Jaakko Hänninen is driving around Italy for the second time and estimates that he will have the opportunity to seek good milestone placements.
50,000 meters, or 50 kilometers.
Here’s one perspective on what kind of a job a professional cyclist is Jaakko Hänninen is facing the Giro d’Italia, which begins on Friday, touring Italy.
Those readings tell you what the increment of 21 stages is. Over a period of more than three weeks, the competitors will climb more than 50 kilometers vertically, ie vertically, on the back of the bike.
The race will feature fairly steady stages, favorably classified as hilly, two time trials with a temporary start (a total of only 26 kilometers) and grueling mountain stages.
The latter include, for example, the 16th stage with an ascent of 5,440 meters.
The most demanding queen of Giro, the so-called queen stage, will be run on the last previous day, May 28, in the Dolomites. Its route has the highest point of the entire race, the Cima Coppi. It is Passo Pordoi, over which the road rises to an altitude of 2,239 meters.
Hänninen is the only professional driver in Finland at the highest or world tour level. In Giro, Hänninen is now competing for the second time. The first experience came in 2020, when the race was run only in the autumn due to the corona situation.
Hänninen will drive one of his main races this season, as usual, in the role of assistant driver in the eight-man team of his French employer AG2R Citroen Team.
His duties include assisting the team captain Felix Galliawhich according to the team has set a goal to be in the top 15 in the overall competition.
“It’s nice to get to ride the grand Tour. While there is no pressure here for the upcoming three weeks, there is still a bit of excitement. Yes, there will be opportunities for me to drive from stage investments. Those opportunities are somewhere in the middle of the competition, ”says Hänninen in a press release from his Finnish club, TWD Länken.
Early year Hänninen has suffered, among other things, unfortunate falls. However, a one-day race run on May Day in Germany said the recovery was going well.
“My health is just fine now. There are no problems, although the preparations have been a bit tedious. The fact that I have already driven Giro once makes it easier to position myself in the right way, ”says Hänninen from Ruokolahti, who received an example award at the South Karelia Sports Gala last week.
Read more: Bloody accidents at work have caused Jaakko Hänninen to have extra sheets: “He wakes up in the morning like Pharaoh’s wraps”
This time, the Giro will start with three stages in Hungary. From there you will head to Sicily, from where you will start your journey towards northern Italy.
Giron most recent winner, Colombian Egan Bernal is not involved as he is recovering from what happened in January from a life-threatening crash.
The biggest winners of the overall competition include the Olympic road winner, an Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, who defeated Giro in 2019.
At the time, Carapaz was driving in the Spanish Movistar stable, but now his employer is the same as that of Bernali, the British Ineos Grenadiers.
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