2014 Giro d'Italia, Stage 4: Giovinazzo - Bari (112 Km)

[hfer07]

Kittel will do his thing again

I wish -at least-to make the final interesting that either Viviani or Bouhanni can give Kittel a good fight for it

 

[BigMac]

I'm sure Nizzolo will podium.

 

[VeloHuman]

Could be some serious carnage with all these late twists and turns. Wouldn't want to be a GC guy on Stage 4.

 

[Jspear]

Cannondale should wait to control things a little later than they did yesterday - force other teams to do some work. Vivanni will better Kittel....well maybe not but I can wish

In the first couple of stages I was hoping to see Petacchi take pink, but I don't think that will happen now. He would have to win tomorrows stage and Matthews would have to finish outside the top 4. And he definitely won't beat Matthews on stages 5 and 6.

 

[Sciatic]

Can the mods put up a poll for this?

That (to poll or not to poll) should be left up to the person who starts the thread. Not every stage needs a poll. If you want a stage thread with a poll, you can start the thread for another stage.

 

[Netserk]

That (to poll or not to poll) should be left up to the person who starts the thread. Not every stage needs a poll. If you want a stage thread with a poll, you can start the thread for another stage.

Or much, much better, make a poll thread and not pollute the race thread.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This is the worst type of race: a race where there's little chance the racing will be worth watching and there's every chance riders will get hurt. At least it's half the length of the Official Worst Race In The World®

 

[melkemugg]

Pettachi have saved his legs for this one

 

[VeloHuman]

This is the worst type of race: a race where there's little chance the racing will be worth watching and there's every chance riders will get hurt. At least it's half the length of the Official Worst Race In The World®

Basically the story of the first 4 days.

 

[the sceptic]

I really dont understand the logic of putting what is essentially another rest day after the rest day.

Cant wait for the uphill sprints!

 

[Tournesol]

I really dont understand the logic of putting what is essentially another rest day after the rest day.

Cant wait for the uphill sprints!

Yeah,its crazy,hoping this Giro improves,dismal parcours so far as many here predicted.

Shows you how starved of action the fans have been when we are looking forward to Unipublic style stages,if it was the Vuelta we'd be complaining bitterly that were sick of them.

 

[The Tibetan Hat]

I really dont understand the logic of putting what is essentially another rest day after the rest day.

Cant wait for the uphill sprints!

Somebody probably said the same sort of thing about the Vuelta stage that Tony Martin turned into the best GT stage finish in years.

 

[manafana]

I think a short sprint day is good idea coming off the irish leg, let the racing begin then in stage 5.

 

[the sceptic]

Somebody probably said the same sort of thing about the Vuelta stage that Tony Martin turned into the best GT stage finish in years.

Yeah but how often does that happen? This is like 99% guaranteed a sprint.. meh.

 

[Peter von]

I really dont understand the logic of putting what is essentially another rest day after the rest day.

Cant wait for the uphill sprints!

I think it's a pretty good idea. doing a transfer is stressful enough or at least have potential to be if delays happen, no reason to make it worse by having a GC stage the day after, so if you're gonna have boring stages tomorrow is a good day to do it, IMO.

 

[Peccio89]

you guys don't consider how stressfull a long transfer may be for the rider, additionaly i think it's good to save the extra kms for stages that actually matter GC wise.

 

[williamp78]

If Belfast hosted the "Big Start" which is to be honest a ceremonial start of a three week race (which quite frankly I think i was huge success) then this is surely a mini-restart and therefore also ceremonial. I don't see a huge problem with that although I can understand why people do. But even if we had a hilly stage in Bari how would it be raced? The pure sprinters may go out the back but we'd still end up with sprint trains at the end (sky presumably would try to set up for swift or ebh who are handy enough over hills). But after a long transfer most riders/teams will end up taking it easy no matter what the stage is like.

I'm from and live in belfast btw; i thought it was a huge success

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I thought the Belfast start was successful in terms of spectacle (even though I detest TTTs and would really love to see a GT without one for once so we actually got a fair race for once in a while), but the second and third stages were, unfortunately, near total garbage and not even coming close to living up to the potential that the area has for bike racing. It was as bad as the Danish start, but at least the Danes could make the argument that they couldn't do any better since Vejle didn't pay up for a stage.

