Giro d’Italia 2023 - Stage 7 (Capua - Gran Sasso d’Italia) - Route, profile, animation

“Friday, 12 May Things get tough on stage 7. On the way, the riders are already climbing up to Roccaraso and Calascio, and the finish line runs at 2,135 metres in the Gran Sasso massif. In fact, the last 50 kilometres are constantly uphill. At 218 kilometres, the stage is one of the longest of the Giro 2023. The riders will get a replica of the 9th Giro stage from 2018 in front of their wheels. Back then, the stage was 225 kilometres long, now it is a little shorter. But the climbs are the same and the number of metres in altitude is also similar: more than 4,000. After a flat start, the route begins to climb after just under 70 kilometres, and about 14 kilometres later the riders round the Rionero Sannitico, a climb with an average gradient of 4.6%. After a short descent and a flat section, the climb to Roccaraso follows. This is 8.9 kilometres with a gradient of 6.2% and a steepest section of 12%. After Roccaraso, the route continues flat for 10 kilometres before a long descent leads to the foot of the final climb. This is because the final climb actually consists of two parts. It starts with the climb to Calascio. This begins 47 kilometres before the finish and leads 13.5 kilometres at 6% to the hamlet in the shadow of the Rocca Calascio, an 8th century ruin. After Calascio, the route climbs almost immediately towards Campo Imperatore, the largest plateau in the Apennines, where the finish line is today. The final climb starts with a false flat for 5.6 kilometres, and then the real climb begins at 10 kilometres at 4%. The road is then flat for 9 kilometres before 3 kilometres at 4.1% herald the spirited finale. On the last 4.5 kilometres, the climb to Campo Imperatore awaits with an average gradient of 8.2%. One and a half kilometres below the summit is the steepest section with 13%. The Gran Sasso is a mountain massif whose full name is Gran Sasso d’Italia - or Great Stone of Italy. The Giro has already ended on these rugged flanks five times. In 1999 Marco Pantani came out on top, after John Carlsen (1989), Franco Chioccioli (1985) and Vicente López Carril (1971). But in all those cases, the last climb was nothing like this year’s. In 2018 it was. We were still in the first week of the Giro when Simon Yates showed how good his form is on the Gran Sasso. He took the stage win ahead of Thibaut Pinot and Esteban Chaves, while Tom Dumoulin lost 12 seconds and Chris Froome even more than a minute. Ten days later, the roles were reversed when Froome went to war on the Finestre and completely unexpectedly took the Giro.“ ( & Routes ’n’ Maps ’n’ Flags) Route data: Creating cycling stage animations requires a lot of work and computing power. You are welcome to support me with a donation: