Team Jumbo's Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin prepares to take the start of the third stage of the Giro d'Italia 2022 cycling race, 201 kilometers between Kaposvar and Balatonfured, Hungary, on May 8, 2022. (Photo by Luca Bettini / AFP) (Photo by LUCA BETTINI/AFP via Getty Images)
Giro d’Italia Week Three Route Preview: The third week of all Grand Tours is the hardest and, like all recent Giri, this year week three has the most climbing. I want to say ‘the Giro is won or lost in the third week’ but the way Tadej Pogačar has dominated so far…. You never know, there might be an upset or a surprise.
The final week of the first Grand Tour of the year has fifteen categorised climbs and two sprint stages before the finish in Rome. Here is the run-down on the climax of the 2024 Giro d’Italia.
From Livigno the peloton should have tackle the famous climb of the Passo dello Stelvio (20.2km at 7.2%) at the beginning of the 202 kilometre stage, but the Giro d’Italia had to change the route due to snow. Before the start of the Giro, no one was sure if the race would be able to cross the Stelvio. The mountain was also the Cima Coppi, the highest point of the Italian tour. Now the sixteenth stage will look slightly different, as the riders will not race up the Stelvio. There is too much snow on the road and the safety risks mean that the riders will not summit the 20 kilometre climb.
RCS Sport have replaced the Stelvio with the Umbrail pass. With its 16.7 kilometres at 7.1%, this climb is not an easy climb and will also be the new Cima Coppi for 2024. The riders climb to a height of 2,498 metres at the top, only 250 metres lower than the Stelvio Pass. The top of the Umbrail Pass is more than 150 kilometres from the finish. In 2017, the Umbrail pass was part of the Giro d’Italia route, the final climb in a stage over the Mortirolo and the Passo della Stelvio. That year the road was passable. That stage possibly brought the mountain its fame. In the valley between the Stelvio and the Umbrail pass, the pink jersey, Tom Dumoulin, was in dire need of a toilet stop at the side of the road… in a hurry.
