Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) is in with a brilliant chance taking the kind of result at the Baby Giro that defines the U23 years of the sport's top riders. The 19-year-old remains 2nd overall, and holds the combined classification jersey, going into the weekend when the race will conclude.
However, before he pops open the champagne cork, there is still a lot of racing to be done and tomorrow's stage, in particular, can do as much damage as the Stelvio summit finish of stage 4. The final tomorrow is, quite simply, a bruiser.
The 176km stage 7, from Possagno to Pian del Cansiglio, features four categorised climbs but the final 100km is up an down. The real test will start after 110km when the first of three cat 1 climbs commences.
The riders tackle that cat 1 Nevegal climb - some 7.1km at 8.2 per cent - before descending and taking on a 3.7km ascent. They will then move on immediately to the second categorised climb; the cat 1 Malga Cate, 7.6km at 7.3 per cent gradient.
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Then it's down the descent and straight back uphill for the third cat 1 climb in a row, with the finish at the top, though the riders have a flat 4.5km at the top before the line. That last climb, the Campon, is 10.1km and has an average gradient of 6.4 per cent.
Rafferty told stickybottle earlier in the week he believed this stage could do as much, or more, damage than the Stelvio as it was about 50km longer and featured about 1,000m of additional elevation gain.
Today on stage 6, a three-rider breakaway survived to fight for stage honours; Alessandro Romele (Team Colpack Ballan) winning from Davide De Pretto (Zalf Euromobil Désirée Fior) and Sergio Meris (Team Colpack Ballan).
They were 2:49 up on the peloton after 166km of racing into Povegliano, with all of the general classification contenders in that bunch.
Going into tomorrow's penultimate stage, Stelvio stage winner Johannes Staune-Mittet (Jumbo-Visma Development Team) holds the leader's jersey by 19 seconds from Rafferty. Alexy Faure Prost (Circus-ReUz-Technord) is 3rd at 39 seconds, with the next rider, in 4th, is one minute down on Rafferty.
