Important days for the women’s peloton. The Giro Rosa (WorldTour), probably one of the most important stage races of the season, takes off this coming Friday. WM3 Pro Cycling’s line-up in Italy is nothing short of rock solid. Many eyes are on home-rider Valentina Scandolara and Kasia Niewiadoma, who took the victory in an amazingly manner of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour earlier in June.
DS Jeroen Blijlevens has in addition Moniek Tenniglo, Anna Plichta, Lauren Kitchen, Riejanne Markus and Anouska Koster on the roster. The riders have been staying in Italy since this week where they are preparing for the opening stage on Friday. “We start with a team time trial (11.5 kilometres, red.). It is important in anticipation of this trial to complete some specific trainings on the time trial bikes”, says Jeroen Blijlevens.
Tough time trial
The Giro Rosa has 10 stages in as many days. The first ones look fairly easy on paper due to the rather flat profile. The 5th stage is a tough time trial (12.7 kilometres) with 2 climbs; the first one existing of 1.5 kilometres (10.3% gradient) after which the road rolls on another 2.3 kilometres followed by a steep descent. The riders need to conquer another climb of 2.5 kilometres towards the end with a gradient of 6.5%, followed by an even steeper part of 16%.
Vesuvius
In the days following the time trial, the stages remain challenging, especially the 8th stage will be a heavy one with the riders climbing, amongst others, to the national park Cilento (nearly 20 kilometres). The penultimate stage is relatively flat and on the final day of the Giro Rosa, the peloton covers a stage of 122 kilometres in Torre del Greco, a coastal town near the Vesuvius, with local laps of well over 11 kilometres each. In the last lap, the riders will climb the Vesuvius (5.6 kilometres, 6.4% gradient) followed by a long descent and a stretch of false flat until the finish line.
