OP by @Devil's Elbow: https://forum.cyclingnews.com/threa...4-stage-by-stage-analysis.39775/#post-3032417
The longest stage of the race, and the first of eight sprint stages. Apparently that wasn’t enough to assemble a strong field for this kind of terrain, can anyone stop Philipsen regardless?
The route
The final part of the Tour’s venture into Emilia-Romagna starts in Piacenza, its westernmost city. Founded by the Romans in 218 BC, it has fluctuated somewhat in importance – at one point, it was the largest city in Emilia – but has remained a regional centre throughout its history. It was also the place where the First Crusade was proclaimed. In cycling, it is notable for being the birthplace of Giorgia Bronzini, the 2010 and 2011 women’s world champion.
The first part of the stage is spent following the edge of the Apennines, briefly crossing through Lombardia before entering Piemonte. From a cycling perspective, the most significant stopoff here is Tortona, where Fausto Coppi passed away. The KOM above town, named after him for this Tour, is on the Corso Fausto e Serse Coppi. It is the first 1.2k of the profile below.
Following the intermediate sprint in Alessandria…
…the race enters the rolling hills surrounding Alba, noted for wine and truffles. On the stage itself, it only makes for slightly more rolling terrain, including two KOMs in Barbaresco and Sommariva Perno. I don’t have profiles for either.
The summit of the latter climb marks the transition from hills to upper Po floodplain and the rest of the route into Turin is straightforward. As we know from the Giro and Milano-Torino, there’s plenty of interesting stuff to do with this area, but after two difficult stages and with an Alpine stage up next, a sprint makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the route they’ve selected: save for a few roundabouts, the route is ramrod straight from Stupinigi at 8.7k to go until two huge left-handers at 900 and 700 metres to go. Not my idea of an ideal finale for a first sprint stage, hopefully everyone stays upright.
Torino was already visited in the Giro this year, so to save myself some time, I’m rehashing my description from that stage rather than writing the same thing twice.
Originally founded by the Romans, Torino gained influence after the Duchy of Savoy moved its capital there in the 16th century. The development of the Duchy into a kingdom that conquered/reunified all of Italy helped it prosper, but of course eventually cost it its status as capital. Despite this, unification was not unkind to the city, with the construction of the Fréjus tunnel and development of the Italian car industry (centred here until this day) ensuring its status as one of the country’s foremost cities. Its subsequent history has been turbulent at times – a fascist massacre of the labour movement shortly after Mussolini’s coup d’état, Allied bombing in WWII, economic turmoil due to the oil crisis in the 70s and 80s hitting its car industry – but it remains an important centre – not just economically and culturally, but also in sports, having hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006 and being home to Serie A record champions in Juventus. In cycling, it hosted the finish of the sport’s oldest race in Milano-Torino until very recently. It has also seen the Giro thrice in the past four years already, with Ganna taking the opening TT in 2021, Simon Yates winning the last great Giro stage the year after, and then of course Jhonatan Narváez doing the unlikely less than two months ago. The Tour hasn’t been here since 1996, when a Zabel-won stage to Gap started here.
What to expect?
Pretty standard sprint stage. Maybe the distance will hurt some a bit, but that definitely shouldn’t apply to Philipsen.
The longest stage of the race, and the first of eight sprint stages. Apparently that wasn’t enough to assemble a strong field for this kind of terrain, can anyone stop Philipsen regardless?
The route
The final part of the Tour’s venture into Emilia-Romagna starts in Piacenza, its westernmost city. Founded by the Romans in 218 BC, it has fluctuated somewhat in importance – at one point, it was the largest city in Emilia – but has remained a regional centre throughout its history. It was also the place where the First Crusade was proclaimed. In cycling, it is notable for being the birthplace of Giorgia Bronzini, the 2010 and 2011 women’s world champion.
The first part of the stage is spent following the edge of the Apennines, briefly crossing through Lombardia before entering Piemonte. From a cycling perspective, the most significant stopoff here is Tortona, where Fausto Coppi passed away. The KOM above town, named after him for this Tour, is on the Corso Fausto e Serse Coppi. It is the first 1.2k of the profile below.
Following the intermediate sprint in Alessandria…
…the race enters the rolling hills surrounding Alba, noted for wine and truffles. On the stage itself, it only makes for slightly more rolling terrain, including two KOMs in Barbaresco and Sommariva Perno. I don’t have profiles for either.
The summit of the latter climb marks the transition from hills to upper Po floodplain and the rest of the route into Turin is straightforward. As we know from the Giro and Milano-Torino, there’s plenty of interesting stuff to do with this area, but after two difficult stages and with an Alpine stage up next, a sprint makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the route they’ve selected: save for a few roundabouts, the route is ramrod straight from Stupinigi at 8.7k to go until two huge left-handers at 900 and 700 metres to go. Not my idea of an ideal finale for a first sprint stage, hopefully everyone stays upright.
Torino was already visited in the Giro this year, so to save myself some time, I’m rehashing my description from that stage rather than writing the same thing twice.
Originally founded by the Romans, Torino gained influence after the Duchy of Savoy moved its capital there in the 16th century. The development of the Duchy into a kingdom that conquered/reunified all of Italy helped it prosper, but of course eventually cost it its status as capital. Despite this, unification was not unkind to the city, with the construction of the Fréjus tunnel and development of the Italian car industry (centred here until this day) ensuring its status as one of the country’s foremost cities. Its subsequent history has been turbulent at times – a fascist massacre of the labour movement shortly after Mussolini’s coup d’état, Allied bombing in WWII, economic turmoil due to the oil crisis in the 70s and 80s hitting its car industry – but it remains an important centre – not just economically and culturally, but also in sports, having hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006 and being home to Serie A record champions in Juventus. In cycling, it hosted the finish of the sport’s oldest race in Milano-Torino until very recently. It has also seen the Giro thrice in the past four years already, with Ganna taking the opening TT in 2021, Simon Yates winning the last great Giro stage the year after, and then of course Jhonatan Narváez doing the unlikely less than two months ago. The Tour hasn’t been here since 1996, when a Zabel-won stage to Gap started here.
What to expect?
Pretty standard sprint stage. Maybe the distance will hurt some a bit, but that definitely shouldn’t apply to Philipsen.
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