Will Giro d'Italia contenders attack on the twisting road to La Spezia?
Aru: "It's important to race intelligently too"







Monday's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:third stage from Rapallo to Sestri Levante left the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Giro d'Italia peloton tired and dizzy after the hundreds of curves, corners, test💟ing climbs and twisting descent. But they face more of the same pain on stage four in the spectacular but hilly Cinque Terre region.
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La Spezia is a naval armoury town and the birthplace of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alessandro Petacchi (168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Southeast) but stage four is not a day for old men and especially veteran sprinters. The management at 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Orica-GreenEdge believes that 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Michael Matthews will be able to keep the pink jersey for another day but others in the Giro d'Italia peloton expect some of overall contenders to show their hand and go on the attack. Like 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:stage two of the last year's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France to Sheffield, the stage could even be won by the rider who will g🥂o on to win the Giro d'Italia.
The 150km stage is from 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Chiavari to La Spezia and rides deep into the Ligurian hills before returning to the coast and then climbing again before descending to La Spezia. To add a further difficulty, the riders face a 17km circuit that includes the third category Biassa climb before one last descent to the finish in the port town.
The stage is packed with climbs but only has two categorised climbs. The Passo del Termine begins after 92km, with 48🦋km to go. It is 8.8km long, with the six kilometres at 8%. It is perfectly placed to la✱unch a serious attack.
The Biassa climb is the perfect for a late attack. The 17km circuit is like a world championship road race circuit, with the climb 3.5km long. It also steepens as i♏t rises, starting at 6% but topping out at 11%. The summit is only 10km from the finish, with seven kilometres of it on a testing road back to La Spezia.
Rising tension in the peloton
The crashes on stage two and three have raised the level of tension in the peloton, meaning riders will fight even more to stay protected and out of trouble at the front of the peloton. The spiral of fear and desire to win and gain time could whip up a storm. "Stage four is like today (stage three on Monday) but it's even longer," Team Sky's leader 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Richie Porte explained. "There's a lot of nervou꧃s guys and there will be tomorrow too. It's 150km of up and🅺 down and twisting, like today. It's the standard first week of a Grand Tour…."
Team Sky team ma൲nager Dave Brailsford hopes the riders he selected to back Porte will be able to stay with the Tasmanian and help him make it to La Spezia without losingꦿ time.
"Because it's so early in the race, it depends on how the stage is raced," he argued. "If it's raced hard, then it'll be hard. We'll see what people think on the day. Sometimes you stages like those and think they're going to be hard but then it doesn't happen. Certainly got to vigilant. Equally it'll be in🅘teresting to see."
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"Often it defends how n𓂃ervous the peloton gets, so it's self-fulfilling. Everyone wants to get to the front because they're nervous, then everyone gets even more nervous and then all of a sudden it's full on. If everybody relaxed a bit and did their thing,🍰 it'd be a lot less stressful."
The 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tinkoff-Saxo team has been aggressive so far in this year's Giro d'Italia. 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alberto Contador is sixth overall, only 17 seconds behind Matthews a🥂nd so is within reach of the pink jersey if the Russian team decides to go on the attack. Controversial team owner Oleg Tinkov is at the Giro d'Italia until Sunday and has brought a host ofꦕ Tinkoff Bank guest to the race and hired a VIP area for them at the finish.
Contador claimed the team rode on the front to stay out of trouble. However it also inspired his ri💝vals to do the same, meaning Astana and Etixx-Quickstep also spent long spells near the head of the peloton.
"We've got to ride near the front to stay safe going through all the corners," 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Fabio Aru explained to Cyclingnews. "But it𓂃's important to race intelligently too. I'm trying to do both but were readyꦏ for anything."

Stephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.