Today, 70 years after the stage that projected Fausto Coppi into legend, the Giro is once again proposing the Cuneo-Pinerolo. The starting and finishing places were identical, the route very different from the one faced by the tadpoles on 10 June 1949. It was the 17th stage: in the pink jersey was Adolfo Leoni who had defended it in the Dolomites from the attacks of Coppi and Bartali. Over 250 km with five legendary hills to climb: Maddalena, Vars, Izoard, Moginevro and Sestrière. Coppi's ride was relentless, a heron flying in the fog on mostly dirt roads. The Campionissimo annihilated the competition in a crescendo of enthusiastic crowds. The second, Gino Bartali, arrived almost 12 minutes after him. Coppi conquered the pink jersey by winning the third of his five Giros.
Today the pink caravan, while celebrating Coppi, faces a less difficult Cuneo-Pinerolo, there are no five hills at the time, but still for the first time in this Giro they climb a first category Gpm, the Montoso, an unprecedented climb of almost 9 km never tackled before, with an average gradient of 9% and peaks of up to 14%. Located 16 km from Pinerolo, it could be the springboard for those who want to move up the rankings also by taking advantage of the final stretch of via Principi d'Acaja (450 meters at 14%).
It is the first taste of the real mountain, an appetizer for climbers before the stage at 2247 meters in Ceresole Reale. The Giro enters the decisive phase. Primoz Roglic, second at 1'50" behind Valerio Conti still in the pink jersey, has an advantage of 1'44" over Nibali who appears to be his most formidable rival after the failures of Yates and Lopez in the San Marino time trial. But even the British and the Colombian, with the many mountains on the programme, can get back into the game in the challenge that today seems reduced to two, between Nibali and Roglic.
Meanwhile, yet another group sprint took place yesterday in Novi Ligure. He won it by sprinting like a bullet Caleb Ewan who repeats the success of Pesaro. Behind him Arnaud Démare, who had triumphed the day before in Modena. Third Ackermann who, despite suffering from the crash the day before, immediately returned to the tussle of the final rush to defend the cyclamen jersey. Still defeated and only fourth Elia Viviani, who disappointed after so many placements and no victories decided to retire, pulling the plug to find himself. “I took a lot of beatings but I always left again”.
