Giro d’Italia 2023 - Stage 4 (Venosa - Lago Laceno) - Route, profile, animation

“Tuesday, 9 May The 4th stage of the Giro will reveal which classification riders have or don’t have their best climbing legs. The finish line will be drawn in the Lago Laceno ski area, 3 kilometres after the Colle Molella, which is extremely steep in places. There are also two other big climbs on the 176-kilometre route. Three times there are high climbs on stage 4, but that does not mean that the rest of the route is flat. Quite the opposite. Right from the start, it’s uphill and downhill - often on climbs that could be categorised as leisurely in terms of difficulty - which undoubtedly makes for an exciting battle to catch up with the escapees. After almost 30 kilometres, the riders plunge into a long descent and reach the foot of the Passo delle Crocelle via an intermediate climb (4.7 kilometres at 4.4%). This is a 13.5 kilometre long mountain with an average gradient of 4.3%. A descent of more than 20 kilometres takes you to the foot of Muro Lucano. This rises after 5.1 kilometres with 5.5 %. At the summit, there are no mountain points to be earned and no reward in the form of a descent. No, a few kilometres later the route simply climbs happily up the Valico di Monte Carruozzo. This climbs by 4.9% over 8.8 kilometres. The descent then leads to a gently rising plain of ten kilometres, after which a descent, a short climb (1 kilometre at 5.2%) and an equally short descent give the starting signal for the climb up Colle Molella. The final climb is 9.6 kilometres long and has an average gradient of 6.2%. But when you consider that the first 5.5 kilometres climb by about 4 %, it is clear that the hard sections are still to come. And rightly so, because the 2.7 kilometres after that rise by 9.4 %. In the last section, the route flattens out again to just under 6%. After Colle Molella, it is another 3 kilometres to the line in Lago Laceno. The first 750 metres are downhill, the rest is flat. It is the fourth time that the Tour of Italy ends in Lago Laceno. The last time it happened was in 2012, when Domenico Pozzzovivo soloed to victory. Beñat Intxausti and Joaquim Rodriguez finished about half a minute later in second and third. “ ( & 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: