Giro's stage 19 altered to avoid cablecar accident site
Last updated on: 26 May,2021 08:03 am
The route of the 19th stage of the Giro d'Italia has been changed to avoid cablecar accident site.
ROME (AFP) - The route of the 19th stage of the Giro d Italia has been changed, so the peloton does not ride up Mount Mottarone, where 14 people died in a cable car accident at the weekend, the organisers announced on Tuesday.
Transport Minister Enrico Giovannini had earlier asked the organisers to modify the route out of "respect for the victims of the cable car tragedy".
The new route shaves 10 kilometres off Friday s stage which was slated to run 176 kilometres between Abbiategrasso and Alpe di Mera, two days before the Giro finishes in Milan.
As a replacement for the category-one climb up Mount Mottarone on the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, the organisers added the category four Alpe Agogna before the last two climbs of this mountain stage, the Passo della Colma and the Alpe di Mera.
Investigators are probing the causes of the crash last Sunday that left 14 people dead and a five-year-old child as the sole survivor.
The accident happened about 100 metres from the last altitude station of the cable car to the top of Mount Mottarone.