2016 Giro Field Discussion

[Billie]

Valverde is very good prologue rider: apart from his comeback season
2014-02-19 1 Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol - Prologue 2.1 20
2013-04-23 8 Tour de Romandie - Prologue WT 3
2013-02-17 1 Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol - Prologue 2.1 20
2012-06-30 116 Tour de France - Prologue WT
2012-06-09 23 Tour de Suisse - Prologue WT
2012-03-04 41 Paris - Nice - Prologue WT
2012-02-19 25 Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta ciclista del Sol - Prologue 2.1
2010-04-27 Tour de Romandie - Prologue PT
2010-03-07 Paris - Nice - Prologue 2.HC
2009-08-29 9 Vuelta a Espana - Prologue 2.HC 8
2009-05-18 2 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya - Prologue PT 30
2009-04-28 3 Tour de Romandie - Prologue PT 18
2008-06-08 3 Critérium Du Dauphiné Libéré - Prologue PT 18
2007-07-07 31 Tour de France - Prologue 2.PT
2007-06-10 5 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré - Prologue PT 10
2006-08-24 13 Vuelta a Espana - Prologue 2.PT 3
2006-07-01 4 Tour de France - Prologue 2.PT 50
2006-06-04 7 Critérium Du Dauphiné Libéré - Prologue PT 4
2006-04-25 2 Tour de Romandie - Prologue 2.PT 30
2005-03-06 41 Paris - Nice - Prologue
2002-04-30 25 Tour de Romandie - Prologue

 

[Brullnux]

That's just prologue that are called prologues. Some are just 'Stage 1' and are a prologue all but in name. Any TT under 15km is what I'm categorising as a prologue.

 

[SafeBet]

Garzelli is currently doing the video recon of all Giro stages. He's now in the French Alps but he says all climbs are still closed for snow.

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

Rojas is mentioned in the shortlist

yes I must've allucinated.

Ventoso has been a regular presence in Movistar lineups for the Giro. Rojas is probably taking his place, or maybe just because he has a good rapport with Valverde.

Isn't Ventoso riding with Quintana mostly?

Since Ventoso joined Unzue's team he's raced TdF in 2011 only and Giro 2011 through 2014. Last year his only GT was the Vuelta. If there is such Quintana-Ventoso connection it doesn't look obvious to me.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Giro route suits Valverde. Not as hilly as usual with 3 TT is made for his characteristics.

It's way hillier than usual. Don't think I've seen this many medium-mountain/hilly stages in a single Giro. 6 or 7 sprints, 3 mountain stages and 3 TTs. Leaves 7 or 8 hilly stages. Way more than normal. Not sure if three TTs suit him more than one, especially not an MTT and the prologue. I expect him to top-10 and maybe top-5 the hilly/flat one in Tuscany. The others he may lose time on.

Medium mountain are different to high mountains. Medium mountains are a soda for top GC riders.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Giro route suits Valverde. Not as hilly as usual with 3 TT is made for his characteristics.

It's way hillier than usual. Don't think I've seen this many medium-mountain/hilly stages in a single Giro. 6 or 7 sprints, 3 mountain stages and 3 TTs. Leaves 7 or 8 hilly stages. Way more than normal. Not sure if three TTs suit him more than one, especially not an MTT and the prologue. I expect him to top-10 and maybe top-5 the hilly/flat one in Tuscany. The others he may lose time on.

Medium mountain are different to high mountains. Medium mountains are a soda for top GC riders.

You serious? IMO good medium mountain stages offer so many more slip-up oppuruinities and chances to lose/gain minutes than just an MTF. The stage to Sestola looks brilliant, the stage to Arezzo has a whole sterrato climb - a real climb, loads of stages have hills at the end in which it is more than possible to gain time or lose time, the Pramartino stage has the possibility to be awesome, etc. etc.

There are only 6 or 7 sprint stages, like usual, 2 real MTFs (One is the usual Giro easy early MTF, the other is Risoul) which is awesome, an awesome Dolomite stage, an absolutely fantastic medium mountain stage which beats most to all mountain stages, a 50k of flat or rolling ITT and a crazy (slightly stupid) high mountain stage that includes 3 very long, very high climbs. It's a great route. Yes it could do with a couple more high mountain stages and switch the order of 13,14 and 15 to get the perfection of the 2011 tripletta. Perhaps take out the MTT for a proper mountain stage.

The riders too have the ability to make it great. Bala has to attack on the hilly stages, Nibali will follow and attack himself, Landa will be great in the mountains (with no leash) and the outer-ring of favourites can go for long-range ambushes.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Just read INRG's Giro-preview. No time bonuses?

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Just read INRG's Giro-preview. No time bonuses?

afaik nothing has changed from last year. 10,6,4 seconds

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Just read INRG's Giro-preview. No time bonuses?

afaik nothing has changed from last year. 10,6,4 seconds

"The route and the lack of time bonuses don’t suit him so much so his he riding to win or for conditioning ahead of the Olympics?"

Weird

 

[Eshnar]

Re: Re:

Just read INRG's Giro-preview. No time bonuses?

afaik nothing has changed from last year. 10,6,4 seconds

"The route and the lack of time bonuses don’t suit him so much so his he riding to win or for conditioning ahead of the Olympics?"

Weird

who are they talking about?
And why would he race the Giro for the Olympics?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Just read INRG's Giro-preview. No time bonuses?

afaik nothing has changed from last year. 10,6,4 seconds

"The route and the lack of time bonuses don’t suit him so much so his he riding to win or for conditioning ahead of the Olympics?"

Weird

who are they talking about?
And why would he race the Giro for the Olympics?

Valverde. And I have no clue why he should ride the Giro as preparation, lmao. But he tends to be very well informed normally.

 

[HelloDolly]

Konig not on Trentino official star list.
he´s in Czech Rep training, not even in Monaco nor Teide.

I think the Giro is gone. maybe Yorkshire-California-Slovenia

who will step in? Frosty?

I dont know. Nieve was supposed to ride the Tour.
we´ll see.

Probably Deignan

Is Intxausti going ot be ready for the Giro ...haven't seen him in an age

 

[Eshnar]

Re: Re:

Just read INRG's Giro-preview. No time bonuses?

afaik nothing has changed from last year. 10,6,4 seconds

"The route and the lack of time bonuses don’t suit him so much so his he riding to win or for conditioning ahead of the Olympics?"

Weird

who are they talking about?
And why would he race the Giro for the Olympics?

Valverde. And I have no clue why he should ride the Giro as preparation, lmao. But he tends to be very well informed normally.

I haven't seen anywhere any hint that they would drop time bonuses. I guess they should have already announced it quite some time ago, had it been the case.

 

[Valv.Piti]

That would also be a real shame if they chose to abandon that, hopefully he just is misinformed...

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Nowhere on the race or the organiser's website does it say time bonuses have been removed.

 

[Anderis]

Procyclingstats has Talansky on provisional Giro startlist.

That's quite surprising no matter how you look at it. Perhaps he needs some race days in his legs, since he hasn't raced since Paris-Nice. I wonder if he intends to finish this race, or if he will pull out somewhere after 2 weeks (may depend on where will Uran be in GC). And will he then ride Dauphine and Tour, as intended, or will his season look totally different?

Szmyd in 2010 rode Giro, Dauphine, TdF and then even Pologne and showed good form all-throughout, so it's definetely possible.

There may be hidden story behind it as well. Such as Talansky not wanting to resign with the team beyond 2016, so he will be used as a domestique for Giro instead getting a protected rider status at TdF. We will find out later in the year. Race days argument doesn't seem as convincing if you include the fact he could ride Romandie-California-Dauhpine, that's quite a lot of racing left still before TdF.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Procyclingstats has Talansky on provisional Giro startlist.

That's quite surprising no matter how you look at it. Perhaps he needs some race days in his legs, since he hasn't raced since Paris-Nice. I wonder if he intends to finish this race, or if he will pull out somewhere after 2 weeks (may depend on where will Uran be in GC). And will he then ride Dauphine and Tour, as intended, or will his season look totally different?

Szmyd in 2010 rode Giro, Dauphine, TdF and then even Pologne and showed good form all-throughout, so it's definetely possible.

