The details of the Italian road race championships have been made public. Here’s some info on the circuit for the pros. The route is dominated by the the Ca’ del Poggio climb which whilst 1.3km long has an average gradient of 15 per cent. A wall that has to be climbed many times.
The press release from the Italian federation says that the climb, “which, repeated 11 times, will affect the legs of the athletes“. 11 times up a 1300climb averaging 15% means a vertical gain of over 2000m for this climb alone. It’s certainly going to do affect the legs. And I thought the Italians were prone to overstatement…
Given the circuit my money’s already on Cunego but watch out for Nibali and Basso.