Giro d'Italia stage 7 preview - A monster mountain stage awaits. Will Vingegaard seize control?

Stages 2 and 5 already offered early tests for the general classification contenders, but stage 7 raises the stakes again. Starting from Formia, the riders face a huge 245 kilometre stage before the race reaches Blockhaus. 

With that distance in the legs and one of the toughest climbs of the race waiting at the end, this has all the ingredients of a proper first mountain showdown.

Key information:

• Start: 10:55 (CET)
• Estimated Finish: 17:00 (CET)
• Stage type: mountain
• Stage length: 245.23km
• Elevation gain: 4352m

Follow stage 7 live at Domestique with our live reporting!

The opening half of the stage offers little in the way of obvious obstacles, but that does not mean it will be easy. Those early kilometres will still add up, especially with the first summit finish of this Giro waiting at the end.

After the halfway point, the character of the stage changes completely. From there, the road rarely settles. The first real test is a 13.2 kilometre climb at an average gradient of 4.8 percent, enough to start softening the legs before the decisive phase.

A short descent and a brief flatter section follow, but there is little time to recover. The riders then face another climb, this one 6.7 kilometres long at 6.4 percent. From there, the route continues over rolling terrain, constantly rising and falling without any major categorised climbs, but with very few moments to truly breathe.

Then comes the main event: Blockhaus. The final climb is 13.6 kilometres long and averages 8.4 percent, but that figure does not tell the full story. The opening and closing sections are slightly gentler, which means the middle part of the climb is brutally steep. 

Over roughly ten kilometres, the average gradient rises above nine percent, making this a serious test for the general classification contenders.

The final kilometre adds another twist. With 400 metres to go, the road briefly dips downhill, before the riders are launched into a final uphill kick of 200 metres at 7.5 percent. On paper, that could create a sprint from a reduced group, but with Jonas Vingegaard in the race, there is a strong chance the battle for the stage win has already been decided by then.

The placement of the Red Bull kilometre adds further intrigue. Positioned just two kilometres into the Blockhaus climb, it could tempt attacks earlier than expected and make the final ascent even more explosive.

Key points

• Intermediate sprint - 132km to go
• Roccaraso | 2nd category - 6.7km at 6.4% - 77.5km to go
• Blockhaus | 1st category - 13.6km at 8.4% - 13.6km to go
• Red Bull km (bonification sprint) - 11.5km to go

With the short and relatively straightforward stage to Naples in the legs, the peloton should still be fresh and willing to race. The profile, however, does not make life easy for the breakaway. The first half is largely flat, making it difficult for pure climbers to get into the move, while the second half is hard enough to punish anyone who cannot climb at a very high level.

That makes a successful escape far from guaranteed. Stage 5 did not turn into a real GC battle either, which only increases the chance that the main contenders will want to make this first summit finish count.

For the favourites, the stage is demanding without being a full mountain marathon. The distance, the rolling approach and the lead in to Blockhaus will all add fatigue, but everything points towards the final climb as the place where the race explodes.

On a climb this hard, pacing will be crucial. The Red Bull kilometre, placed just two kilometres into Blockhaus, adds some intrigue, but an immediate explosion seems unlikely. The opening three kilometres average around six percent, before the climb really starts to bite with ten kilometres to go.

That makes attacks from five or six kilometres out the most likely scenario. The weather should be better than in recent days, although in the Italian mountains, nothing is ever certain.

Team Visma | Lease a Bike has the clear favourite for both the general classification and this stage in Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane has not really opened up the race yet, but with a summit finish on Blockhaus, that feels almost inevitable here.

It will also be interesting to follow Davide Piganzoli. The young Italian is here as a super domestique and to learn from Vingegaard, but he is capable of a strong result himself. He may well be the final rider to launch the Dane, before trying to limit his losses and defend his own position in the general classification.

Giulio Pellizzari will be one of the riders hoping to put Vingegaard under pressure, although that is easier said than done. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider should enjoy a stage like this, and it could be another step towards a first Grand Tour podium.

