2018 Giro d'Italia stage 11: Assisi – Osimo 156 km

[Netserk]

STAGE 11: Assisi – Osimo 156 km

May 16th

Technical Overview:
Very interesting medium mountain stage. Starting from the most famous town of Assisi, the riders cross the Appennines again, this time towards east. The first climb of the day is Passo Cornello (GPM3, 8.4 km at 4.4%), a climb that only has one serious ramp, but that should be enough to define the breakaway of the day. A breakaway that has very good chances to make it to the end. After the descent, 40 km of descending false flat bring to the second climb of the day, Valico di Pietra Rossa (GPM3, 9.6 km at 3.7%), another very gentle climb, rarely over 6% gradient. The best however is about to start: the next difficulty is the intermediate sprint of Filottrano (in memory of Michele Scarponi), which lies after a 1.8 km wall with an average gradient of 7.8%. This wall features a 800m section at 11.8%, so it's pretty serious. It tops at 30 km to go, and it's the first of 4 walls, including the finish. The second wall comes at 13 km to go, in San Paterniano, and it's roughly 1 km at 9-10% (no official info). After it, some rolling terrain will bring the riders to Osimo, where 2 walls are still waiting. The first is perhaps the most interesting: Via Costa del Borgo is a 300m cobbled stretch at 13.2% average, coming at 5 km to go, 2 of which are a descent. At the bottom, less than 1 km of flat will lead to the final wall. Osimo (GPM4, 1.8 km at 6.4%) includes a real wall of 500m at 12.4%, followed by 1.3 km of easier climbing (still featuring some serious ramps), that flattens out towards the finishing line.

Final km

The Climbs:
Passo Cornello (GPM3, 8.4 km at 4.4%)
The only interesting section is 1.5 km at 7.8%. Not a bad climb, but nothing special, either.

Valico di Pietra Rossa (GPM3, 9.6 km at 3.7%)
Very shallow gradients throughout. And, no profile.

Filottrano
It's no GPM, but the organizers provide a profile, so here it is.

Osimo (GPM4, 1.8 km at 6.4%)
Profile on the final km picture.

What to Expect:
This is a very cool stage that would have the potential even for GC attacks, if there were favourites that are good in this scenarios. Unfortunately, I don't think there are, so on the GC side nothing should happen. Still, the fight for the stage win will be fun.

Assisi

 

[May0maniac]

How's the weather supposed to be?
People will feel stage 10 in their legs, we could see gaps between the gc contenders on the finish line.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

A good chance for Yates to grab another few seconds. Every second could be vital. 3 seconds per km in a TT means he already has 13km of the TT covered.
Needs another minute at least

 

[Netserk]

Profile of the finale:

https://lasterketaburua.wordpress.com/2018/05/15/analisi-tappa-11-giro-ditalia-2018/

 

[DNP-Old]

This is foul.

 

[Netserk]

I think Mitchelton–Scott is too weakened after today to chase all day. I expect a large break, and given how Wellens sat up from the beginning today, he'll probably be there.

Edit: And I think it's the perfect time to give the jersey to someone in the break. Konrad, Betancur, Henao, Schachmann, Geniez, & Gonçalves, this is your chance!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Positioning to be vital, that is a very narrow passage

 

[Alexandre B.]

Lopez likely to bleed more time.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

The narrow stuff comes after the wall, so it should be relatively spread out by then and hopefully not an issue

 

[Red Rick]

I really really like this stage design.

I wonder who would want to chase except for Mitchelton. LottoNL for Battaglin?

 

[Gigs_98]

In the stage originally revealed they had a much harder first climb which was higher and looked a lot steeper. It's a pity they changed that, otherwise lots of riders might have gotten into problems there after a hard stage like todays.
Anyway, as today was very very hard I expect the break to win the stage tomorrow as everyone who pulled today will want some rest. I think riders like wellens who could also win this from the peloton will realize that and join the break and I hope riders like Konrad or Betancur will realize this as well and hope that Michelton gives them enough rope to get close to pink. If enough riders try to do exactly that we once again could have a great stage with a break too big to control for an exhausted MS squad. Really my biggest fear for tomorrow is that wellens doesn't join the break and lotto decides to control the stage. That would be a waste

 

[yaco]

This definitely is one for the breakaway, though this has been stated a few times - I expect MS will be happy for the break to get 15 minutes - Though the first 30-50 kms could be ridden quickly because who MS want in the break will be different from other teams.

