Today's stage gave the first real indications of the climbing hierarchy in the Giro d'Italia and we will be a lot wise at the end of tomorrow's stage 15 which is another tough affair. The final climb, Plan di Montecampione, is one of the hardest finishing climbs of the entire race and has the potential to create some big time differences.

The course

The second week of the race will come to an end with another big mountain stage but unlike the previous one which was a testing affair all day, this stage is completely different story. Despite being much longer and the longest mountain stage of the race, all the excitement will be saved for the final big battle on the Plan di Montecampione climb. That will provide a real spectacle though as it is one of the hardest finishing climbs of the race. The climb has been given the title of "Marco Pantani mountain" of the 2014 Giro as the stage will be held in honour of the Italian climber who took a big stage win here in 1998 on his way to his overall victory in that year's race.

This long, flat stage takes place mainly on wide and straight roads. It can be clearly divided into two parts: the first 200 km (and beyond) run from Valdengo (Biella) through the upper Po Valley north of Milan, up to the beginning of the final climb that marks the second, separate sector (more than 15 km). The main obstacles along the route are the ones commonly found on these kinds of roads, such as roundabouts, traffic islands, underpasses and urban road sectors, with turns and counterturns. The roadway is always quite wide, with sectors of worn-out road surface.

The final climb alternates between two halves of about 8 km in length, and a stretch of apparently flat ground by the town of Alpiaz. Both sectors are very regular affairs with a rather constant gradient of 8-9%, with the second one being slightly steeper. The road surface is worn out over some sectors and the finish line lies on a 30m long, 6.5wide, asphalted home stretch.

The weather

Today the riders escaped the brutal weather conditions that dominated last year's Giro and they should get another pleasant day in the saddle in stage 15. It should be a beautiful sunny day for the entire stage and it won't be overly hot as the temperature at the bottom of the final climb will reach a maximum of 17 degrees.

Like today there will only be a very light wind, this time from a southerly direction. This means that the riders will have a crosswind all day and for most of the time on the final climb. There will be a headwind stretch early on and a tailwind between the 5km and 3km to go signs but otherwise the wind will be coming from their right hand side.

The favourites

Today's stage gave the first clear indications of the internal climbing hierarchy in this year's Giro d'Italia but the time differences were rather small. As we had already predicted yesterday, the final climb was not hard enough to gain a lot of time and for a greater selection to be made, the riders had to make the stage tough already on the earlier climbs. That never happened as all riders apparently had a cautious approach and this meant that the escapees rode away with the bonus seconds.

That's unlikely to happen in tomorrow's stage though. Riders like Nairo Quintana and Domenico Pozzovivo got a lot of confidence from today's stage and will find it easier to ask their teammates to chase for what should be a very long stage. Furthermore, the easy start to the stage makes it much easier to control the size and the composition of the early break, meaning that we should not see a repeat of today's very big break. Finally, the teams can use up their big engines on the flat roads and save their climbers for later, making it much easier to chase than it was today when they had to carefully gauge how to use their domestiques. As opposed to this, the escapees need to keep something in reserve for the final climb and this makes it much hard to stay away.

Due to the climb's historical significance, it is one of those stages that the big riders want to win and we would expect Movistar and Ag2r to take control. There's still a chance that a break will stay away and so it will probably be a big battle right from the start but when the break has taken off, expect to see the likes of Patrick Gretsch, Axel Domont, Francisco Ventoso and Adriano Malori ride on the front to make sure that the break is within shouting distance by the time they reach the bottom of the final climb.

This means that both the stage win and time gains should be up for play for the GC riders and we can expect a big batte. Of course we have learnt a lot from today's stage but tomorrow's climb is a very different affair and it certainly suits some riders better than others. Today's finishing ascent was highly irregular and rather short and as the steep part came at the end, the riders had to save their energy for the very finale. Tomorrow's climb is much harder and has steep gradients all the way up, meaning that the selection can be made very early on. We should see the GC riders attack much sooner than they did today and the potential time gains are counted in minutes, not seconds.

