians and writers for centuries. Home to the humanist Renaissance of the 15th-16th century and serving as the inspiration for one of my all-time favorite novels of romance, E.M. Forster's A Room With a View.... Ahhh bella Toscana. The land of my dreams.
The stages finishes, uphill for the first time this Giro, to the hilltop city of Montalcino, famous for some of the best, and most expensive, red wine of all of Italy, the Brunello di Montalcino, from sangiovese grapes. The path up to Montalcino passes through the same white gravel roads, sterrati in Italian, which have gained renown in recent years as part of the Montepaschi Strade Bianchi. The battle will hopefully be more animated than today, with classics specialist duelling with the GC men unaccustomed to this type of terrain. My pick is Pipo Pozzato, still stage win-less over his career in the Giro, to attack late, swallow up a struggling breakaway, and pip Fabian Wegmann at the line.
NOTE: The course displayed above will be changed, but the changes will be early in the stage and not affect the finale. All the sterrati originally included will be ridden and Montalcino is still the finishing city.
Stage 7.... Ahhh stage seven. How beautiful you are. Had I been a member of the peleton I might have been too tempted to abandon the race just to go off and experience the beauty of the Tuscan countryside. At 222km we go have one of the longer stages of this year's Giro. Setting off from today's finishing city of Carrara, the stages snakes down Tuscany, passing by, but sadly not through all, cities as stunning as they are famous: Lucca, Pisa, Siena, Volterra and many smaller ones too numerous to name. In my opinion there are few lands more beautiful and idyllic than this. Mountains, hills, vinyards, olive groves, old family farms, small rivers and forests clash in a country as wild and beautiful as it is ancient and civilized. These are the lands that have inspired poets and musicians and writers for centuries. Home to the humanist Renaissance of the 15th-16th century and serving as the inspiration for one of my all-time favorite novels of romance, E.M. Forster's A Room With a View.... Ahhh bella Toscana. The land of my dreams.
The stages finishes, uphill for the first time this Giro, to the hilltop city of Montalcino, famous for some of the best, and most expensive, red wine of all of Italy, the Brunello di Montalcino, from sangiovese grapes. The path up to Montalcino passes through the same white gravel roads, sterrati in Italian, which have gained renown in recent years as part of the Montepaschi Strade Bianchi. The battle will hopefully be more animated than today, with classics specialist duelling with the GC men unaccustomed to this type of terrain. My pick is Pipo Pozzato, still stage win-less over his career in the Giro, to attack late, swallow up a struggling breakaway, and pip Fabian Wegmann at the line.
NOTE: The course displayed above will be changed, but the changes will be early in the stage and not affect the finale. All the sterrati originally included will be ridden and Montalcino is still the finishing city.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram