Giro d'Italia Stage 19 preview: First of mountainous weekend double-header to decide GC
The 2025 Giro d'Italia comes to a head this weekend with a mountainous double-header of late Alpine stages that could yet see a massive shakeup of the general classification.
The first is today's 166km run from Biella to Champoluc, with 4,950m of altitude gain – the most of this year's race – condensed into a relatively short stage, and the classic shark's-tooth profile indicating that the pressure is on the GC contenders all day.
After a brief 4km descent out of Biella the profile is more or less up and down all day, with five categorised climbs, the first a category-three at Croce Serra 15km in, three cat-ones, and a cat-two to finish things off.
From Croce Serra there's a short false flat leading to Verres, which kicks off those three cat-one climbs, each over 15km and leading straight into each other by long descents. The 16km Col Tzecore - making only its second appearance in the Giro – hits 15 per cent on its steepest slopes and averages 12 per cent for the final 4km.
Its descent winds down and through the intermediate sprint at Chatillon before kicking back uphill to the Col de Saint-Pantaleon, which averages 7.2 per cent, and the Col de Joux, at average gradients of 6.9 per cent. The Col de Joux is followed by a short descent to Brusson heading straight into the 9.5km final climb to Antagnod, which hits 11 per cent, and ends 5km from the finish line.
It's not a summit finish, with the terrain falling sharply from 3km to go, and a series of switchbacks taking the riders under the flamme rouge into Champoluc. The final kilometre is cobbled up until 400m to go, when it drags up to the line for one last climb.
Route map and profile
Start time
Stage 19 will start at 12.20pm local time (11.20am BST) and finish at around 5.30pm local time (4.30pm BST).
Prediction
If a breakaway manages to hold off the GC charge, it's almost last chance saloon for Romain Bardet, who has two more opportunities to win a Giro stage and complete the Grand Tour set. But this feels too crucial a GC stage for that to be allowed to happen, sadly for fans of ciclismo and the Frenchman.
Of the GC favourites, Simon Yates and Richard Carapaz have it all to do this weekend to make up time on the pink jersey and have both climbed brilliantly so far, Yates showing brief signs of weakness on stage 17 but the Ecuadorian was near-flawless in the opening two and a half weeks.
But the short final descent and kick back up to the line suit Isaac del Toro, who escaped from Carapaz and Romain Bardet on the final downhill to win stage 17, and seems to think the best form of defence of his pink jersey is attack. The high mountains on stage 16 clearly didn't suit him, but he has looked brighter since then and has won on this sort of terrain and altitude before, at the Col de la Loze in the Tour de l'Avenir, so it's not a given that he'll suffer again today.
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