Date: Saturday, May 17
Distance: 197km
Start location: Giulianova
Finish location: Castelraimondo
Start time: 12:15 CEST
Finish time: 17:14 CEST (approx.)
To the east of the region of Marche is the Adriatic coast, featuring an array of beautiful beaches such as the ones found at today’s start town, Giulianova; to the west, the Apennine mountains, which form the border between here and Umbria. The terrain of Le Marche itself is somewhere between these two extremes, hillier than the flat coastline, but with no peak compatible with the high passes in the Apennines on the horizon. Awkward to navigate through, with the coastal highways providing the only straightforward way of travelling north to south, it's characterised by twisty, winding roads, unspoilt and unpopulated by tourists.
For the purposes of bike racing, this kind of terrain is ideal for designing exciting stages. These roads have become a staple of the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race, where virtually every edition in recent years has had one stage designated the ‘Tappa dei Muri‘, ‘muri’ describing the many short but super-steep ‘wall’ hills that feature here. The 2021 edition was an especially memorable instance, when, in an early episode of what has blossomed to become a great rivalry between Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar, the latter embarked on a solo pursuit of Van der Poel in the rain, only for the Dutchman to just about hold off for the stage win by 10 seconds. Van der Poel was again involved in the Muri stage this year, winning the final sprint of a peloton that had been reduced to little more than 30 riders on the hills, but missed out on the stage win after the unfancied Fredrik Dversnes held off the peloton as the final survivor of the day’s seven-man break.
These Tirreno stages served as a template for today’s parcours in the Giro, with its relentless climbing as the riders weave through the Marche countryside. The centrepiece is the category one Valico di Santa Maria Maddalena, the long, 13.1km climb that is taken on halfway through the stage, but both before and after it are many more challenges. Only three are categorised (the Croce di Casale just 50km into the stage; the Montelago after the descent of Valico di Santa Maria Maddalena; and finally the short and steep rise to Gagliole just 6.5km from the finish), but the difficulty of this stage comes in just how many uncategorised rises there are. So many, in fact, that the total elevation gain of 3,800m succeeds even yesterday’s true mountain stage.
As in both the aforementioned Tirreno stages, this is territory for breakaways to succeed, and there’s bound to be a long, drawn-out battle among puncheurs now far enough down on GC to not be considered a threat to get into the day’s break. But there’s also enough climbing here to draw the GC contenders into a fight, with the beauty of it being that, with no obvious standout climb, attacks could be launched from almost anywhere in the final half of the stage. There’s potential for surprising and impactful attacks in the GC race.
Contenders
Stage eight is well suited to breakaway riders, making it hard to predict, especially with it being sandwiched between the first summit finish on stage seven and the gravel stage on stage nine, meaning some of the best-suited riders for this stage may save their energy.
Ineos Grenadiers pair Ben Turner and Josh Tarling have been impressive so far this Giro and would both be favourites for the stage if they decided to go in the break. Likewise, Luke Plapp (Team Jayco AlUla) would be a contender for victory from the breakaway. His teammate Paul Double went in the stage six's break and hoovered up 36 points in the blue jersey competition and for a while was in the virtual maglia rosa.
Two Giro stage breakaway winners Davide Bais(Team Polti VisitMalta) and Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty), will both be eyeing this stage, as will Marco Brenner (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team).
The trio from Israel-Premier Tech, Marco Frigo, Simon Clarke, and Nick Schultz, are all seasoned breakaway specialists with notable results to their names. With their GC man, Derek Gee, having lost time on stage one, they could be given the freedom to go for the breakaway.
Orluis Aular (Movistar Team) and Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) are two fast finishers who have proved they can survive a hard day in the saddle, and with Mads Pedersen in the form he is in, they could be looking for breakaway opportunities to get a stage win.
Although unlikely due to the number of stages left and the potential risks, the most aggressive GC riders like Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) or Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) may sense a chance to catch their rivals napping.
Prediction
We think Ben Turner will win from the day's breakaway taking his first Grand Tour victory.
