The Etna stage will be hell

“The training camp has been a success because I’m feeling really good. I swapped the training camp on Tenerife for Etna and I think I will make good use of it. I’ve had really good prep which included pre-riding one of the most difficult Giro stages that will finish on top of Etna,“ Roman revealed.As for the stage as such…“We left out only the first 30 flat kilometers along the sea. But apart from that, we covered the entire route of the stage, which means remaining 145 km from the town of Taormina. By the time we got to our hotel we had climbed almost 4000 altitude meters. I think that many riders might underestimate this stage. The two climbs are really long, between 25 and 26 kilometers. The second climb of the stage starts at 200 meters above sea level and ends at 2000 meters, plus there are many ground waves in between so one can hardly relax in his effort. We set an easy and slow pace, though. All in all, the key sections are well preserved in my memory and I am glad that I had a chance to check them out.“Roman rode his time trial bike as well as his regular bike on Friday. After the Saturday’s rest day, he went out for the last long training ride today. “We are flying to Lisbon tomorrow and then we will transfer to Fara by bus,“ he described his next schedule.