Strade Bianche twice in one year! The Giro d'Italia in 2025 also has a gravel stage on the program for the riders. The finish is, how could it be otherwise, in Siena.

The ninth stage in the Giro d'Italia promises to be fun. Although this stage doesn't count the number of unpaved sections from the Strade Bianche, the finale is exactly the same. The finish is on the iconic Piazza del Campo, which means that there is still quite a climb in the last few hundred meters.

Sunday's stage counts 181 kilometers and departs from Gubbio - who doesn't know it. The city is known after some quick research for the largest Christmas tree in the world, which is lit every year on December 7. In mid-May, the riders won't notice much of it, and after the start, the riders will quickly head towards Tuscany. In the first fifty kilometers, not much happens yet and it's only a matter of watching out for La Cima (4.3 km at 7.5%).

Then follows about seventy kilometers of unrest, as we can well call it knowing what's still to come in the finale. With seventy kilometers to go, the riders turn onto the first sterrato, the Pieve a Salto, a section of 8 kilometers where there's some climbing and descending to be done. A few kilometers later already - there's hardly time to catch your breath - the second section awaits, which is over 9 kilometers long.

After the section, there's again little breathing room, because then San Martino in Grania follows, a section of 9.3 kilometers. In about 32 kilometers, the riders will have covered almost 27 kilometers of gravel. You can bet that there will then be trouble among the men who are going for a good general classification.

Most of the gravel is then behind them. There's still an unpaved section of 800 meters with steep gradients at 22 kilometers from the finish and the infamous Strade di Colle Pinzuto, which we also know from Strade Bianche. This dust track is brutal: 2.4 kilometers long and gradients well above 10%. At the top, there are bonuses to be earned in the Red Bull kilometer.

At the top, it's still 14 kilometers to Siena. If we may believe the finales in the previous Strade Bianches, the stage will already be in a decisive shape here and the differences will only become bigger on the way to the finish in Siena. Which GC rider will strike here? And who will lose minutes here? We'll know soon.

18 May 2025	Giro d'Italia - Stage 9
14 Mar 2008	Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 3
9 Mar 1986	Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 3
16 Mar 1982	Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 3

13 Mar 2008	Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 2
29 May 1989	Giro d'Italia - Stage 9
8 Mar 1986	Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 2
15 Mar 1982	Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 2

Gubbio(Perugia)