Well that certainly flew by, didn’t it? Before you know it we will be watching the next Grand Tour, you know, the one in France. But before that, there’s one last gallop for the lads in Italy.
After three weeks of racing across The Bel Paese , the Giro d’Italia reaches its traditional finale in Rome. The GC battle is effectively over, shifting the spotlight to the sprinters for one last The 131-km stage begins with a ceremonial run through the city before the peloton heads toward the Tyrrhenian coast.
There’s a sprint near Ostia, but the real action will come later when the race returns to the heart of Rome. Look for breakaways to try and spoil the finale, much like when the Tour de France finishes on the Champs-Élysées. But it will probably be a big ol’ sprint.
Once there, riders will tackle eight laps of a 9.5-km city-centre circuit that winds past some of the capital’s most famous landmarks, including the Colosseum and Circus Maximus. As always, the finish is slightly uphill. It even comes with some cobbles, so that’s fun.
Sprinters rejoice
Paul Magnier starts as a favourite, but Dylan Groenewegen and the other fast men will be eager to spoil the party. Jonathan Milan would probably love to get a win–it’s been a dry run for Lidl-Trek, in terms of stage wins.
Derek Gee-West sits fifth overall, and a spectacular final week where he animated much of the big days. On Saturday, he tried to put some time and take over the fourth spot–the same position he had last year, but it didn’t work out. Still, great to see the Lidl-Trek rider continue to mix it up with all the big GC riders.
Coverage of today’s stage is on Flobikes.com, beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Before that, Stage 2 of the women’s giro is broadcast at 6:30 a.m. EDT. (Sadly, without Saturday’s winner Lorena Wiebes. You can read more about that here if you missed the crazy news yesterday.)
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