A decisive stage and a chance to turn the race upside down or at least invert the hierarchy before the race heads into the high mountains. The route celebrates the Chianti vineyards, branded these days with the Chianti Classico label and a black rooster.
Once upon a time the cities of Siena and Florence decided to stop fighting each other and draw up borders and hit on a novel idea: at dawn when a cockerel crowed for the first time in each city a band of horsemen would gallop out of the city gates towards their rival city. The point where they met their opponents would be the frontier between the two city states. Siena picked a white rooster and cosseted the cockerel. Florence opted for a mangy black one and kept him hungry. On the appointed day the white bird rose to announce dawn but long before he’d deigned to announce the day, his black rival had stirred and sent the Florentine soldiers on their way so they took more terrain and won and the legend lives on every wine bottle now with the black rooster brand. The moral of the story? Style is all well and good but being faster gives you the win. Does this foretell a win for the gangly but effective Ilnur Zakarin? Or perhaps now that Tom Dumoulin is back in black he’s going to win?
