[Leafcake]

May 4: start in Napoli
May 19: Cesana Torinese - Mont Cenis - Col du Télègraphe - Galibier
May 25: Tre Cime di Lavaredo




There have been lots of contradicting rumours relating to the 2013 Giro d'Italia course, but here and there comes also an official confirmation.

It appears there have been quite a few last minute changes, so wouldn't be surprised if after the presentation on Sunday (Sep. 30) the changes continue (not exactly a rarity for the Giro).

[mapeifan]

Would eating beef from this altitude-trained bovine give one a performance advantage?

[Leafcake]

mapeifan, on 26 September 2012 - 11:09 PM, said:

Would eating beef from this altitude-trained bovine give one a performance advantage?

Not as much as with the Dauphine bovines.

[Leafcake]

Gazzetta.it expected to live stream the official presentation tomorrow, Sep. 30, at 13:40 until 14:45 CET.

Roughly 90km TT are rumoured to be included in the course (20km TTT, 50km ITT, 20km MTT), so no wonder Sky are already making plans for Wiggins to target the Giro.

[The Rake]

http://www.cyclingne...veiled-in-milan

Details of the 2012 Giro.

7 mountain finishes, 90km of time trials (including a TTT and a MTT). Seemingly only slim pickings for the sprinters

According to Acquarone:

Quote

Our guiding line is that the great champions must be respected, and every champion must be given space to express himself. I think that we’ve put together a very balanced route

[micomico]

mapeifan, on 26 September 2012 - 11:09 PM, said:

Would eating beef from this altitude-trained bovine give one a performance advantage?

Only if it is a spanish cow

[Burkni]

Guys ... no more discussion than this, seriously??

Anyway, I am back from a 2-week holiday in sometimes-sunny Andalucía (didn't make it to Sierra Nevada ) with no internet connection and finally able to indulge in the annual feast that is the Giro presentation.

First impression: GRANDE

Pros

• Seemingly un-sprinter-friendly, unpredictable flattish stages. (3,5,9) An in-form Thor Hushovd could have a field day in this race.
  
• Seemingly un-climber-friendly, unpredictable hilly stages. (4,11,16)
  
• The excellent Ischia TTT - very reminiscent of the fabulous Sardinian romp in 2007, even though rather short to make a GC difference.
  
• The beautiful saw-toothed classic-style stage 7 through Abruzzo ... Pity that this kind of stage will always see a breakaway take the spoils and the GC guys take it easy.
  
• Non-Milano finish: For the sake of positiveness, optimism and innovation I'll put this as a pro. Don't know the reason for choosing Brescia though.

Cons

• Long stages - 244km, 242km, 237km. Do we really need this? Even the final stage is 199km.
  
• Galibier finish - I'll put this down as a con because the Giro doesn't need to venture out of Italy for legendary mountain top finishes, shouldn't they do the Gavia rather than this? Even so, a pretty good con

Aquarone's objectives
BALANCE: Not sure here ... One massive TT and of course the stacked final week. The last time we saw a similar setup was probably in 2001, when Dario Frigo took held pink after the long TT (Without looking it up, I think that one went from Sirmione to Salo and was also exactly 55km ) but Gilberto Simoni would have won the race even without Frigo getting kicked off.
Some effort has been made towards making for a less calculated and tactical race, but I think we could see the exact same thing last year. In fact, the best TTer (possibly Wiggins, judging from current reports) could quite well kill off the race in the first week.
RESPECT: Obviously things are a lot better than under Zomegnan and already were this year. Not sure about those long stages though.
THE BEAUTY OF ITALY: This is a given

[Leafcake]

Ah you were missed. Great that you come out to play again.

Burkni, on 03 October 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

• Seemingly un-sprinter-friendly, unpredictable flattish stages. (3,5,9) An in-form Thor Hushovd could have a field day in this race.
  
• Seemingly un-climber-friendly, unpredictable hilly stages. (4,11,16)

Not sure about these distinctions, but surely the organizers have gone out of their way to put in challenges in the closing stages of most of the flattish and mid mountain stages. The Firenze stage 9 (you call that flattish?) with one+ circuit of the WC course comes just before the first rest day. Hopefully the GC men who did bad in the ITT the day before start fighting back here.

Burkni, on 03 October 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

• The excellent Ischia TTT - very reminiscent of the fabulous Sardinian romp in 2007, even though rather short to make a GC difference.

Agreed, a bit too short. Was hoping they would take the southern road which is even more twisting and turning as it climbs and descends back.

Burkni, on 03 October 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

• The beautiful saw-toothed classic-style stage 7 through Abruzzo ... Pity that this kind of stage will always see a breakaway take the spoils and the GC guys take it easy.

The stage to Pescara is great. It being just 162km could prompt more action. Sadly though, with the ITT the next day some GC men are bound to play it conservatively.

Burkni, on 03 October 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

• Non-Milano finish: For the sake of positiveness, optimism and innovation I'll put this as a pro. Don't know the reason for choosing Brescia though.

Easy. Brescia put a stack of money on the table while Milano limped behind.
http://www.tuttobici...=news&cod=53268

Burkni, on 03 October 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

• Long stages - 244km, 242km, 237km. Do we really need this? Even the final stage is 199km.
  
