It was pure fantasy!
You could say that for any rider who wasn't in the absolute top tier—like van der Poel, Pogačar, or Evenepoel—the consequences were dire. Once he dropped them on a climb, their only hope of catching him was to chase with the main peloton on a descent or on the flats. Otherwise, the chances of him getting away for good were far too great.
Soon, spurred on by the wild cheers of wave after wave of local residents in the Italian town of Korner, Huang Chong quickly passed through and entered the final climb of the stage.
The Colleretto Castelnuovo climb was 3.8 km long, but its difficulty was concentrated entirely in the first two kilometers.
Those two kilometers had an average gradient of a steep 6.6%, with the steepest section reaching about 9.5% for a few dozen meters.
After cresting the summit, there was an immediate one-kilometer gentle descent at a -0.7% gradient, followed by a final 800-meter gentle climb at 2.7%.
