Giro del Trentino 2014 – Stage 3 Preview
By David Hunter
Stage 2 Recap
A bold and brilliant attack from the Bardiani rider, Edoardo Zardini, netted him his first pro victory. In my preview, Bongiorno, mentioned that the both of them had been doing some altitude training and it obviously paid off! My tip, Niemiec, finished 2nd with Duarte 3rd. Cadel Evans moved into yellow as the GC battle hots up.
Stage 3 Mori- Roncone 184.4km
The riders face a very difficult day in the saddle.
Virtually no flat, all up and down. This spells disaster for a lot of riders! We have a cat 2 climb, then a cat 1 climb, before the very difficult finish in Roncone.
The cat 1 climb of Passo del Durone crests with 40km to go and should see a sizeable reduction in the peloton.
It’s 7.3% for 7km, so a difficult climb, with a very difficult second half. It’s 4km at 9.6%! This will end the hopes of a number of riders but it depends on how the peloton ride it. Will we see some long range attacks from teams with a few good candidates? Astana and Lampre will want to make it tough for Cadel and remove his teammates, but at 40km from the end, it’s just a touch too far out for serious damage. That comes at the end of the stage!
The end of the stage is very, very difficult. Initially the road rises at nearly 5% for 4km, before the final climb of 2.4km at an average of 14%. It has a maximum of 17%, halfway through the climb. This finish is for the steep hill specialists.
Some riders showed themselves strong in stage 2 and we should expect to see the same riders present today.
The favourite for the stage is Domenico Pozzovivo. The small Italian is good with steep gradients and only just lost contact with Evans and co at the very end of stage 2.
Cadel Evans loves the steep stuff, he is a former winner of Flèche Wallone. He was very strong today but if he gets isolated he might have to do a lot of work.
Przemyslaw Niemiec was excellent today and he doesn’t mind a steep finish. He also benefits from having a quick sprint against the other climbers, as does the Colombian Fabio Duarte.
Stage 2 winner Zardini also goes well on steep climbs but he might struggle to perform as well as he did in stage 2, it might be Bongiorno’s turn for Bardiani.
Looking further down the list of favourites there are 2 riders that stand out: Mauro Finetto and Moreno Moser.
Despite telling me he wasn’t expecting much here, Finetto finished a credible 21st. This finish is much more his style and if he’s on a good day, he’ll be there at the end.
Moreno Moser loves this type of finish! Remember he won Strade Bianche in 2013. He finished way down in stage 2 and that can mean 2 things: he’s off form or saving himself for stage 3!
I don’t see any other riders threatening here, so it’s time for a predicition…
For this finish it has to be Pozzovivo. Go the piano playing Economist!
David Hunter
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