Race Design Thread

[jsem94]

TTT @ stage 7 is wayyy too late. Some teams may already be decimated by then,

 

[SetonHallPirate]

TTT @ stage 7 is wayyy too late. Some teams may already be decimated by then,

Which was kind of the point, although maybe a bad one. By putting a TTT (and an undulating and long one at that) after the first MTF, I was trying to reduce the chances of some of the teams being stupid enough to put their sprinters into this tour, not that there are a huge number of chances for pure sprinters anyway. This first week (before the TTT, as mentioned on the last possible date) was designed not to be decisive, of course, but it's difficult enough to reduce the likelihood of those abandonments being due to crashes, and more likely to be due to HD's instead.

Edit to add: Would swapping the Foix TTT and the Plateau-de-Beille stage, and moving the first rest day to after Luz-Ardiden, be better? That would mean:

Thursday: Stage 6 (Foix TTT)
Friday: Stage 7 (Perpignan to Plateau-de-Beille)
Saturday: Stage 8 (Tarascon-sur-Ariege to Superbagneres)
Sunday: Stage 9 (Bagneres-de-Luchon to Luz-Ardiden)
Monday: First rest day

 

[togo95]

Tour of Bulgaria - 6

Stage 6: Sofia - Bansko; 193 km

Climbs:
Belmeken lake (116) - 32 kms; 4,8%

This can be very unpredictable stage (especially on Conti level), a strong break can surely make it, or a small group of GC guys/climbers (who may have lost some time in previous ITT) can try long range attack from the main ascent of the stage to Belmeken dam. Otherwise, if it all comes back together on the descent/flat part in the end, small group sprint should take place, if someone did not manage to stay away with a late attack on the false flat leading to finish in Bansko. Anyway, last kilometer has 3,5%, so nothing to worry about, but everyone has to measure effort in the final wisely.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Bansko: inner biathlon fan approves.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 5: Lęgnica - Karpacz, 204km

Climbs:
Przełęcz Widok (Podgórki)(cat.2) 6,4km @ 3,8%
Dolna (cat.2) 6,0km @ 5,5%
Przełęcz Sudecka (cat.2) 4,5km @ 5,7%
Przełęcz pod Czołem (cat.1) 8,0km @ 5,7%
Przełęcz pod Czołem (cat.1) 8,0km @ 5,7%
Przełęcz pod Czołem (cat.1) 8,0km @ 5,7%
Przełęcz pod Czołem (cat.1) 8,0km @ 5,7%
Przełęcz pod Czołem (cat.1) 8,0km @ 5,7%

After our trip around the north of the country comes to a close, the climbers get their own back here in Poland with a difficult stage designed for them. The stage is over terrain familiar to the Szlakiem Grodów Piastkowskich, a short stage race in the Lower Silesian area, although this stage is tougher than anything that you typically find in that event. There are many epic climbs in the area, but few are suitable for a road bike unfortunately, and so we have to make the best of what we have available. As a result the first half of the stage is bumpy up-and-down around Jelenia Góra and Szklarska Poręba, sizable population centres in the foothills of the Karkonosze mountains that form much of the border between Poland and the Czech Republic in this area. A few categorised climbs on the menu, but really this stage is about the closing circuit.

This particular circuit, around 21km in length, encompasses one of Poland's most challenging climbs, the Przełęcz pod Czołem (google gives me a translation as "Forehead Pass"), which sits over the popular ski resort city of Karpacz, which serves as today's stage town. Karpacz is steeped in cycling history, first cropping up as a stage city in the Friedensfahrt in 1980 (although passing through either going up or down Przełęcz pod Czołem en route to Jelenia Góra, Wałbrzych or Liberec was not unknown), when Russian Sergey Morosov took the stage win 14" ahead of teammate and eventual GC winner Yuri Barinov on stage 3; this was followed by a return in 1984 when the stage was the final GC-relevant stage, being won from distance by the Eastern Bloc's greatest climber, Sergey Sukhoruchenkov, enabling him to wrest the race out of the hands of Bulgarian Nencho Staikov. The race returned a few more times in the late 80s and into the 90s, however as time wore on the prestige of the Friedensfahrt fell away. Karpacz continued to hew its legacy into cycling however as it became the scene du jour of the final showdown of the Tour de Pologne throughout the late 90s and all the way to 2007; typically it would host a stage finish on the penultimate day, before a split final day between Jelenia Góra and Karpacz consisting of a 61km short stage with two laps of the city via the Orlinek climb and a 19km uphill time trial in the afternoon. This was abandoned when the Pro Tour forbade split stages; in 2006 they had two consecutive stages finish on the Orlinek climb.

