{"id":245724,"date":"2026-05-29T04:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/the-inner-ring-giro-ditalia-stage-19-preview-2\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T04:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:00:30","slug":"the-inner-ring-giro-ditalia-stage-19-preview-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/the-inner-ring-giro-ditalia-stage-19-preview-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Inner Ring | Giro d\u2019Italia Stage 19 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Queen Stage? Yes, but at 151km today\u2019s stage is minor royalty. It\u2019ll still be entertaining and scenic too.<\/p>\n

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Tri-Paul<\/strong>: an impromptu sprint stage. With few obvious sprint stages to start with and some of those leaving the sprinters thwarted and even sore, several teams conspired to keep a lid on the day\u2019s modest breakaway and then deter further attacks with Lidl-Trek, NSN and UAE all active here and the field split under the pressure and regrouped. The climbs along the day saw other moves contained; plus a crash for Afonso Eulalio but no injury give he attacked on the Ca\u2019 del Poggio climb but couldn\u2019t get a gap but this helped condense the bunch down to about 60 riders.<\/p>\n

If yesterday\u2019s preview did not consider a bunch sprint outcome \u2013 mea culpa \u2013 the finish did not seemed designed for it either. But this allowed Jasper Stuyven to lead out Paul Magnier and force Jonathan Milan again to find another route around riders. Magnier was clear and takes back the points jersey with a 37 point advantage. There are 12-8-5-3-1 at the intermediate sprint today and tomorrow and 15-12-9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 so Narvaez needs to score big and then hope Magnier fumbles the sprint in Rome; in practical terms this is unlikely but Magnier\u2019s biggest challenge is the next two stages and the time limit. He said he did not think of the sprint yesterday because he\u2019s so tired.<\/p>\n

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The Route<\/strong>: 151km and 4,800m of vertical gain. There\u2019s a hilly 45km to the first pass on a small backroad, terrain for the breakaway to form but their challenge is to stay away for the day.<\/p>\n

The Passo Duran marks the start of the climbing and it\u2019s hard at the start, plenty of 10-12% for the first two thirds before easing. The final 100km have almost no flat roads except for a brief moment before the final climb. The descents matter today too, they\u2019re frequently steep and with tight, irregular corners.<\/p>\n

The Passo Giau is long and steep, 10km at almost 10% and with its 29 hairpins hard for anyone struggling to follow the pace as they can get shaken off on these bends.<\/p>\n

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The Finish<\/strong>: not a famous pass or anything like that, this is a small road to a ski lift in winter and the start of hiking trails in summer, all below the cragged peaks of Monte Civetta. It\u2019s consistently steep.<\/p>\n

The Contenders<\/strong>: Jonas Vingegaard<\/strong> (Visma-LAB) is the easy pick, he\u2019s out-climbing everyone so why turn down another stage win? But this all hangs on whether his team will work all day because there\u2019s little point in Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe or Netcompany-Ineos mowing down the breakaway today as they\u2019d just gift the win to Vingegaard; but little rather than zero given Red Bull might want to soften up Arensman on the climbs. Several teams might also see if they can test Felix Gall on the descents.<\/p>\n

Breakaway picks are Giulio Ciccone<\/strong> (Lidl-Trek) but he might be caught between sprinting for mountains points and the stage. He\u2019s 81 points behind Vingegaard for the blue mountains jersey and if there\u2019s 50 for Cima Coppi, he\u2019ll need the 40 pointer Duran early on too as the other\u2019s offer 18 points. He can do it today, the trick will be to score tomorrow too.<\/p>\n

Einer Rubio<\/strong> (Movistar) is climbing well. Will Aleksandr Vlasov<\/strong> (Red Bull) go clear again? He\u2019s been making moves but not looked incisive yet, instead team mate Giulio Pellizzari<\/strong> might try and grab a consolatory stage win now that he\u2019s 20th overall and almost 37 minutes down so a new name to watch for the breakaway but does he try today or save it for tomorrow which might suit the breakaway more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\nVingegaard<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\u2013<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\nCiccone, Rubio, Pellizzari<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Weather<\/strong>: sunny but cooler, 23\u00b0C at the start and then mid-way in between the climbs.<\/p>\n

TV<\/strong>: KM0 is at 12.20pm, the Passo Giau begins around 3.20pm and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Postcard from Alleghe<\/strong>
Today\u2019s finish is deserving of its own postcard, a wish-you-were-here paean to the Dolomites and the Giro because this is a picture-postcard scenery, a finish above Alleghe with its blue lake, and with Monte Civetta towering above.<\/p>\n

If yesterday\u2019s postcard<\/a> touched on the origins of the Dolomites, it\u2019s not all about events from millions of years ago. The lake near the finish today only appeared in the late 18th century following a giant rockfall. If this happened, what could happen next?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s probably more chance lakes are formed today by human actions like the construction of hydroelectric dams. The nearby Vajont disaster in 1963<\/a> \u2013 commemorated by the 2013 Giro \u2013 saw a huge block of rock slide into the newly filled lake following the construction of a giant dam, causing a massive wave that flooded the area below killing around 2,000 people. It happened because the faults and geology were poorly understand at the time, and also ignored in part too.<\/p>\n

Natural phenomenons occur too. A year ago yesterday in Switzerland a glacier fell apart<\/a>, causing a huge landslide with three million cubic metres of rock, ice, water and mud coming down the mountain to bury much of the village of Blatten. Fortunately this had been predicted and the locals evacuated a week before but that counts as a narrow escape. Alas one shepherd died but things could have been a lot worse.<\/p>\n

These events are likely to become more frequent. Dramatic events like the Swiss one grab the headlines but it\u2019s the smaller rockfalls that are proliferating. The Alps are warming up about twice as fast as the surrounding area. Rock and ice that is habitually frozen at high altitude all year is now subject to more frequent cycles of melting and freezing and so the mountains are at risk of falling apart faster. The Dolomites are especially prone with their softer limestone rock according to Professor Nicolas Casagli, a specialist in geo-engineering from Florence University who studies the mountains and is a media-go to in Italy for these events.<\/p>\n

Roads here are regularly being closed because of landslides and the repairs are expensive. This is forcing local authorities to review the costs and benefits: is it worth clearing a road if it will be buried again soon? Should tens of millions be spent securing the roads with coverings and other fortifications to keep them open as important traffic arteries? If so, then who pays locals, the region or the country?<\/p>\n

The Alps took millions of years to form and they\u2019ll be there for millions more. The forces that made them are still pushing the peaks upwards rather than making them collapse. Any change in the rate of erosion is tiny in relative terms. But it is a noticeable pre-occupation of residents, the local newspapers as well as geologists, hydrologists and public safety officials alike. If the Giro organisers are worried about snowfall affecting the race in the Alps every year, in the near future rockfall could become a similar concern too.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Queen Stage? Yes, but at 151km today\u2019s stage is minor royalty. It\u2019ll still be entertaining and scenic too. Tri-Paul: an impromptu sprint stage. With few obvious sprint stages to start with and some of those leaving the sprinters thwarted and even sore, several teams conspired to keep a lid on the day\u2019s modest breakaway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":245725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6804],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-245724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}