Male Team 06 - 15 Jul
Giro d'Italia Donne
972 Kilometers 10 Stages
The 29th edition of the Giro Ciclistico d’Italia Femminile Internazionale will be the culmination of a dream for the women’s Movistar Team. A squad whose existence hadn’t even made public just ten months ago has been able to already establish themselves as a courageous, well-managed, solid team with lots of good reasons to be considered a relevant one. Almost all of the biggest races in the UCI Women’s WorldTour -including the Giro Rosa, arguably its most brilliant one- have opened their doors to the team directed by Jorge Sanz, tackling the most demanding, longest race of the season in Italy.
Ten days with no respite, from Friday 6th to Sunday 15th July, make up the route of the Giro, entirely ridden on northern roads. In fact, the first half of the ‘percorso’ covers just three regions: Lombardia, Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna. A 15km team time trial in Verbania will build some early time gaps in a race with long routes, yet with not real difficult climbs in the first few days. Ovada (Saturday 7th), Corbetta (Sunday 8th, circuit race) and Piacenza (Monday 9th) will host the clearest chances for the sprinters and breakaway specialists before heading east and tackling the most demanding mountains.
The climb to Someraro (Cat-2), 32km from Omegna’s finish -Tuesday 10th- and, above that, the Gerola Alta (Cat-2; 12km at 6%), mountain-top finish on stage six -Wednesday 11th-, will be the first opportunities for the ‘scalatrici’. The Giro, though, will get decided between the mountain TT to Alpe Gera di Campo Moro -Thursday 12th; 15km at 6.7%- and the infamous Monte Zoncolan (Saturday 14th). The 10km ‘salita’ from Ovaro, at a whooping 12% average, will overshadow the entire race and create big differences in the GC – even if changes could also be seen at the final day (Sunday 15th), with the San Leonardo ascent (Cat-1; 7km, 6%) just 11km from Cividale del Friuli’s last finish.