Jai Hindley was the last men's winner atop Blockhaus at the Giro d'Italia in 2022, but his connection with the Abruzzese ascent goes back much further, having lived in the region as an amateur for six months in 2015.
Four years ago, Hindley's Blockhaus stage win set him on the path towards the overall pink jersey victory in Verona, but it was while cutting his teeth on amateur team Aran Cucine Vejus that he had his first experience of the climb that will punctuate Friday's stage 7.
He described the area as his "second home" after that stage win, with the nearby Passo Lanciano also making up part of the roads he trained on. Ahead of its return to the Giro, Hindley looked back to those formative years.
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"It was pretty bloody long, mate. I'd never really done such a long climb before," said Hindley, as he recalled his first encounters with the 13.6km ascent to a small group of reporters earlier in the week.
"It was maybe one of the longest climbs I did in my life up until that point; it was super cool. I was living maybe 50km away, so for me it's a pretty special mountain."
Tomorrow's stage certainly won't be raced like a training ride, though, with it arriving as the first mountaintop finish of the 2026 race, and the first big opportunity for the GC favourites to really see who stands where in the pecking order.
"I mean, it's super important. I think it's the first really big test," said Hindley. "On Blockhaus, we will for sure see some gaps, and I think we will have a good idea of who's got the legs at this race.
"It will be hard anyway, but we will come there with a lot of fatigue in the legs from a long day," – stage 7 is 244km in length – "and the final climb itself is really tough. So it will be a proper, proper day."
Unlike in 2022 when he was Bora-Hansgrohe's only spearhead, Hindley will be operating alongside home star Giulio Pellizzari for the now Red Bull-sponsored team, as they look to challenge heavy pre-race favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Local knowledge was on the Australian's side that time out, as he timed his effort to perfection to win from a small group sprint of GC favourites. Whether he can repeat that feat looks less likely in the face of Vingegaard, but Hindley has produced stunning climbing efforts that, on his best day, could be enough.
"We have a good team. I think we can also be there with two guys in the final, hopefully," he said, and he'll start stage 7 in Formia on the same time as the Dane, with Pellizzari four seconds ahead.
"That's the goal. I think we'll just take it stage by stage, as the old cliche goes, and really try to have two guys up there for as long as we can."
It's a combination Red Bull used well at last year's Vuelta, where the pair were ultimately unable to live with a dominant Vingegaard, but finished fourth and seventh on GC respectively, with Pellizzari winning a stage.
Red Bull DS Christian Pömer told Cyclingnews on Wednesday that the team's focus was mostly to be firing on all cylinders during the crucial third week, where a trio of brutal mountain stages should decide pink.
"There are two scenarios: either Vingegaard takes a bit of time on us, or we take a bit of time on Vingegaard, but either way it has nothing to say about the outcome of the race," said Pömer at the team bus after stage 5, perhaps taking Simon Yates' late surge to the pink on the penultimate stage just 12 months ago as inspiration.
"I think we stay focused on our goal, which remains the podium, and our general approach, that we will try to save energy until the last part of this race. As we say many times at this race, it is there [in the third week] that it matters."
But they have one of the strongest eight-man squads at the race, so they could end up being the aggressors against Visma if the legs are there. It should become clear where Red Bull's leaders and indeed former winner Hindley stand in just under 24 hours, but the race won't be lost tomorrow in any case: "We're still in the first week, and there's plenty of racing to come," said Hindley.
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