Preview - Giro d'Italia 2022 stage 4

The Giro d'Italia arrives in Italy, but not mainland yet as beforehand the peloton will be riding through Sicily.

Land of many Italian champions, and land of the most active active volcano in Europe which will be climbed in the fourth stage of the race. 170 kilometers and 3500 meters of climbing, not a brutal day but quite a considerable challenge.

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Early on in the day a strong group can go up the road, from the start to kilometer 55 the riders go from sea level to almost 1000 meters in altitude. There is no real ascent, but a combination of false-flat roads will slowly have the riders go up, and then back down again slowly before the final ascent.

Mount Etna. There are many roads up it, but this year the finale will be in the Rifugio Sapienza. A long ascent, the first 13 kilometers will see the riders gain 400 meters in altitude, but that’s a warm-up for the classified ascent.

Stage 4: Avola - Etna-Rifugio Sapienza

From that point onwards the gradients rise up, and the average is of 5.9% for a whole 23.1 kilometers. It’s a long climb, with many switchbacks, and the gradients aren’t overly consistent, with two small flat sections. The final 9 kilometers see the hardest gradients, peaking at 12% around the 9 kilometer to go mark. Much can happen here, although early in the race It may not motivate many to attack the race hard.

Etna-Rifugio Sapienza: 23.1Km; 5.9% average gradient; 12.5 maximum gradient

CyclingUpToDate prediction:

**** Miguel Ángel López

*** Simon Yates, Richard Carapaz

** Romain Bardet, João Almeida, Mikel Landa

* Pello Bilbao, Wilco Kelderman, Giulio Ciccone, Jai Hindley

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