Orlinek is about 6km at 5,5% according to genetyk.com. Pretty reasonable for this type of race, however the circuit would entail climbing Orlinek, then some rolling to link up to the main Karkonoska road to Przełęcz pod Czołem. However, the Karkonoska road can link directly from Karpacz to Przełecz pod Czołem; it isn't as steep as going via Orlinek, but that doesn't really matter in this instance because the side we're climbing is the other, north-western face of the pass. And not the two-stepped, awkward Podgórzyn side climbed in 2005 either, but the hardest side, the Sosnówka side. This is slightly steeper than Orlinek (5,7% vs. 5,5%) and longer (8km vs. 6km), however the gradients don't get quite as steep (14% vs. 16%). Nevertheless, five times going up this should be plenty enough to cause some breaks in the bunch, with the scenery and woodlands trapping the riders in intermediate mountain purgatory as they repeat the circuit until those small gaps are pummelled into larger ones. The finish will be super fast as well, being directly on the descent, finishing downhill on Konstytucji 3 Maja in central Karpacz. Yes, previous stages finished on the Orlinek climb, but to finish there I would either need to completely reverse the climbing, or to have multiple passes of one circuit with a puncheur finish stuck on the end, meaning fans could see the race pass several times, or the finish, but not both. And besides, with the finish coming just 4,5km from the summit of the final climb, with no flat at all, attacks here are likely, so the mountaintop finish can wait. And with climbers likely to have lost much time on the cobbles and in the wind thus far, here's their chance for revenge.

Lęgnica:

Karpacz:

 

[togo95]

Bansko: inner biathlon fan approves.

I am a big biathlon fan too, best sport to watch in the off-season

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I am a big biathlon fan too, best sport to watch in the off-season

Actually, cycling's just there to fill the biathlon off-season, since all the cycling events that clash with biathlon season tend to be the pre-season friendlies. It's only Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, really, where there's genuine overlap.

Stage 6: Katowice - Ustroń (Równica), 174km

Climbs:
Przełęcz Kocierska (cat.2) 4,9km @ 6,2%
Przełęcz Przegibek (cat.2) 7,0km @ 4,7%
Przełęcz Sałmopolska (cat.1) 10,7km @ 4,1%
Zameczek/Przełęcz Kubalonka (cat.2) 5,5km @ 5,9%
Równica (cat.1) 7,5km @ 5,9%

The queen stage of the Tour de Pologne owes a lot to an earlier entry I've made in the thread, Stage 3 of my Friedensfahrt route being very similar to this, so in lieu of a 500-word post on this one I'll link you to that as it demonstrates the challenge. It is an intermediate stage with a mountaintop finish borrowed from the 2010 race in order to allow the climbers to win back more of the time lost to rouleurs in the first half of the event. There are a couple of differences from that route (it's 27km shorter for one thing); firstly the length before the first climb, of Kocierska, has been increased slightly by a more scenic route, including the town of Wilamowice which is a linguistic anomaly, hosting a very unusual German dialect that is at least as independent as a language as Lëtzebuergesch, or would be if it were codified; and secondly an additional climb, the wide, well tarmacked Przełęcz Przegibek after the first climb of the day and enabling an intermediate sprint in the outskirts of Bielsko-Biała. While that Friedensfahrt stage was a lead-in to things to come, however, this is a more important stage where riders will need to work for time gaps but with yesterday's stage to Karpacz in the legs I feel that we ought to be ok on that front, especially bearing in mind the penultimate climb is with just 20km to go.