Today Nairo Quintana proved that he has recovered from his illness and even though he is not yeat at 100%, he was strong enough to gain time on all his rivals. As he gets back to full strength, he will only get stronger from now on and even though he is still far behind, he has so much terrain to take back time that he is now again the overall fevourite.

Based on today's performance, he is also the favourite to win tomorrow's stage. While today's short, explosive climb didn't suit him well, tomorrow's long, gradual ascent is tailor-made for him. As a pure climber, he has the ability to tap on at a steady rhythm from the bottom to the top and he could make a huge difference in this kind of finish,

Today he played it rather conservatively by just following wheels and Pozzovivo did all the work in their group. With today's confidence boost, he will probably ride a bit more aggressively tomorrow. Today Pozzovivo was maybe slightly stronger than him but while tomorrow's climb is perfect for Quintana, it's not that good for Pozzovivo. We expect Quintana to attack from the distance and wouldn't be surprised to see him ride solo for most of the ascent.

His biggest rival is obviously Pozzovivo who seemed to be the strongest rider in today's stage. However, the tiny Italian has always struggled a bit when the climbs get too long and he is not very suited to tomorrow's long, gradual ascent. For some reason, he has a tendency to go too fast too early and always fades near the end. On such a climb that will prove costly, especially if the favourites open the war pretty early.

As Pozzovivo is still far behind and is gunning for the overall win, he could be the riders to open the attacks. That's a bit of a gamble though and he needs to gauge his effort much better than usual to win the stage. We wouldn't be surprised to see Quintana and Pozzovivo ride away early on before Pozzovivo fades back near the end.

Today Wilco Kelderman continued his excellent performances in this year's race and he proved that he is currently the third best climber in this race. He made a small mistake by trying to get across Pozzovivo and Quintana and paid for it in the end. If he had raced a bit more wisely, he may actually have made it .

He will have learnt from his mistakes and tomorrow he should do better. He is still very young but on paper this long, gradual ascent should suit his riding style really well. At the same time, he is very fast in a sprint and if his rivals don't get rid of him, he will be the favourite to win the stage.

Until now, Robert Kiserlovski has been really strong and today he again had a lot of confidence in his own abilities when he asked his teammates to up the pace on the lower slopes of the climb. Unfortunately, he didn't eat properly and felt a bit of a hunger knock in the end.

If that explanation is true, we can expect him to be back at full strength in tomorrow's stage and in Montecopiolo he proved that he is among the strongest climbers in the race. The long ascent suits him perfectly and he won't be as heavily marked as his rivals. Expect the Croatian to bounce back in tomorrow's stage.

Fabio Aru is a pure climber and this means that tomorrow's finishing climb suits him perfectly. Today he proved that he is in excellent condition and he gauged his effort perfectly to come back strongly in the finale. That ability to go on and on will come in handy tomorrow and he should do even better. Even if he gets dropped early on, expect him to ride strongly all the way to the finish.

Pierre Rolland has been on the attack in all mountain stages so far and today he again put in a gutsy showing. Tomorrow he will undoubtedly try again and as he is a bit down on GC, he will not be as heavily marked. The long, gradual climb suits him much better than today's ascent. Even though it will be hard to beat the likes of Quintana, he definitely has a chance if he anticipates the favourites.

Finally, we will select our jokers. Today Ryder Hesjedal proved that he is one of the strongest riders in the race and tomorrow's climb should suit him better. Like Rolland he is far down on GC and so may have the freedom to attack. He will probably do so and he seems to have the strength to potentially finish it off.

Today Ivan Basso didn't look too strong but that was no surprise. A short day with slow speed on the first climbs and then an explosive finale didn't suit him at all. Tomorrow's long day with a long, regular finishing climbs suits him much better. He will probably get dropped early on but could make a great comeback with his diesel engine. He is not strong enough to win the stage but don't be surprised to see him perform much better than he has done so far.

CyclingQuotes' stage winner pick: Nairo Quintana

Other winner candidates: Domenico Pozzovivo, Wilco Kelderman

Outsiders: Fabio Aru, Robert Kiserlovski, Pierre Rolland

Jokers: Ryder Hesjedal, Ivan Basso