"One of the hardest days" - Giulio Ciccone's Blockhaus warning as Giro d'Italia general classification battle set to launch

Giulio Ciccone is bracing for the Blockhaus on Friday as the Giro d'Italia serves up a feast for the pure climbers. A mythical finish to an already mammoth 245 kilometer-long stage, the Italian knows general classification is set to be blown wide open when the dust settles after the gruelling climb.

Described by the Lidl-Trek climber as a "badass climb", the Blockhaus offers almost 14 kilometers at an average of 8.4% gradient. Pre-race favourite Jonas Vingegaard has already expressed his intentions to try make a move on its iconic slopes.

"It's an important stage which can create some major gaps in the overall classification, a real badass climb and one that comes almost at the start of the race, so it'll see movement and do a lot of harm," Ciccone told Cyclingnews earlier in the race.

"We go up the toughest side and that'll be really difficult because of the steadiness of the steeper slopes," Ciccone stated, alluding to more than half of the climb being taken on at a relentless 9% gradient.

Not only is Ciccone aware of the climb itself, he pinpointed a challenging stage before the riders even get to the bottom. The stage itself boasts over 4500 meters of altitude gain, making it among the toughest individual stages on paper. The factors make for a gruelling day if you're a general classification rider or a trusted mountain domestique.

"Then the way we get there is really hard, too and the stage itself is very difficult and very long. There are a whole series of circumstances and terrain which will combine to make it one of the hardest days of the entire Giro."

When pondering who exactly could make their mark on stage 7, Ciccone admitted the climb is "very good for Jonas Vingegaard" and made no secret that the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader is the stage favourite.

Ciccone admitted that the regularity of the gradient could be the difference-maker for the Dane, who is likely targeting a major step towards the Maglia Rosa early in the race: "He likes climbs that don't have too many changes in gradient, the ones that have that really constant single effort he's so good at, and he's done brilliantly on those sorts of ascents in the past.

"There are a lot of summit finishes in every Giro, but this is one that counts even more than usual, because once you start to lose time here and crack, you really crack."

Ciccone added: "Blockhaus is the first important one for him [Vingegaard], because this is where he can make a really big down payment on the Giro GC. It matters a lot."