There may be hidden story behind it as well. Such as Talansky not wanting to resign with the team beyond 2016, so he will be used as a domestique for Giro instead getting a protected rider status at TdF. We will find out later in the year. Race days argument doesn't seem as convincing if you include the fact he could ride Romandie-California-Dauhpine, that's quite a lot of racing left still before TdF.

I dont follow Garmin and Tolansky at all really, but Talansky's career seems on a downward trajectory after CdD 2014 when he should be coming into his best years. I think the reasoning is, last year didn't really work unless you count 11th as TdF a success, so why not try something different? Urán has an outside shot at the Giro, the only GC Garmin realistically can win this year, and Talansky may prove valuable at some key points. But I dont know, thats just my train of thoughts.

 

[May0maniac]

Procyclingstats has Talansky on provisional Giro startlist.

That's quite surprising no matter how you look at it. Perhaps he needs some race days in his legs, since he hasn't raced since Paris-Nice. I wonder if he intends to finish this race, or if he will pull out somewhere after 2 weeks (may depend on where will Uran be in GC). And will he then ride Dauphine and Tour, as intended, or will his season look totally different?

Szmyd in 2010 rode Giro, Dauphine, TdF and then even Pologne and showed good form all-throughout, so it's definetely possible.

There may be hidden story behind it as well. Such as Talansky not wanting to resign with the team beyond 2016, so he will be used as a domestique for Giro instead getting a protected rider status at TdF. We will find out later in the year. Race days argument doesn't seem as convincing if you include the fact he could ride Romandie-California-Dauhpine, that's quite a lot of racing left still before TdF.

That would be a big surprise. Talasky is a great descender and doesn't really suffer bad weather, so the Giro should suit him well.
Still, Uran, Formolo, Dombrowski and Talasky all riding the Giro would be a little bit too much, they also have Simon Clarke for the hilly stages.

 

[jens_attacks]

Stop posting some dubious websites as official startlists plz
Not even vaughters knows yet but they do...

 

[Anderis]

I think the reasoning is, last year didn't really work unless you count 11th as TdF a success, so why not try something different? Urán has an outside shot at the Giro, the only GC Garmin realistically can win this year, and Talansky may prove valuable at some key points. But I dont know, thats just my train of thoughts.

Of course last year didin't work too well (Pais Vasco crash and California allergy contributed to this) but they knew this before the season and could have planned 2016 differently from beginning, but what's going on seems like a lot of last-minute changes. In January Talansky had said he would be racing Algarve, then he didn't. He had been intended to ride Catalunya IIRC but skipped it as well (may be a result of Paris-Nice crash). There were no signs from the team he could ride Giro this year.

Still, Uran, Formolo, Dombrowski and Talasky all riding the Giro would be a little bit too much, they also have Simon Clarke for the hilly stages.

If they leave Rolland, Cardoso, Slagter, Woods and Craddock, it seems like a fair split between Giro and Tour. On paper, they are able to send two good GT line-ups, so they make a use of it.

Stop posting some dubious websites as official startlists plz
Not even vaughters knows yet but they do...

Nobody posted it as OFFICIAL startlist. I even underlined in my post it's provisional.

For some reason they added him there (they ususally base their provisional startlist on what's said in the media by team members and riders etc.) so I think it's interesting case and worth discussing, even if it won't turn out to be true.

 

[Valv.Piti]

One of Uran and Talansky would probably also ride the Tour, dont you think?

 

[Anderis]

Well, that was short-lived.

Talansky has added to his racing between Romandie and the Critérium du Dauphiné in June, and will race the Tour of California in May.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/talansky-learning-from-past-mistakes-as-he-targets-tour-de-france/

 

[Valv.Piti]

Well, that was short-lived.

Talansky has added to his racing between Romandie and the Critérium du Dauphiné in June, and will race the Tour of California in May.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/talansky-learning-from-past-mistakes-as-he-targets-tour-de-france/

Lmao. Interesting that its the first time he has been on a altitude camp, pretty surprising indeed.

 

[Gigs_98]

Btw Eshnar, are there no rumors for 2017 yet?
Last year the rumour thread started in February and next year will be the 100th edition so one might think that the number of rumours at this point is above average (also because you even already mentioned some rumors for 2017 in 2015)

 

[jens_attacks]

lmao at these startlists sites. always useless.