There are 122.3 kilometers on the menu for stage 9, turning away from the Tyrrhenian coastline and inland to the north-east.

The major difficulties today actually come in the first half of the stage, with a lot of unclassified lumps and walls; the second part of the stage is much flatter and should be faster in theory. If riders get tailed off on the climbs in the first 60 kilometers or so, then there is little chance of getting back on. The numbers of DNFs might well rise significantly today

There’s a third-category climb to Sala Consilina with 45 kilometers left, then the race enters a long finishing circuit at Atena Lucana ahead of the sole TV sprint at San Pietro al Tanagra. However, if there are sprinters in the race with enough team support, this should be a small bunch finish in Polla.

Anna Van Der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) will know that this is basically the last chance for someone to unseat her, but she has a super-strong team to watch her back. It just remains to be seen exactly how much Wiggle-High5, with Elisa Longo Borghini and Claudia Lichtenberg going well, and Orica-Scott, with Annemiek Van Vleuten in the form of her life, can throw at them.

Boels-Dolmans can’t chase everything, so we could be in for a cracking stage.