After the impressive images from the people who gathered at the Karteros Beach Sports Center to admire and applaud the efforts of the athletes in the individual time trial, the PPC Cycling Tour of Greece continues today, Wednesday, May 3, with the holding of the 1st stage and starting city and termination Heraklion.
It is the longest of this year’s event (187.7 km), but also the one with the most altitude (2,561m), which means that we will have the first big battle between the favourites. The route is a counterclockwise circle within the Heraklion Regional Unit. The athletes will start at 11:00 in the morning and head south, to pass by the imposing mass of Psiloritis and reach the Mesara plain, then return again to the northern coast.
Along the way, they will come across monuments and attractions that cover the entire history of the Megalonisos: the Ideal Andros where the Kouretes and Amalthea raised the “Cretan” Zeus, the Phaistos of Rhadamanthys who has been “supervising” Messara for five millennia, the Gortyna of pyrrhic and mythological Europe, the Castle of Cornari built by Nikephoros Phokas, the Minoan Knossos of the Minotaur, Theseus, Ariadne, Daedalus and Icarus, with its impressive palace, a real architectural wonder for its time and finally, Heraklion, the Byzantine Moat with its huge Venetian walls and the Koules fortress that dominates the entrance of the old port, where the finish of today’s stage is located, with an estimated time of arrival between 15:45-16:30
Points of interest
– Km 0: Start / Heraklion
– Km 54.8: Sprint climb 1 (Cat. 2) / Vorizia
– Km 81.6 km: Intermediate sprint straight 1 / Tympaki
– Km 117.3 km: Intermediate sprint straight 2 / Harakas
– Km 164.7 km: Sprint climb 2 (Cat. 2) / Meleses
– Km 187.7: Termination / Heraklion
– Km 28.4: The geographical center of Crete
– Chm 86: Phaistos
– Km 80: Knossos
Source: Daily
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