Seven sprints to attract the specialists of fast wheels in the pink race that is emerging day by day, from Hungary to Treviso
The first sprint will wait for the tadpoles in front of the 13th-century Royal Castle of Visegrad, on the right bank of the Danube, just half an hour’s drive from Budapest: up for grabs a brand new pink jersey. The last sprint scheduled almost three weeks later in the heart of Treviso, after 146 kilometers of light descent and with the group arriving from Valsugana. The 105 Giro d’Italia will offer, well distributed over its 21 days of racing, seven golden opportunities for sprinters who could become eight for the most resistant to tearing uphill or be reduced to six (or less) if the teams of fast wheels they will miss some escape. A number that should convince the strongest sprinters in the world to show up in Hungary and then not to leave the race after the first week due to a lack of sprints and an abundance of mountains, as happened in the past.
The three-day Hungarian event offers two opportunities on paper, but the Budapest-Visegrad of the debut presents a finish more suited to the dynamite calves of a Colbrelli or a Sagan of the best days than to the thighs of a pure sprinter like Ewan or Gaviria. The Kaposvar-Balatonfured 48 hours later, flat as a billiard table, will instead be an opportunity to keep the pink jersey close to the sprinters.
On paper, even the Catania-Messina (yes, the 2022 edition will return to Sicily and pay homage to Vincenzo Nibali’s hometown to invite him to a last or penultimate Giro) should be monopolized by sprinters: it is true that after 75 kilometers you cross Portella Mandrazzi at an altitude of 1,125 meters but it is also true that after the descent and as far as the chief town the difficulties along the Statale 113 will be zero. The Calabrian Palmi-Scalea is long (192 kilometers) but even easier, while the Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna-Reggio Emilia is very long and flat, which reveals an ascent to the north full of Apennine pitfalls, revealed to the public tomorrow and Thursday.
The penultimate sprint of the Giro 105 is not trivial: between Sanremo and Cuneo there are the Colle di Nava and some undulations near Mondov: they could favor an escape. As we said, Borgo Valsugana-Treviso is a candidate to beat the record average in a stage of the pink race, those windy 51.2 km / hour reached in 2020 in Puglia.
To help fans reconstruct the puzzle of the Giro 2022 (which will be completed on Friday), Rcs Sport yesterday anticipated the details of a choppy and unprecedented stage, the Naples-Naples (149 kilometers, arrival on the Caracciolo seafront) which also includes five laps of a very tough undulating circuit of 19 km between Bacoli and Monte di Procida. Short but tedious stage, coming from lone wolves or sprinting in narrow ranks.
November 8, 2021 (change November 9, 2021 | 17:57)
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