Katowice:

Ustroń (Równica):

 

[SetonHallPirate]

I gotta turn you guys/gals into (U.S.) college wrestling fans...

 

[SetonHallPirate]

While I work on that, I'm working on a Tour of Mexico. Just to give you guys a teaser of what's here, here's stage 3, from Tijuana to La Rumorosa.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3247452

Go ahead and measure out that final climb...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 7: Zakopane - Bukowina Tatrzańska, 196km

Climbs:
Ząb (cat.2) 4,0km @ 6,0%
Bukowina Tatrzańska (Sloneczna)(cat.3) 4,4km @ 3,7%
Polana-Głodówka (cat.1) 6,5km @ 5,3%
Ząb (cat.2) 4,0km @ 6,0%
Bukowina Tatrzańska (Sloneczna)(cat.3) 4,4km @ 3,7%
Polana-Głodówka (cat.1) 6,5km @ 5,3%
Bukowina Tatrzańska (Sloneczna)(cat.3) 4,4km @ 3,7%
Karpęciny (cat.2) 4,0km @ 5,2%
Bukowina Tatrzańska (cat.2) 4,0km @ 5,4%
Bukowina Tatrzańska (cat.2) 4,0km @ 5,4%
Karpęciny (cat.2) 4,0km @ 5,2%
Bukowina Tatrzańska (cat.2) 4,0km @ 5,4%

With no fewer than 12 categorised climbs, this is a relentless slog up and down hills in the Tatras, as most recent viewers of the Tour de Pologne will be familiar with. Beginning in the wintersports hub (applying for candidature to host the Winter Olympics in 2022) of Zakopane, home to Poland's most famous ski jump and a former host of both the Nordic and biathlon world championships, and finishing in the now familiar town of Bukowina Tatrzańska, known as a holiday spot for its ski connections, thermal spa and waterpark, this is basically a beefed up version of the stage that has proven the final GC-relevant stage for the last four years. As a result I won't go overboard on the description since you'll have seen the stages before, but if not here's over an hour of coverage of this year's stage, and the same for the 2012 edition. The climbs will now be familiar to you all, although I have stretched things out by adding a couple of loops up to Polana-Głodówka. This means a 3,5km climb which includes near the base some gradients of 18% before getting easier, then ramping up with the final 2,5km of this profile. On the shorter circuit, closer to the end, however, the climbs will be either via Karpęciny, which is basically the same climb without that extension, or the now well known climb via Bukowina Tatrzańska shown on that profile as the 4km between Rozstaj na Jurgów and Bukowina.

Although little of the gradients (at least the average gradients) are too challenging, I'm hoping that after painful rouleur stages and two straight intermediate mountain stages the fact that we have a 200km stage with practically no flat whatsoever will result in a more exciting stage here on the penultimate day.

Zakopane:

Bukowina Tatrzańska:

 

[Finn84]

My Tour de France, stage 6: Clermont-Ferrand - Col du Perthus, 163 km

Forum downtime stopped me visiting here for a while. But here I continue the TdF. This time another medium mountain stage on Massif Central. The finish climb was ridden over on stage 9 of 2011 Tour. The stage was won by LL Sanchez but best remembered of idiotic driver of French TV car.

 

[BigMac]

-deleted by op-

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Moving on from Poland, I continue a slightly Peace-Race-themed stretch by including this prospective Worlds course, in Kiev, Ukraine. Each lap is almost exactly 18km in length, so the women will tackle 8 laps (144km), the U23s 10 (180km) and the elite men 14 laps (252km) of this difficult city centre course.

This is a Worlds which will be split between the puncheurs and the rouleurs, for while there are three notable climbs on the circuit, all 3 are on cobbles of varying conditions.