He also appears to work very well with Jai Hindley, the team’s other GC card and the winner on Blockhaus in 2022, when he later went on to win the Giro. Even with perfect cooperation between the two, however, beating Vingegaard looks like an extremely difficult task.

Decathlon CMA CGM will hope Felix Gall can do something similar. The Austrian thrives on long, hard mountain stages and will see this as an important opportunity to gain time on the other podium contenders.

For Netcompany INEOS, Thymen Arensman looks set to be the main GC rider. The Dutchman has often struggled in the opening phase of Grand Tours, but since last year’s Tour de France he appears to have rediscovered himself. He looks sharper, more confident and more aggressive, even in the early stages of races. If he continues like this, he could become a serious contender for the podium in Rome.

Still, his teammate Egan Bernal can never be written off. He struggled in both stage 2 and stage 5, but he has not lost time yet. A long, demanding day like this should suit him, and if he can turn things around on Blockhaus, he remains very much alive in the GC battle.

Movistar have taken a different approach with Enric Mas (Movistar) this season, sending him to the Giro d’Italia for the first time. After a long run of bad luck since last year’s Tour de France, the Spaniard appears to have arrived in strong condition. If that is truly the case, this is exactly the kind of stage where he can make an impact.

Speaking of bad luck, Derek Gee-West has had more than enough of it already. At the end of March he fell ill, which came at a terrible moment in his Giro preparation. He then used the Tour of the Alps to race himself back into shape.

His Giro has hardly gone smoothly either. In stage 2, he was caught in the big crash and went down hard. Fortunately, he did not break anything, but a crash like that still leaves its mark. To make matters worse, he had not yet returned to the peloton when the race restarted, meaning he was forced to chase alone on the flat. Losing only a minute in those circumstances was close to a small miracle.

In stage 4, Gee then suffered a puncture on the descent after the Cozzo Tunno. Luckily for him, Zana and Bernal had been dropped, while Raccagni and Turner waited to help them. Sobrero then also dropped back for Gee-West, and the group worked well together to return. The Canadian will hope his luck finally turns on Blockhaus.

Lidl-Trek also have an interesting option in Giulio Ciccone. The Italian said before the Giro that he was not targeting the general classification, but losing the Maglia Rosa, especially in the way he did, will surely have made him hungry.

Michael Storer (Tudor) took another step in his career last year, showing once again what a huge engine he has. A crash and illness prevented him from getting the Giro result he wanted, but he still managed to finish inside the top ten overall.

Before that Giro, he had already won the Tour of the Alps and finished fifth in Paris Nice. After the Giro, he raced the Tour de France and still kept performing deep into the autumn, eventually finishing on the podium at Il Lombardia. That kind of endurance is a very good sign ahead of a brutally hard stage like this.

With Mathys Rondel, Storer also has a very interesting super domestique. Just like Piganzoli, the French rider may try to combine his work for the leader with defending a strong position of his own in the general classification.

Ben O’Connor has proven several times that he is at his best on extremely hard stages. He has won mountain stages in the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España, and that is no coincidence. The Jayco AlUla rider will be looking to make a serious move in the GC here.

It will also be fascinating to see what the current Maglia Rosa, Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain-Victorious), can do. His ceiling is clearly high, but he has yet to prove that he can deliver consistently across three weeks. The crash in the finale of stage 5 adds another layer of uncertainty.

If Eulalio and Bahrain-Victorious manage the situation well, even a podium in Rome may not be out of reach. In Damiano Caruso, he has a hugely experienced teammate alongside him, and one who appears to be in strong form himself. At the same time, the consequences of that crash could just as easily catch up with Eulalio on Blockhaus and cost him heavily.

For now, almost nothing can be ruled out. That is what makes his performance on the first major mountain test so intriguing.

Other riders to watch include Jan Hirt (NSN) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermaché).

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Vingegaard

⭐⭐⭐⭐  Pellizzari, Gall

⭐⭐⭐  Arensman, Mas, Gee-West

⭐⭐  Hindley, Storer, Ciccone, O'Connor

⭐  Caruso, Hirt, Bernal, Eulalio, Van Eetvelt

🃏  Piganzoli, Rondel