Sunday brings a different test for the riders at the Giro d'Italia - gravel. Stage nine will contain five gravel sectors made famous in Strade Bianche, with the finish in the Piazza del Campo in the heart of Siena. The finish comes atop the Via Santa Caterina, with gaps very much expected.
The key to success on the tough 181km gravel stage - including more than 2,500 metres of elevation gain - will be keeping calm and carrying on, no matter the circumstances, Bahrain Victorious' Pello Bilbao has said.
Having recorded two top ten finishes at Strade in the last three years, Bilbao knows what it takes to thrive on the gravel of Tuscany. The Basque rider told Cycling Weekly that he believes anything can happen on Sunday, emphasising that the presence of riders like Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) means that the race could be an unpredictable, but aggressive, affair.
"You can see more excitement than usual in the peloton when you have this sort of stage," Bilbao said. "It's a big panic before arriving into the sectors to get into position, to get into the front, and this is going to possibly be the most hectic stage in the whole Giro.
"You always need to try to keep calm and to not follow everyone else's feelings. When everyone starts to panic, you just need to breathe deeply and focus on safe moves. That’s the secret to it. It’s a constant fight that you need to be mindful of throughout the race."
Bilbao thinks there is a strong likelihood that a GC battle could unfold due to teams not wanting to allow a rider in the mould of Pidcock to get up the road. The Briton took second in Strade in March and has previously won in Siena.
"He's here as a potentially dangerous GC contender," Bilbao said, "but he will also want to have a chance to go for a stage victory and to make some gaps between the contenders. This year could be different if Q36.5 wants to go full gas on Sunday for the stage victory. I expect a really big battle and some differences in GC."
He added: "It brings you to your limits, physically and mentally. Of course, knowing this before Sunday’s stage is an advantage. You need to have a good feeling for the gravel and to understand the grip, the braking [on the bike] and how the group moves in the sectors. It’s not completely like Strade, some of the most difficult sectors from that race are out, but anyway, mechanical problems, crashes, this will all happen for sure."
Lidl-Trek’s Toms Skujiņš is not racing the Giro but has gone well at Strade in the past, recording a fifth-placed finish earlier this year.
Speaking to Cycling Weekly, the Latvian said that the weather could impact proceedings and alter the state of the gravel sectors, but differed to Bilbao on how it will be raced.
"I think it will not be raced anywhere near as aggressively as Strade is." Skujiņš said. "The Giro stage is very different because there’s not nearly as many sectors, it could be a breakaway day. There’s also a lot of GC ambitions to consider, there’s often a lot of people in a stage race line up that don’t race for the win on an occasion like this; they race just to limit damage.
"The gravel stage in the Tour last year was a good example of that. Nothing really changed on the GC and the breakaway won, that could happen again in the Giro. I don’t think Strade and the Giro stage can be compared, even if some of the sectors they’re using are similar."