• Galibier finish - I'll put this down as a con because the Giro doesn't need to venture out of Italy for legendary mountain top finishes, shouldn't they do the Gavia rather than this? Even so, a pretty good con

I suppose it is a bit of a trade off with the shorter mountain stages (Altopiano del Montasio 167km, Bardonecchia 156km, Galibier 152km, Val Martello 138km). Not sure it is a bad idea to have rather short mountain stages as these may prompt more action. In any case there still is the classic and beautiful stage to Tre Cime di Lavaredo at 202km.

...anyway, they are doing the Gavia...

Burkni, on 03 October 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

In fact, the best TTer (possibly Wiggins, judging from current reports) could quite well kill off the race in the first week.

Yes, this is a concern. Notwithstanding the ITT course looks very interesting and quite technical with that twisting coastal road.

Burkni, on 03 October 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

RESPECT: Obviously things are a lot better than under Zomegnan and already were this year. Not sure about those long stages though.

Quite a lot of long transfers as well.


Bella Italia!

[Burkni]

Leafcake, on 03 October 2012 - 08:02 PM, said:

Ah you were missed. Great that you come out to play again.

Quote

The Firenze stage 9 (you call that flattish?) with one+ circuit of the WC course comes just before the first rest day. Hopefully the GC men who did bad in the ITT the day before start fighting back here.

Good point. I do love it when the Giro showcases WC parcours (new and old)
Never in a million years would one see the Tour doing that.

Quote

Easy. Brescia put a stack of money on the table while Milano limped behind.
http://www.tuttobici...=news&cod=53268

Sorry, what I meant was "sporting reasons"
#PatMcQuaid

Quote

Not sure it is a bad idea to have rather short mountain stages as these may prompt more action.

True, one never knows.

Quote

Yes, this is a concern. Notwithstanding the ITT course looks very interesting and quite technical with that twisting coastal road.

At first glance, I'd venture a comparison with the Besancon TT in this year's Tour. Very rolling and twisty.

[mapeifan]

Katusha denied wild-card entry to Giro d'Italia
The Associated Press – 2 hours 44 minutes ago

MILAN (AP) -- The Russian team Katusha featuring top-ranked Joaquin Rodriguez has been denied a wild-card entry into the Giro d'Italia.

Organizers RCS announced four wild-card entries on Tuesday for the May 4-26 race: Italian teams Androni Giocattoli, Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox and Vini Fantini, plus South American squad Colombia.

The 18 UCI Pro Teams received automatic invites.

Katusha has filed a suit in the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the UCI's refusal of its application for the 2013 World Tour.

RCS said Katusha was considered as a professional continental team. Rodriguez has said he will leave Katusha if it is not allowed to compete in the World Tour.
Last year, Rodriguez was runner-up in the Giro to Ryder Hesjedal of Canada.

RCS did invite Katusha to the Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia.

http://sports.yahoo....59094--spt.html

[micomico]

-think that AC can pull off the Giro TdF double?

[Burkni]

micomico, on 22 January 2013 - 12:43 AM, said:

-think that AC can pull off the Giro TdF double?

Naaah, even though this year's Giro isn't the butcher's festival of 2011 (when I thought he abolished the idea) he both has to deal with the Nibalis going full force in the mountains and Wiggins' superiority in the TT (if he rides) so after that, he'd have quite a hard time in the Tour.

[mapeifan]

So now Wiggins says the Giro is the dream, the Tour is resigned to "been there, done that, got the T-shirt" status. Still dodging what his role will be at Tour- willing helper for Froome, co-leader, out of his depth also-ran, etc. I think Wiggins may be in for a surprise at la Corsa Rosa- without Froome and Porte dedicated to pulling him around, I think Wiggins gets tested on some of these mid-race hilly stages.

[N.B.O.L.]

micomico, on 22 January 2013 - 12:43 AM, said:

-think that AC can pull off the Giro TdF double?

From the things I've seen AC is looking at a TdF/Vuelta double, sitting out the Giro.

[N.B.O.L.]

Checking their schedules it looks as if neither NBCSports (Versus, OLN) nor Universal Sports are carrying the Giro this year. Not sure what someone will have to do to get it in the USA.

[sweatpea]

Hey board. It's been forever since I 've posted about my favorite GT. I may be available to simultaneously post race coverage from the RAI feed on certain days. It will be crazy but I will give advance notice on what days. Got to work around work commitments.

[N.B.O.L.]

sweatpea, on 18 April 2013 - 10:20 PM, said:

Hey board. It's been forever since I 've posted about my favorite GT. I may be available to simultaneously post race coverage from the RAI feed on certain days. It will be crazy but I will give advance notice on what days. Got to work around work commitments.

Sweatpea,

While I have no opinion about horsemeat or Lance Armstrong's connection to it, reading your race coverage of the Giro is always high on my list. Nice to see you posting.

[Burkni]

N.B.O.L., on 19 April 2013 - 01:10 AM, said:

Sweatpea,

While I have no opinion about horsemeat or Lance Armstrong's connection to it, reading your race coverage of the Giro is always high on my list. Nice to see you posting.

Giro or not, happy to have you back sweatpea.

[The Rake]

Very much looking forward to the Giro. Have been enthralled by the Giro del Trentino this week - and very glad Bouet managed to hang on for the podium. Astana served up the Team Sky tactic (Nibali was paying attention last July). Sky actually folded very meekly today - Pate and Xandio last and second last on the stage. Shame about Wiggins' mechanical, but he showed us how to park our bikes

[Burkni]

The Sky mechanics should have got their act together when they get to Napoli. This is shaping up to be one excellent Giro!