Preview - Giro d'Italia 2022 stage 19

With an opening 70 flat kilometers, this is a stage that can be attacked for quite a long time before it enters the mountains. A tricky day at the Giro d'Italia, with an interesting mix of climbs where you don’t really know what will happen until the riders are on the slopes.

Two “early” ascents with 103 (3.7Km, 8.4%) and 93 (9Km, 5.4%) will opens things up, with some rolling terrain which will lead the riders into Slovenian territory. Unfortunately for the race, it failed to attract the Slovenian stars, however action may nevertheless kick off quite intensely when the riders go up one of the hardest climbs in the country.

I don’t doubt that Slovenia is packed with horrific ascents, however in the context of pro cycling I doubt many would top Kolovrat. It’s 10.4 kilometers at 8.9% and fits the theme of long and steep ascents throughout this final week. It summits with 53 kilometers to go, it’s a long way, so it’s hard to predict if attacks will come out of it or if the GC riders prefer keeping an eye on each other, as they enter Italy back again into Friuli.

The stage does end in an ascent, although considerably more gentle then the previous. The climb into the Santuario di Castelmonte is not a walk in the park though, a descent in the middle disrupts the 6% average gradient. The gradients go above 10%, so it’s definitely not a far-fetched idea for the climbers to test themselves in the slopes of thr 7.3-kilometer climb.

**** Lennard Kämna

*** Santiago Buitrago, Bauke Mollema

** Hugh Carthy, Thymen Arensman, Richard Carapaz

* Jai Hindley, Wout Poels, Wilco Kelderman, Mikel Landa