Etna, the first big challenge of the Giro d’Italia 2022

After a day of rest marked by the transition from Hungary to Italy, the Turn around back on the road this Tuesday with first day of the big mountain in its 2022 edition. fourth stagethe first of two consecutive on the island of Sicily, will unite Avola and Nicolosi while 172 kilometers with the first high end of edition: the Etna.

will be 22.8 kilometers of ascent to a first category port What’s wrong here an average slope of 5.9% and that will give the first big turnaround to the race general. On ramps that are between 6 and 9% in the first sixteen and a half kilometers, the most difficult part of the climb will come around its fourteen kilometers, with maximum 14% incline. The last three kilometers are on a wider road, although there will still be a slight slope later in the day.

The stage will start from Avola and will take place between continuous slope changes, although there will not be any particular port until the last ascent. In some sections of broken roads, it was shortly after fifty kilometers of the stage when the peloton began a long descent, about thirty kilometers, to melt down the slope and focus the path towards a more uniform land where it lands on the ascent of Etna.

Before it will have an intermediate sprint at kilometer 136.5, at Paterno, and another at 148, at Biancavilla. At that time, the road will gradually climb upwards, although it will be until shortly before kilometer 150 when the actual ascent to the first major port of the Giro d’Italia 2022 will begin, the call to establish who is the strongest.

This is a leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), though it is Simon’s Yachts (BikeExchange), second overall up to eleven seconds, is the great candidate to come out in pink this Tuesday. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma), Wilco Keldermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain wins), joao almeida (UAE), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Richard Carapaz (Ineos) o Mikel Landa | (Bahrain Victorious) are also some of the men who know that the first big day of the race has arrived: they all want to apply to fight this Giro.

Giro d’Italia-Etna, a relationship forged in recent times

Ang Mount Etna This will be the first major port of this Giro d’Italia 2022. It’s one of the most anticipated climbs of this edition and a classic in recent dates, but the truth is that This is less common on Giro roads along with its history.

The first ascent to the Italian ring was made in 1967. Franco Bitossi declared the first winner. Etna was not included again in the Giro roadmap until the year 1989where the winner is Acacio da Silvawho also became leader in that second stage.

The history of Etna in the Giro is very recent. enter again 2011 on tour, with success for Alberto counter. This success, however, does not appear in the statistics because Pinto’s man removed that Giro because of his previous positive for clenbuterol in the 2010 Tour de France.

It was in recent years when Etna had established itself as one of the giants of Italian tours. Sa 2017 triumph Jan Polanc in the fourth period that lifted Bob Jungels to the lead, while on 2018 won Esteban Chavez and one of the men called to be important in 2022, Simon Yates, rose to first place in the overall classification.

Etna’s last ascent to the Giro is on 2020, in October due to the pandemic. In the third stage of the race, jonathan caicedo He picked up the victory on a disastrous day for Geraint Thomas and Joao Almeida wearing ‘pink jerseys’ that allowed only four days left in the race. This Tuesday, the history of Etna will be expanded on the Giro.