Tirreno-Adriatico 2014 Route stage 5: Amatrice - Guardiagrele

Sunday, March 16th, likely to be a decisive stage in this year's race. The stage travels 192 kilometres from Amatrice to Guardiagrele. There are two tough ascents in the final with the finish on top of the incredibly steep Muro di Guardiagrele . (Slideshow route/profile)

Tirreno-Adriatico 2014: Route stage 5 Amatrice - Guardiagrele

The stage starts high up in the central Apennines, but there’s no heavy climbing for the riders in the early kilometres with a rolling route to warm themselves up for the climbs later on.

After 163kms of modest hills, the riders arrive at the base of Passo Lanciano. The climb is 11.2 kilometres long, going from 349 meters to 1,306 – a tough average gradient of 8.6%.

The pass had to be pulled from the race in 2012 due to bad weather. Last year, Joaquim Rodríguez won the stage that included the Passo Lanciano and finished in Chieti, finishing ahead of Bauke Mollema and Alberto Contador.

Muro di Guardiagrele

After the decent of Passo Lanciano, stage 5 has a beautiful finale in store with the ascent up Muro di Guardiagrele. The climb is modest in length at just 800 meters long, however, with an average gradient of 26% and a steeper section of 30%, it's enough to make a pro race look like cyclo tour.

The finish can be seen as two races, the first to the top of the 'wall', the second being the finish line 800 meters furher up the road at a slight incline of 2%. Win the first race, and chances are you'll win the second.

This should be a cracking finale - at around 16:10 CET - revealing which climbers are in good form.