Today, Friday, May 26th, the Giro d'Italia may be decided in an impressive high mountain stage that ends at the mythical summit of Tre Cime di Lavaredo. It is a Croix de Fer style pass (if we include Tre Croci), with several chained summits, although in the case of the shorter Italian one, with the three peaks much closer to each other;
The first one, the Passo Tre Croci leaving from Cortina d'Ampezzo, is less hard, although considering that the riders are coming from the Passo Grau (9.8 km at 9.3%), nothing will be too hard at that point.
Thus, Tre Croci is 8 kilometers at 7.2% with the summit at 13 kilometers from the finish line. With no descent, a small flat pass on a plateau leads to a terrible 11.4% kilometer with arrival at Lago di Antorno. From there, downhill to Pedaggio and the beginning of what is officially known as Tre Cime di Lavaredo, which has 3.7 kilometers above 11%. (10.7% the first km, 13.1% the second, 12.7% the third and 12.4% the final). Ramps above up to 17%.
Primoz Roglic and João Almeida have no excuse. They have plenty of ground to take a shot at the maglia rosa of a Geraint Thomas who, so far, has shown himself to be the most consistent rider in this Giro d'Italia 2023.
NIBALI IN THE YEAR 2013.
The last time the mythical Italian pass was reached was in 2013, when under heavy snowfall Vincenzo Nibali won the Three Peaks over three Colombian riders, as he came in ahead of Fabio Duarte, Rigoberto Urán and Carlos Betancur. The differences were not excessive, as they all came in within 21 seconds of each other. It must be said that Vincenzo had sentenced that Giro in his favor up until that point.
HISTORIC WINNERS AT TRE CIME DI LAVAREDO.
- Felice Gimondi (Italy) 1968
- José Manuel Fuente (Spain) 1974
- Beat Breu (Switzerland) 1981
- Lucho Herrera (Colombia) 1989
- Riccardo Riccò (Italy) 2007
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) 2013
WHAT COULD HAPPEN BETWEEN THOMAS, ROGLIC AND ALMEIDA?
It is not easy to know what is going to happen in a stage as hard as the one proposed today by the Giro d'Italia with more than 5000 meters of elevation gain and 150 final kilometers in which three passes are chained before facing the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Jumbo-Visma should take control of the race for Primoz Roglic if it doesn't want INEOS Grenadiers to impose its usual train to favor Geraint Thomas. João Almeida has shown that, if he has the strength, he has no problem putting his UAE Team Emirates teammates to work.
The pass, because of its hardness at the end, could favor Roglic and not so much less explosive riders like Thomas or Almeida, but with so much hardness it will depend largely on the strength they have at the end. A beautiful stage awaits us.
El encadenado es un pepino, ascensiones +2000 y final mítico. El problema es que con los tres en un pañuelo arriesgarán lo justo (salvo oler sangre). Pero la etapa puede dar mucho juego: victoria parcial, montaña, mejorar en la GC y los favoritos x lo menos un combate a un puerto