The circuit begins on Ploshchad' Slavy, outside Hotel Salyut. The first part of the circuit is dead straight on wide open boulevards which may favour the bunch on earlier laps. We pass sights such as the government buildings, Dynamo Stadium and Verkhodnaya Rada, before a first taste of cobbles at Ploshchad' Evropeyska. From here the riders must descend on cobbled roads, passing the monument to Volodymyr the Great but the roads are very wide and the cobbles in very good condition, so unless the weather is especially bad, I wouldn't expect anybody but the Ivan Bassos of the world to have trouble here.

After the descent there's a bit of tarmac before we pass the Church of the Nativity on Poshtova Ploscha, passing interesting architecture on our way to Kontraktova Ploshchad. We then have a brief trip around the Podol district before it's time for our first climb of the day. At 1,5km @ 5%, the climb from the scenic square of Vozdvizhenskiye Novostroyky to the breathtaking Church of St Andrew may not seem like much, but the cobbles, which start off manageable, worsen in condition as the climb continues, eventually winding up with some very rough and poorly-maintained cobbles near the summit. It's scenic as all hell, though.

After the church it flattens out, and the roads get back to tarmac, at least for a short while before the easy city centre cobbles outside St Michael's Church with its dramatic yet ostentatious gold domes. From here it's a short trip to the extremely imposing Independence Square, before a mild descent. Like, just false flat on very wide open streets. At Bessarabska Ploshchad we move away from this road and on to our second climb of the day, turning left at Mitropolitna Mikhaila onto Shovkovychna, which you can see from the foreground there is steep and cobbled. These cobbles ascend fast over rough surfaces to the extent of 10% (maxing out at 19%) over 500m; by far the shortest climb of the day but also by far the steepest. And doing it 14 times will easily be enough to cause some trouble. This angle shows it a bit better.

After this, it's mostly rolling downhill for the next 7km, heading away from picturesque old Kiev, though we do still get sights such as the Baron Hildenbrand Cathedral, and we do pass one of Ukraine's best known sights, the Statue of the Victory. After a short roll along the banks of the Dniepr, the riders arrive at the third and final climb of the day, on the cobbles of Dnieprovskiy Spusk and Heroiv Krut directly to the finish line. The cobbles here are in good condition and the final kilometre is only at an average of 3%, however as the climb averages 4,8% in 2km you can tell this makes the first half somewhat steeper, although the maximum gradient is only 9%. This means that if the racing has been a bit conservative and they haven't dropped more versatile sprinters like Degenkolb or Sagan when they get to the Andrey Pervozvanny Chapel with a kilometre to go, then they are likely to duke it out in the sprint - all the more reason to incentivise the earlier attack, probably on Shovkovychna, especially as the last 500m are not on cobbles.

 

[sensations]

BUMP.

Anyways, been compiling a little Giro:

http://www.tracks4bikers.com/tours/3243

Starts in Palermo, finishes in Rome. Only real gripe is the lack of Piemonte, Aosta and Ligure and the two time trial during the first 5 days but I feel as though I've succeeded a little in spacing out big climbs, medium mountain stages and flat ones and including more than 1 measly stage that ends on a descent.

And yes there are two or three climbs in there that probably aren't well surfaced but overall this is relatively realistic - to me anyways.

 

[Netserk]

Looking nice so far, but there is a mistake in stage 6. I think you might've saved the stage before pressing 'Update profile', which makes the profile (or at least parts of it) dead flat.

EDIT: There's also a smaller mistake in stage 9 at km 85-90. (at least I think that's a mistake)

And in stage 14 there's the same as in stage 6. However I really like the route so far!

