As we head out of the first stages of the 2015 Giro d’Italia, the pink spirit is well and truly in full flow. With Michael Matthews, Simon Clarke and Simon Gerrans leading the way (end of stage 3), it’s looking like an extremely exciting start with an Australian top three.

As stage 4 gets under-way today, let’s look ahead at tomorrow’s stage 5.

A snapshot of La Spezia

Sitting on the coast of Liguria, the city of La Spezia is an Italian naval harbour, flourishing with churches, museums, castles and Art Nouveau style villas. A beautiful, charming, cultural centre today, La Spezia has historically been a centre of military action, from the middle-ages up to more recent conflicts such as World War 2.

Popular pastimes include visiting the vast, green public gardens and the waterfront. Much of La Spezia’s quiet-yet-bold charm can be enjoyed outside and at an easy pace, and when the Mediterranean heat gets too severe, you can head inside to the CAMeC Museum for equal parts contemprary art, modern art and shows. If you’d like to reconnect to a more chaotic time in La Spezia’s past, then the Naval Technical Museum may be more your bag.

Stage format

A 152km-long, ‘medium-mountain’ stage looks to be dead-set for a bang average, ‘not-too-tough-but-definitely-not-too-easy’ stage. In fact, it’s the exact kind of stage where riders in the second, third, fourth and fifth places could move up and knock down some top-three cyclists. The ‘comfortable’ deceptive nature of the stage means that riders in the lead could start to slip back due to getting too ‘settled in’.

An overview of the altitudes and climbs shows a couple of relatively flat start, followed by two decent upward climbs with a rolling, unpredictable section in-between. At the top of one of this stage’s climb-finishes, the peloton will arrive in the commune of Abetone to rest up overnight, before tackling the longer stage 6.

Remember it with the Santini Stage 5 Jersey

As part of their commemorative ‘stage-dedicated’ range, Santini have introduced the Stage 5 jersey, the La Spezia – Abetone Short Sleeve Jersey.

If you fancy something different and still Giro-related, pop over to our Giro store here.