And really, there shouldn't be ceremonial stages, except the Tour's flat parade because that's traditional. It's meant to be a three week race, not a two week race with a week of stylized processionals first. Otherwise you could make them like the Jawor crit in the Szlakiem Grodów Piastkowskich or the Jayco Cancer Council Classic, and not counting for GC, and make them purely for show. Again, although I have the reputation of only liking Zomegnan-porn stage profiles, I do not begrudge the sprinters their wins where they've deserved it; here they're just being handed free gift after free gift, and this is the freest of them all. Like, literally, no work has to be done to make it to the end here, and the only threat is crashing. That's the worst of both worlds. The weather is unlikely to make a difference since it's a circuit finish, there are no obstacles, either terrain or surface-wise, so that just leaves us with accidents, and for route designers, when you're relying on crashes to make a race interesting, you're doing it wrong.

Apologies, but this stage is absolutely inexcusable at this level of cycling.

 

[williamp78]

but the second and third stages were, unfortunately, near total garbage and not even coming close to living up to the potential that the area has for bike racing. It was as bad as the Danish start, but at least the Danes could make the argument that they couldn't do any better since Vejle didn't pay up for a stage.



Apologies, but this stage is absolutely inexcusable at this level of cycling.

I'm not 100% sure what kind of profiles you could get in Northern Ireland (especially starting and ending in Belfast) that would be a whole lot different. And the area from up north down to dublin is pretty flat!

The roads in the Mourne Mountains wouldn't be good enough quality for 200 cyclists.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'm not 100% sure what kind of profiles you could get in Northern Ireland (especially starting and ending in Belfast) that would be a whole lot different. And the area from up north down to dublin is pretty flat!

The roads in the Mourne Mountains wouldn't be good enough quality for 200 cyclists.

Really? You don't think they could have put a hill or two out of the ones overlooking Belfast in the closing stages of stage two? There are definitely some reasonable roads there, that could be placed close to the finish. They may not prevent the sprint, but they'd tempt attackers and make it a more interesting process getting there. A mostly flat stage with a few small bumps near the end could have produced interesting racing, instead they decided to avoid that and come straight into Belfast by the flattest route possible.

Dublin I accept they would have needed a longer stage so they could go south of Dublin to use any interesting terrain close to the finish, but Belfast, no. There was the opportunity to make an interesting stage but they chose not to.

 

[Fight.The.Power]

Really? You don't think they could have put a hill or two out of the ones overlooking Belfast in the closing stages of stage two? There are definitely some reasonable roads there, that could be placed close to the finish. They may not prevent the sprint, but they'd tempt attackers and make it a more interesting process getting there. A mostly flat stage with a few small bumps near the end could have produced interesting racing, instead they decided to avoid that and come straight into Belfast by the flattest route possible.

Dublin I accept they would have needed a longer stage so they could go south of Dublin to use any interesting terrain close to the finish, but Belfast, no. There was the opportunity to make an interesting stage but they chose not to.

You talk much sense but I think, with all due respect you are presuming far too much of the race organisers. It could be more logistics rather than excitment and maybe this is where it can dissapont. Had the wind been (un)favourable it could have been an amaxing stage.

As it stands the results so far have been largely as we would have only expected but most importantly the contribution from the people of Northern Ireland has added to the Giro this year. As I Yorkshireman I hope we can eminate our Irish Brothers.

 

[observer]

I think the extra rest day, and these flat "easy" stages will probably play into the hands of an older rider like Cadel Evans, he may not fade as much as expected in the final week.

 

[wirral]

Don't underestimate this stage. A short stage may encourage a lot more attacking. If all the other teams refuse to help Giant and a large break gets away, it could be a great stage.

There are 21 race days and not every stage can be Paris-Roubaix length or Mur de Hui steep or Zoncolan arduous.

There are limits to human endurance.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Don't underestimate this stage. A short stage may encourage a lot more attacking. If all the other teams refuse to help Giant and a large break gets away, it could be a great stage.

There are 21 race days and not every stage can be Paris-Roubaix length or Mur de Hui steep or Zoncolan arduous.

There are limits to human endurance.

In principle I agree, but the stage design should encourage an early serious attack, i.e. provide a hill/dirt/cobbles (over narrow, twisty roads) somewhere in the first part as a launchpad. Here we just have flat road.

It will likely be a soft break established within 10kms and then controlled racing until the business end.

That's my expectation, so only upside left today.

 

[manafana]

this is just atage 4 their has been plenty grand tours with no proper climbs in the first 4 days so please hold those horses.