Giro | Visiting Basso! Everything you need to know about stage 14: Sierre-Cassano Magnago

Course and cycling history

The Simplon Pass with its almost 20 kilometers long climb will probably provide a breakaway group. The men who go for the blue mountain jersey will certainly take advantage of the hors category climb to sit with them so they can go for the points. But the stage victory will probably not be there for the escapees.

Over the top of the Simplon pass it seems to be mainly a stage for the sprinters and therefore also for the points classification that Johan van der Velde won three times in the 1980s, an incredible achievement. He also finished fifth overall in 1984 when Francesco Moser won the Giro.

The sprinters who compete for victory today obviously have no classification ambitions; that is no longer possible in today’s cycling. But a day victory is of course also very nice..

History and environment

In the Swiss departure city of Sierre, attention is paid to the bus accident eleven years ago with Belgian schoolchildren in which 22 of them and a total of 28 people died. Once they have left, the riders will ride back to Italy via the Simplon Pass. In the descent of the pass, the Giro is back in its home country after 75 kilometers of racing and Domodossola, Stresa and Arona are the first cities they pass there.

The riders will ride through the administrative regions of Valle d’Aosta and Lombardy, first passing Lake Maggiore but ignoring Verbania and its province, where the top riders Filippo Ganna and Elisa Longo Borghini live.

They set course for the home of former top cyclist Ivan Basso, where the finish line was drawn today. Basso won the Giro in 2010. After his active career, he became sports director under Steven de Jongh and then founded the cycling team EOLO-Kometa with Alberto Contador.

His hometown, Cassano Magnano has a mighty city tower. Martyr’s Tower commemorates the victims of the third century AD and stands in the city’s largest public park

Ride profile

TV

Eurosport 1 broadcasts all stages from start to finish. While enjoying the now familiar Giro voice of Jeroen Vanbelleghem and Karsten Kroon (sometimes a different duo in the early hours), you are baked at any time of the day, but the finish will usually be between 5:00 PM and 5:30 PM .

Immediately after the end of the stage, Eurosport takes a look Head over head back on the stage and ahead of the stages to come with interviews from the finish location.

Image: RCS