 

[sensations]

Yeah, I've noticed that as well once I had finished it. The descent from the Maddalena on stage 14 got messed up, too. Might have to resolve that at some point.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Amazing as it may be to realise this, but I have not posted a Giro in this thread at any point. In fact, I've posted a Giro del Trentino but have otherwise avoided Italy in its entirety. This is mainly because a) compared to the Tour and Vuelta in recent years the Giro has seemingly been fairly well designed and also makes use of many of its best mountains (although there are still a great many unused, as Eshnar's all-mountain Giri prove), and b) I find designing routes in Italy difficult because there is an overabundance of riches in terms of mountain stage design potential and I am constantly remembering climbs I'd wanted to include but not been able to crowbar in. This Giro route that I have finally elected to publish is missing in a great number of amazing climbs that I would otherwise have wanted to include - Pramollo, Esischie/Fauniera, Sampeyre, Agnello, Sant'Anna di Vinadio, Mortirolo, Rombo, Cà San Marco, San Pellegrino in Alpe, Crostis, Zoncolan... these are all monolithic climbs that I would have loved to have been able to include, but have simply not had the opportunity to. I've tried to blend a touch of Giro tradition with some innovation and also some unusual moves. There are 4 finishes on mountains of category 1 or 2, 2 of which are brand new to the race. My initial plan to utilise the monstrous Monte Giovo-Rombo-Rettenbachferner plan was waylaid for two reasons - 1) I thought the Cima Coppi should be in Italy, and 2) the weather conditions in the 2013 Giro made me think an MTF at nearly 2700m may be risky even if the Stelvio one in 2012 went off without a hitch. Weirdly, in one of my drafts for this my beloved Passo di Fedaia was the Cima Coppi, which seemed preposterously low, however that is no longer the case.

Eventually, however, something I was roughly happy with took shape, and so it seems appropriate to start on this now, with the announcement of next year's route impending.

Prologue: Bari - Bari, 4,0km (ITT)

The Grand Depart of my Giro is in the capital of Puglia, the second most important economic hub in southern Italy after 2013's grand depart of Napoli. There's not an enormous deal to be said about this short prologue, a way of starting a GT that seems to be out of vogue at present, except that we start and finish in Bari-Vecchia (the old town), and take in some tight corners in the Murat quarter and some seafront views before re-entering the old city walls to finish. We start on Piazza del Ferrarese and end on the cobbled roads in to finish on Piazza San Nicolà, in front of the historically and culturally significant Basilica di San Nicolà. This one should set up some small gaps ahead of the stages to come.

Piazza del Ferrarese:

Basilica di San Nicolà:

 

[roundabout]

As some of you may have remembered, some time ago I did a Unipublic style Tour de France.

Now the time has come for Giro version of the Tour. Being a Giro version of course means that the real high mountain stages don't start until 2 weeks into the race.

There are also certain departures from the Giro formula. Of the 4 arrivals at altitude there is only 1 HC finish, 1 2nd category, 1 borderline 2/3 category and 3rd category. There are also 67km of individual effort against the clock.

In summary

5 flat stages
4 hilly stages
4 medium mountain stages with 2 summit finishes
5 high mountain stages with 2 summit finishes
2 individual time trials
1 team time trial

Of the climbs above 3rd category

1 in the Vosges
1 in the Jura
11 in the Massif Central
2 in the Pyrenees
15 in the Alps

In Giro fashion here is also a preview of 2 stages

Stage 9: Aubenas-Marvejols

Stage 20: Geneva-Annecy

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 1: Bari - Brindisi, 172km

Climbs:
Gorgofreddo (cat.4) 3,4km @ 6,7%

The first road stage of the Giro heads along the coast of Puglia to begin with, and though it turns inland at one point, it does more or less stay that way. The purpose of the inland stretch is to climb up onto the hillside overlooking Monopoli and distribute our first mountain points in the village of Gorgofreddo; otherwise this stage is pan flat and a bunch sprint to be expected, especially as the final kilometre is absolutely dead straight.

The stage finishes with three laps of a circuit in today's stage town of Brindisi, famous as the eastern terminus of the historic Via Appia, marked by this roman column. The riders will pass this on a loop through the old city before finishing heading towards the outskirts of town on the wide open Via Appia, the modern version of which looks like this. Should be perfect for a sprint.

