Do not make plans for this Friday, because you have a date on the sofa at home or in the bar downstairs. The place that you prefer to not miss a single detail of what promises to be a spectacular battle on the occasion of the thirteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia. The Italian round enters Swiss territory to experience one of the most momentous days of this edition: 199 km and 5,100 meters of unevenness accumulated. Almost nothing.
It will be a high mountain day with an old aroma, of extreme hardness, in which the runners will have to overcome three passes throughout. The first, the Great Saint Bernard, that due to the snowfalls of the last months it will not be possible to ascend in its entirety. The snow has prevented the operators from removing all the snow from the roads in time, so only you will reach the Valais tunnel, about 8 km from the summit (if it is crowned at more than 2,400 m, it will be at 1,878). This forced modification means that such an imposing mountain is not the Cima Coppi this year, a privilege that becomes Tre Cime di Lavaredo’s, final stage of the queen stage.
After the San Bernardo, the race will enter Swiss territory with the ascents of Cross of Heart (15.4 km at 8.8% average) and the finish uphill at the ski resort of crans montana (13km at 7.2%). It will be a historic moment in the Giro, since this ascent had never hosted a stage finish of the Italian round, as it did for only time in the Toru de France in 1984, with victory for Laurent Fignon.
The men of the general are in a scarf, so the Pink jersey defended by Geraint Thomas will be at stake The Welshman only defends 2 seconds against Primoz Roglic, 22 over Joao Almeida and 35 against Andreas Leknessund, his closest pursuers. He will also without the help of his companion Tao Geoghegan, that could have played a fundamental role in his favor from the numerical point of view. All the necessary ingredients to witness an epic stage. Do not miss it.