Giro d’Italia 2024 – Stage 14 Preview

Stage 14 is a flat TT this time round – no hill for Pogacar to ruin Ganna’s day!

The second individual time trial culminates against the stunning backdrop of the southern tip of Lago di Garda. Spanning 31.2 kilometres, the trial kicks off in Castiglione delle Stiviere, renowned as the birthplace of the International Red Cross. Following this challenging stage, the contenders vying for the top spots will likely require some TLC for their weary legs, making this segment pivotal in determining the overall classification.

The first TT featured a category 4 climb at the end, which you can read about here. In the first individual time trial of the 2024 Giro d’Italia, Tadej Pogačar from UAE Team Emirates delivered an impressive performance. He surged up the category 4 climb at the conclusion of the 40.6km route from Foligno to Perugia, seizing the stage victory.

Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers, who had held the lead for much of the day, expressed disbelief as Pogačar turned a 44-second gap at the foot of the climb into a 17-second triumph. Adding to Ineos’ success, Magnus Sheffield secured third place on the stage, finishing 49 seconds behind the leader.

How important is pacing?

By taking a look at the “Where Power Matters Most” graph we can see that, although the profile is fairly simple, we have a lot of those orange bars and you’ll notice some are quite dark. This means that the effort for this TT will be relatively stochastic and that pacing is important. Smooth pacing vs riding the hills in a punchy fashion, with all other things equal, is about 40s slower so teams will have a pacing strategy. 


The flip side of this is the physiological penalty for riding the small climb from kilometre three to kilometre six too hard and losing time in the second half of the race. It’s likely we will see a number of impressive time splits at check one, which sits 7.8km into the course. The second split is 23.2km in – is likely to be relatively final.

How much do conditions change during the day?

We’ve seen, over the last few years, conditions in Giro TTs change quite a bit over the course of the day.

The course profile suits some Ganna flavoured redemption but with his ramp time being 14:35 and the GC guys heading off later – if it’s close then Pogacar could be in with a shout with a slight assistance from the weather. That said, there’s not a huge deal of difference between the fastest and slowest point of the day. 

If you want to check out the TT loop for the Giro TT – have a look here.