Brindisi:

 

[Eshnar]

Finally a Giro by Libertine Can't wait!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 2: Brindisi - Rossano Stazione, 245km

Climbs:
Rossano (cat.4) 3,7km @ 5,5%

The longest stage of the Giro comes early, as we transition from the northern coast of Puglia and into Calabria. The first 45km do not show on the profile, but are also flat. The name of the game is that always comparatively vague notion that is "making the sprinters work for their wins". There is a good chance that a sprinter will win this stage, however the opportunities are there to make something else of it and tempt puncheurs and attackers. Plus, with the extreme length of the stage and the amount of flat coastal roads along the Gulf of Taranto, if we get lucky with the wind direction this could see some serious echelon action before the final climb.

If we don't, of course, we will still get some pretty scenery as the riders head along the shoreline for most of the stage's distance, and certainly almost all that will be televised. The main sting in the tail comes at the end of a long day's riding; firstly there's a brief warmup in the form of the short climb into the scenic hilltop town of Corigliano Calabro, but at 2km at around 4,5% this is unlikely to shift many unless poor weather means the bunch is splintering with the length of the stage; this crests with 36km remaining, so there's over 200km gone by this point. This climb is not categorised, but it does get up to 10% so riders will feel it. Then they arrive at the hometown of the stage.

The riders will cross the finishing line with 225km in their legs, however there's still a climb for them. See, today's stage town, Rossano Stazione, was built on the flat land between the coast and the quarry town (mostly marble and alabaster, says wikipedia) of Rossano, which sits on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Taranto. And it is this hill that the riders must now climb. It's not a killer, at less than 4km in length, however gradients do get quite tough, with a few stretches of 12 or 13% and even a brief few metres of 20% to deal with. There are several lacets and switchbacks so there are many platforms for attack that riders can utilise in order to try to foil the sprinters' teams, and with the climb cresting 15km from the finish, and an equally technical descent to deal with, the chance of attacking groups going for something here is quite high. When they arrive back in the outskirts of Rossano Stazione, there is then a flat 9km around the town to get us back to the finish, which will give the sprinters' teams a chance to pull back the inevitable attacks from the climb to Rossano - so long as, after 235km, they still have enough in their legs to lead out the sprint afterward!

Rossano:

Rossano Stazione:

 

[Lupetto]

Pirazzi will attack on the way to Corigliano Calabro.

 

[sensations]

Haha, way to make my single-post giro look like a lazy effort. But I do like a LS grand tour with the essays for each stage and pictures.

Had previously mapped out a Giro starting in Albania and transferring over to Bari after day three.

Curious to see what we'll get next. I'd really approve you putting the hammer down and sending them through a 200km Calabrian roller coaster from Rossano Stazione to Cosenza.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Afraid a real Calabrian rollercoaster will have to wait for another time, for we're still establishing the race at this point.

Stage 3: Belvedere Maritimo - Montecorvino Rovella, 223km

Climbs:
Croce di Bulgheria (cat.3) 6,2km @ 5,4%
Tunnel di Cuccaro Vetere (cat.3) 10,5km @ 4,4%
Castellabate (cat.4) 5,4km @ 4,5%
Campanina (cat.4) 3,4km @ 8,0%

This one is a pure transitional stage crossing from Calabria into Campania. For the first time in the race there are multiple categorised climbs for the riders to haul themselves over, however none of these are really close enough to the finish to be considered any kind of major threat to the bunch. The final climb, 43km from the finish, is the steepest, and reaches gradients of up to 18%, so there will be an element of selectivity here, but not so much that hard work couldn't necessarily bring the bunch back together.

