Giro d’Italia 2020: Strava stats reveal new fastest times set on Mount Etna ascent

The Giro d’Italia peloton tackled the familiar landscape of Mount Etna on stage three, but this time from a different direction.

Strava stats from the first mountain stage early in the Italian Grand Tour show some huge performances on the iconic volcano. 

The ascent from the north east of Etna is an 18.6km-long climb with an average gradient of 6.7 per cent

The stage was one by EF Pro Cycling’s Ecuadorian champion Jonathan Caidedo, who took victory from the day’s breakaway.

Unfortunately Caicedo hasn’t uploaded his data to Strava, but third-place finisher on the stage Harm Vanhoucke has share his ride on the social media for athletes. 

Lotto-Soudal rider Vanhoucke is now the fastest rider on the Strava segment for the ascent of Mount Etna from the north east.

The Belgian set a new fastest time of 47-24, with an average speed of 23.3km/h for the 18.44km-long climb. 

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) is now second, with a time of 47-53 as he rode to a tenth-place finish on the stage to pull himself back into the GC race. 

The fastest rider to share his power data on Strava is Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck - Quick-Step, who is the third fastest on the leaderboard with his time of 48-28.

Masnada pushed 348 watts for the duration of the climb (5.3 watts per kilogram), which carried him to 16th on the stage. 

Britain’s James Knox (also Deceuninck - Quick-Step) was strong on the climb, as he pushed 333w for 48-43 on the climb, good enough for 22nd place on the stage.  

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Knox is the sixth fastest rider on Strava.  

The previous fastest time had been set in May this year by British rider Calum Johnston, who pushed 241w for a time of 1-05-55.