Giro 2024: Visma | Lease a Bike does not immediately expect a spectacle on gravel strips

The peloton will race today during the sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia 2024 in the vicinity of Siena, the famous finish of Strade Bianche, and so the well-known gravel strips should not be missed. But can we also expect a spectacle? “I don’t expect it to be decisive,” said Maarten Wynants, team leader at Visma | Lease a Bike.

The Belgian former rider looks with The newspapaer ahead of the sixth stage of the Giro. The course is 180 kilometers long and has an elevation gain of 1,900 meters. Along the way, the riders will encounter two fourth-category climbs, two intermediate sprints and, above all, three gravel sections. “It’s only about 25 percent of the Strade Bianche,” said Wynants. “There is no real climb like Monte Sante Marie, for example.”

“These are the first two strips of the Strade and a third new strato. They may have put some gravel in it, but I think the organization does not want bad luck to make the difference in this Giro. I don’t expect it to be decisive. It really is a light version of the stage three years ago when Mauro Schmid won. That was a second Strade, now it is a light version.”

But what does Wynants expect on the way to Rapolano Terme? “Some riders will have to climb uphill for the first gravel section. If they arrive with fewer people, that also means less stress for us. There is a steep climb in one of the sections, but I don’t think it will explode there. We actually expect that the stage will be won from the breakaway.”

‘Survival’ for Cian Uijtdebroeks
For Cian Uijtdebroeks, the leader of Visma | Lease a Bike for the rankings, it is especially important not to lose time. “It’s not that much gravel,” says the young Belgian. “It involves three strips, one of which immediately flows into the other. I don’t even know if the difference will be made there if there is no material failure involved. It promises to be nervous towards those strips. I’m expecting a nagging ride. As a climber, you have to survive on such a stage, just like on a cobbled stage in the Tour.”