 

[Forever The Best]

In the stage originally revealed they had a much harder first climb which was higher and looked a lot steeper. It's a pity they changed that, otherwise lots of riders might have gotten into problems there after a hard stage like todays.
Anyway, as today was very very hard I expect the break to win the stage tomorrow as everyone who pulled today will want some rest. I think riders like wellens who could also win this from the peloton will realize that and join the break and I hope riders like Konrad or Betancur will realize this as well and hope that Michelton gives them enough rope to get close to pink. If enough riders try to do exactly that we once again could have a great stage with a break too big to control for an exhausted MS squad. Really my biggest fear for tomorrow is that wellens doesn't join the break and lotto decides to control the stage. That would be a waste

Formolo, Oomen and Henao should join it too. It can be very good.

 

[aarononymous]

Re:

Lopez likely to bleed more time.

All part of the plan for his epic comeback and victory, feigning weakness as apposed to dropping a bunch of time on a stage to take himself out of contention

 

[Rollthedice]

Next high placed GC victim tomorrow. Who will it be?

 

[Stella0596]

Re:

Next high placed GC victim tomorrow. Who will it be?

Has nobody noticed we also lost Meintjes today? He could've been very dangerous.. :lol:
Maybe Dumoulin will suffer a bit from his crash but I expect nothing.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Can team cars even go through there?

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

A good chance for Yates to grab another few seconds. Every second could be vital. 3 seconds per km in a TT means he already has 13km of the TT covered.
Needs another minute at least

He lost just over 2s per km to Dumo in the first ITT, expect no more than 2.5s in the second TT unless he's started fading

 

[Gigs_98]

By the way I just looked it up and in the original stage design the first climb was instead a 5km@11% brute. There also would have been a side of the climb which is 7km@7% but most of it on sterrato. I still think it's a bit sad they didn't use one of these two climbs as it would have made the first half of the stage a lot more exciting. Moreover that climb would at least have been a cat 2 climb, so more mountain points available.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

Next high placed GC victim tomorrow. Who will it be?

Has nobody noticed we also lost Meintjes today? He could've been very dangerous.. :lol:
Maybe Dumoulin will suffer a bit from his crash but I expect nothing.

This could be the best thing possible for him. He might have to learn to do something other than fall back as slowly as possible if he wants to salvage anything from his race, rather than just use a middling GC position as something to defend, and if so, in the long run he may be far better for it.

 

[fantomas]

Re: Re:

Next high placed GC victim tomorrow. Who will it be?

Has nobody noticed we also lost Meintjes today? He could've been very dangerous.. :lol:
Maybe Dumoulin will suffer a bit from his crash but I expect nothing.

When you're sucking wheels, you're bound to pick the wrong wheel to suck once in a while.

 

[rghysens]

Re:

I really really like this stage design.

I wonder who would want to chase except for Mitchelton. LottoNL for Battaglin?

LottoBE for Wellens?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

A good chance for Yates to grab another few seconds. Every second could be vital. 3 seconds per km in a TT means he already has 13km of the TT covered.
Needs another minute at least

He lost just over 2s per km to Dumo in the first ITT, expect no more than 2.5s in the second TT unless he's started fading

Disagree. First TT was perfect for Yates (also for Dumoulin, but that's another thing). This one is going to suit him a whole lot less

 

[Jspear]

I’m picking safe with Wellens...I honestly think he can take it though.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Re: Re:

A good chance for Yates to grab another few seconds. Every second could be vital. 3 seconds per km in a TT means he already has 13km of the TT covered.
Needs another minute at least

He lost just over 2s per km to Dumo in the first ITT, expect no more than 2.5s in the second TT unless he's started fading

Disagree. First TT was perfect for Yates (also for Dumoulin, but that's another thing). This one is going to suit him a whole lot less

Agreed, but on the flip side, there's reason to believe the 2 weeks leading up to this TT will be more painful for Tom than Simon. But I think 3 seconds per km feels about right. Given the bonus seconds available, TD needs Yates to fade as he looks likely to get the required gap with a bit of margin for error on current form.