Giro 2022 - Stage 7: Diamante – Potenza 196 km ***Spoilers***

Stage 7: Diamante – Potenza 196 km
Friday, May 13th, 10:40 BST

Friday the 13th...............and potentially a date with a stage that could do real damage to an individual's GC hopes.
Although classed as a medium mountain stage, travels from Diamante to Potenza and takes in a whopping elevation gain of 4,510 metres. Montagna Grande di Viggiano, although categorised as a two, is a very tough climb, always very steep and with many two-digits ramps.



Heading North, the only flat kilometres are the first 40. This section leads along the Golfo di Policastro and once the route turns inland the road goes either up or down for the rest of the day. Past Maratea, the route undulates continuously, with milder or harsher gradients. Even after the finish of the official climbs, the route, continues to undulate all the way to Potenza.



Technical Info.
The Climbs:

Passo Colla: GPM3, 9.3 km at 4.5%


Monte Sirino: GPM1, 24.4 km at 3.8%
Not seen in the Giro since 1999, from this side is long and very irregular.


Montagna Grande di Viggiano: GPM2, 6.6 km at 9.1%
Were this climb in the Tour, it would be considered a hard GPM1.


La Sellata: GPM3, 7.8 km at 5.9%
In it's own, nothing special, but after all that climbing, it could be hard enough for a GC hopeful to launch a serious attack.


Final kms.
The final kilometres are raced entirely on urban roads. The route runs uphill across the inner city, with sharp gradients at points, and then descends along wide and well-paved avenues. There is a short tunnel at the ‑2 km marker, leading into the finish avenue. The last 350 m have an average 8% gradient, topping out at 13%. The finish sits on tarmac.





What to expect:
Tough to call. Probably some very good climbers will try to make it into the break, in order to start their campaign for the Maglia Azzurra, but any contender who has already lost time, might also what to get up the road, as this stage might go to the breakaway........or not.

Favourites 7th stage 2022 Giro d’Italia

***** No one, since this is pin in the startlist time.
**** Wout Poels, Bauke Mollema
*** Mauro Schmid, Attila Valter, Alessandro de Marchi, Magnus Cort
** Thomas De Gendt, Alessandro Covi, Lennard Kämna, Rein Taaramäe, Mauri Vansevenant
* Nans Peters, Lilian Calmejane, Valerio Conti, Harm Vanhoucke

Diamante

Diamante is a lovely town in the province of Cosenza. It is located in one of the most picturesque areas in the north tirrenic cost. This area is called “Riviera dei cedri” because of the huge cultivation of citrus. Diamante is a candidate for the Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2024 contest – in English “Italian Capital of Culture”. It has already won the Blue Flag award for seawater quality.



Gastronomy

The typical gastronomy of the town is rich and varied: you can taste fish and sea-food dishes as well as rural dishes. Every dish is always topped with a little bit of chilly pepper, mostly with the one called “Diavolicchio Diamante”, that is a local type of this spice. There are several unique dishes ideal to be tasted by tourists: first of all, one of the most famous dishes is “la Raganella”, the perfect match between sea food and chilly pepper. If you don’t like this spicy taste, there are dishes made of a local variety of citrus, the one called “Liscia Diamante”.



Beverages

Diamante and its long tradition of wines and liquors. Diamante collaborates with Verbicaro, a nearby town, in the production of a wine that boasts the “domination of controlled origin”. Cirella has an important relationship with wine, too. Andrea Bacci, author of the book “de Naturali Vinorum Historia” (1595) named Cirella “Vinipoli”, city of the wine. Some centuries ago, “il Chiarello di Cirella”, a sweet wine, was famous because it was liked by Pope Sisto V. The Association “Cerillae” organizes every year in July and August the festival “Calici Sotto le Stelle”, to enhance every oenological excellences. This event will celebrate its 13th anniversary in 2022.



Potenza

The capital of Basilicata for over two centuries, Potenza is the highest regional capital in Italy at 819 metres above sea level. Elegant and welcoming, the city revolves around its thousand-year-old historic centre, made up of old and new buildings that climb up on the hill, ancient gateways and medieval towers, historic stone staircases and modern escalators, stately palaces and authentic little squares, narrow alleys and cobbled streets.



Gastronomy

Basilicata’s traditional cuisine features a broad variety of specialities: From strascinati, homemade pasta served with tomato sauce or in other delicious and unmissable recipes, to flavourful cheeses, produced by traditional methods, such as Pecorino cheese of Filiano (PDO), Canestrato of Moliterno (PGI), ricotta, scamorza and caciocavallo (gourd-shaped cheese), and to pork sausage, such as the “lucanega” variety, already known in ancient Rome. Matera bread (PGI). Other delicious specialties include: black, oven-dried olives from Ferrandina area.



Beverages

In Basilicata, when you sit down to eat, you combine the flavour of unique specialties, seasoned with a drizzle of “Vulture” DOP Extra Virgin Olive Oil, with a delicious, full-bodied, intense and smooth wine. In fact, one of the best wines in southern Italy comes from the hills of Vulture: Aglianco del Vulture DOC.
The origins of this fine wine, which today is counted among the best in Italy and Europe, date back to the times of Magna Graecia. The vineyards are located on the slopes of Monte Vulture, an extinct volcano that gives the wine its unique and distinctive character.