There is still a large element of potential wind hazard on the stage as the riders head up the coast, however the climbs do break it up and we do head inland at times. The main deal with this stage is the run-in to the finish, which is uphill, but not really in a puncheur kind of way. This is the profile for the last 6,7km, which are at a vague uphill (the last 4km average 3,5%, to demonstrate the mildness of the climbing, although there are a couple of stretches of 9%, including the final 200m). This may tempt some attackers as pure sprint trains may be harder to organise on a comparatively lengthy mild uphill; this is reminiscent of the 2009 Tour's Montjuïc Park finish (as opposed to the tougher version in the 2012 Vuelta) only a bit longer, so while it's uphill, expect that although puncheurs could still get themselves up in the mix, time gaps would be expected to be minimal and more durable and versatile sprinters like Degenkolb, Matthews, Rojas and Kristoff as well as more versatile riders with strong sprint capabilities like Boasson Hagen, Sagan, Pozzato, Gavazzi and Breschel may be the ones to keep your eyes on in this one, while the likes of Gerrans and Valverde (in the Giro? Ha! Ha!!!) would have enough of a turn of pace to interject themselves into proceedings if their timing's right as well. The second consecutive day over 220km may play a hand as well, although the stages haven't been designed tough - however if the wind blows on yesterday's stage and the average pace is high, after effects could be felt.

Belvedere Maritimo:

Montecorvino Rovella:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 4: Montesarchio - Castel di Sangro, 161km

Climbs:
Passo di Miralago (cat.2) 18,2km @ 4,6%
Valico di Macerone (cat.4) 3,5km @ 5,7%
Valico di Rionero Sannitico (cat.2) 10,0km @ 6,3%

Here we have what is thus far our shortest road stage, and also our first intermediate stage where the mountains make their first appearance in earnest. I have to be honest, there was an enormous temptation to go for the easy route and have an uphill finish in Roccaraso, or even more tempting, to clone the finishing stages of the brilliant 2008 stage to Pescocostanzo with Pietransieri and then the puncheur finish. However, there are four finishes on climbs of category 1 or 2 still to come, and I didn't want to go all Javier Guillén on the Giro, so have settled for this intermediate stage, which will hopefully sort out the contenders from the pretenders, but isn't likely to create any huge gaps.

Being a comparatively short stage after the two long preceding stages, expect a fast pace to be set, and with many mountains points on offer, anticipate quite a scramble to be in the break from wildcard teams, Stefano Pirazzi and, in case that move fails, Stefano Pirazzi. After passing through the city of Piedimonte Matese the riders take on the first category 2 climb of the Giro, the long but not especially complicated Passo di Miralago. This is the road beneath the Passo di Pretemorto, which does not have a road, but appears on tracks4bikers as the nearest locality. I have not been able to find a profile for the Passo di Miralago in isolation in and of itself, however, after some flat and downhill false flat if one turns right at the pass (rather than left as we do today) there is a further small climb to the Sella di Perrone, and the profile for that - as shown here - indicates the Passo di Miralago on it. This is the route that has been used on the two occasions that Miralago has been used in the Giro - (shameless steal from Parlamento Ciclista to find this fact + profiles) an intermediate stage in 1984 and ahead of a Campitello Matese MTF in 1988, a famous Giro we may see a little more homage to later. On both occasions, as you can see, Miralago was categorised as well as Perrone, and from the colours it would suggest Miralago was categorised 1st category (before the revamp in 2011, red was cat.1, yellow cat.2, white cat.3 and green for MTFs), however with the revamp of categorisations it is only category 2 today due to its uncomplicated nature and gradual slopes.

We then head to Isernia like in that 1984 stage, but by a more gradual descending route, rather than descent + flat. This then puts us in the position for the one-two punch of the short and relatively easy Valico di Macerone, followed by the tougher, two-stepped Rionero Sannitico, with its last 2km at nearly 9%, a toughest 500m at 12,7% and a regular stop in the Giro. Here's the official profile from RCS. Last seen in the epic L'Aquila stage in 2010 as a climb (although it was descended in the 2012 stage to Lago Laceno), this regular Giro haunt crests just 12,5km from the finish in Castel di Sangro, but there isn't much of a descent, so any gaps created on the climb may need to be secured with flat time trial power. I see this as a tougher version of the Lago Laceno stage in 2012 or the 2013 Serra San Bruno stage, and this will likely be the "sprint of the elites" type stage, or a breakaway stage. Either way, the GC will be given its first true shake up.

Montesarchio:

Castel di Sangro: