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2016 Giro d'Italia : STAGE 3: Nijmegen – Arnhem 190 km

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Dekker_Tifosi

Dekker_Tifosi

Mar 13, 2009
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Re:

Bye Bye Bicycle said:
Yeah, such a boring parcours. Why not create an exciting hilly stage like at the Amstel or Liège? Remember the action-packed Ardennes races this year? Oh, wait...
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Actually, in a GT that would create action, because of the great difference in climbing ability in the field. So the field gets seggregated much sooner.

Like I explained in the Ardennes thread, the reason a big bunch stays together there, is because the field is full of hill racing specialists and GT men, and strong climbing domestiques. The level difference there is so small, that creating action from far out is nigh on impossible.

In a GT however, and in other stage races, you have sprinters, TT Specialists, flat road domestiques, etc all mixed in together with the climbers. The level difference is much greater, thus the field is easier to split in hilly stages. And it's easier to stay away as well because of a lack of enough climbing domestiques..

So, you're comparison isn't a good one
 
roundabout

roundabout

Jun 7, 2010
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Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
But since Zomegnan was fired, the Giro has been the race that has gone from the one GT that was guaranteed to put on something GC-relevant on each weekend day (except sometimes the first Sunday, after the first TT) to the GT that has put two featureless flat stages on the first weekend two years out of three.
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There were plenty of uninteresting stages on weekends when Zomegnan was the race director.
 
SeriousSam

SeriousSam

Aug 31, 2012
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What to expect:
Bunch sprint.
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giphy.gif
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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Re: Re:

roundabout said:
Libertine Seguros said:
But since Zomegnan was fired, the Giro has been the race that has gone from the one GT that was guaranteed to put on something GC-relevant on each weekend day (except sometimes the first Sunday, after the first TT) to the GT that has put two featureless flat stages on the first weekend two years out of three.
Click to expand...

There were plenty of uninteresting stages on weekends when Zomegnan was the race director.
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Having looked back through it you're right, although they progressively got fewer the longer he was there.

Either way, the only time he did two back to back on a weekend was in 2004, which most people agree to be among the worst GT routes ever. In recent years we've had both 2014 and 2016 with two straight sprint stages. 2014 was if anything even worse because they could have done better with the terrain there. Here at least they have the excuse that there are very few obstacles in Gelderland to use even though it's also being acknowledged that they have elected to make those few that there are irrelevant thanks to the closing circuits.

I'm sure Marcel Kittel fans will sit rapt as they wait for their favourite and his hair to romp to victory, but really there's nothing to achieve here that couldn't be achieved with an hour long tourist information video about the Gelderland region and a 1km drag race. The only thing we have to look forward to is hoping the whole péloton makes it through the stage without injury - like in the Danish départ in 2012 (although hopefully they make it through more safely than that). It's my absolute least favourite type of race: a race where the chance anything interesting will happen is low, and the chance of people getting injured is high.
 
S

Scarponi

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Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
I'm so over the Dutch GT starts now. We've had the 2009 Vuelta, the 2010 and 2015 Tours de France, the 2010 and 2016 Giri. More GTs have started in the Netherlands in the last eight years than in France (2008, 2011 and 2013 Tours) and as many have started there as have started in Italy (2008, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 Giri). The Belfast start (which was similarly terrible, although there they actively went out of their way to do nothing of interest with the stages, at least in Gelderland they have an excuse) leading to the acceptance of the third rest day is the bigger problem I think here, because if the race started on the Saturday, we'd get the ITT then one sprint stage and it's far less frustrating as fans than when the additional rest day for travel is included so the only stage likely to be of any relevance is on Friday, and then we have two featureless, characterless, dour flat stages on the weekend.

The Dutch have a great history in cycling, and sure, the fans come out and support it. And the Dutch racing at the GTs doesn't have to be terrible either (the 2010 Giro and 2015 Tour show this). But the way this Giro has been designed, it's been designed to create great photographs, and that's all. I accept that the GTs are businesses and therefore the highest bidder gets priority, but you know, there have been a LOT of these types of start lately, and fans are starting to get frustrated. The 2012 Giro start in Denmark was possibly the dirt worst, because not only did they serve up featureless flat stages (even by Danish standards as I'm aware in most of the country, like the Netherlands, you can't serve up a mini-Amstel Gold unless you go to a specific town) but they included dangerous run-ins, which the Dutch have seemingly learned from. But one of the reasons Zomegnan went crazy in 2011 and started throwing mountain stages all over the place (too many MTFs in many people's eyes, including myself) was simple: the audience figures in Italy for sprint stages are tiny compared to those for the intermediate and mountain stages. Placing two stages that aren't likely to produce anything but sprints at the weekend seems very counterproductive. Why not sprint-TT-sprint instead if we're going Friday to Sunday? But since Zomegnan was fired, the Giro has been the race that has gone from the one GT that was guaranteed to put on something GC-relevant on each weekend day (except sometimes the first Sunday, after the first TT) to the GT that has put two featureless flat stages on the first weekend two years out of three.

Also, the organizers then get to go "wheeee, Marcel Kittel is wearing the maglia rosa! He's a big star!" and then he can announce like in the 2014 Tour that he has no intention of even trying to defend the jersey. It angers me that organizers continually want to throw a bone to a rider like that.

I didn't tune in yesterday, and I doubt I'll tune in today. That shouldn't be the state of affairs at the freaking Giro d'Italia.
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Its a shame down here in Australia the stages finish at 1am so its not too far out of the way but I watched the Four days of Dunkirk yesterday( great last 10km btw) and did not even check who won the Giro stage, why bother?
 
Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
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Yeah, quite a lot of people I talked to had hoped for the Berg en Dal climb to be included in the circuit. The circuit would then have been 18km. Today, in Arnhem I don't really think there's much you can do.

I really hoped Zonneveld's project would've materialised
 
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