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Giro d'Italia 2021 Giro d'Italia, Stage 15: Grado – Gorizia 147 km

Maximum gap for the early breakaway?

  • There will be no breakaway

    Votes: 2 5.4%
  • Less than 2 minutes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2-4 minutes

    Votes: 2 5.4%
  • 4-6 minutes

    Votes: 2 5.4%
  • 6-8 minutes

    Votes: 2 5.4%
  • 8-10 minutes

    Votes: 6 16.2%
  • 10-12 minutes

    Votes: 8 21.6%
  • 12-15 minutes

    Votes: 6 16.2%
  • 15-20 minutes

    Votes: 3 8.1%
  • 20+ minutes

    Votes: 6 16.2%

  • Total voters
    37
  • Poll closed .
All credits go to our true God Eshnar

Stage 15: Grado – Gorizia 147 km

Sunday, May 23rd, 13.15 CEST


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Technical Overview:

The Giro passes through Slovenia for a rather tame stage, considering this is the penultimate Sunday. Starting in Grado, at the edge of the Marano Lagoon, the peloton will cross the lagoon on a bridge and then head north into the inland, traversing mostly pan flat roads with the exception of the small climb to Monte San Michele, little more than a false flat. Soon after the first intermediate sprint in Mariano del Friuli, the riders will enter a circuit to be repeated three times. The circuit enters Slovenia and climbs the only categorized climb of the day, Gornje Cerovo (GPM4, 1.7 km at 8.5%), a short but pretty steep wall. It is followed by a 6 km false flat and a short descent heading west before the road gets back to Italy, only to do everything again, as I mentioned, two more times. After the GPM on the last lap (topping at 16.5 km to go), the riders will change direction and descent to Italy from a shorter route, heading east this time, towards Gorizia. Here the road will go one more time into Slovenia, to visit the Slovenian version of Gorizia, Nova Gorica. Here they will have the second intermediate sprint and then a small climb of 1 km at 5.9%, topping at 3 km to go. One km of descent will then bring the peloton back to Italy and to the finish line in Gorizia itself.



Final Kilometers

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The Climbs:

Gornje Cerovo: GPM4, 1.7 km at 8.5%


A steep wall with a 15% maximum gradient.

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What to expect:

This stage will probably not be contested by the peloton, considering what is in store for tomorrow. The breakaway will take it and the battle between the fugitives on the final climb(s) should be fun, but without any GC implication.



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Castello di Gorizia
 
I wonder what the route plan A was for this stage (I will continue to refuse to believe that this is plan A even if Vegni says otherwise).
I understand it. They clearly put this stage in to capitalize on the recent cycling hype in Slovenia and there is no better day to do that than a weekend. In addition, isn't Monday a national holiday too? At least it's in Austria so I guess it's probably the same in Italy. So you can just as well put a big highlight stage on monday and since 3 mountain stages in a row is a bit much anyway you might as well put this one in between.
 
I understand it. They clearly put this stage in to capitalize on the recent cycling hype in Slovenia and there is no better day to do that than a weekend. In addition, isn't Monday a national holiday too? At least it's in Austria so I guess it's probably the same in Italy. So you can just as well put a big highlight stage on monday and since 3 mountain stages in a row is a bit much anyway you might as well put this one in between.

I am aware of all that.

However, having a completely GC irrelevant stage on a penultimate weekend is still poor planning, whatever the excuses.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Sandisfan
I am aware of all that.

However, having a completely GC irrelevant stage on a penultimate weekend is still poor planning, whatever the excuses.
The 2011 Tour de France, backloaded to the extreme, still found time to put this on the penultimate Sunday despite literally every remaining stage until the Champs being GC-relevant:
stage-15-profile.gif


In fact, it's almost an annual tradition in Le Tour to have such a stage on the penultimate Sunday. 2014 had this epic:
Tdf14_stage15_profile.png


2015 this unforgettable stage:
2015tdf-stg16-mende-valence-1462811762.jpg


2016 changed things up by making Sunday relevant, but having this on the penultimate Saturday:
stage-14-profile.jpg


2017 followed that pattern:
stage-14-profile.jpg


While last year after a couple of days of at least trying, they went with this.
stage-14-profile.jpg


The Tour, however, has been far more proactive this year so the Giro has to cover for them. Not that they're exempt from criticism, after all in 2017 they gave us something potentially even worse: this.

iCNjDn8hjmNy2FwHRoYw2G.jpg
 
The 2011 Tour de France, backloaded to the extreme, still found time to put this on the penultimate Sunday despite literally every remaining stage...

It's the Giro, not the Tour. That Tour does the weekend stages that badly is a seprate topic.

The stage on Sunday is the single easiest penultimate weekend Giro road stage of the last 15 years (at least) and that includes the unusual 2009 edition.

Even a redo of Oropa 17 stage hockey stick profile would be an improvement.
 
The 2011 Tour de France, backloaded to the extreme, still found time to put this on the penultimate Sunday despite literally every remaining stage until the Champs being GC-relevant:
stage-15-profile.gif


In fact, it's almost an annual tradition in Le Tour to have such a stage on the penultimate Sunday. 2014 had this epic:
Tdf14_stage15_profile.png


2015 this unforgettable stage:
2015tdf-stg16-mende-valence-1462811762.jpg


2016 changed things up by making Sunday relevant, but having this on the penultimate Saturday:
stage-14-profile.jpg


2017 followed that pattern:
stage-14-profile.jpg


While last year after a couple of days of at least trying, they went with this.
stage-14-profile.jpg


The Tour, however, has been far more proactive this year so the Giro has to cover for them. Not that they're exempt from criticism, after all in 2017 they gave us something potentially even worse: this.

iCNjDn8hjmNy2FwHRoYw2G.jpg
Tbh, an Unipuerto where the first part is steepest have way overdelivered in the last few years
 
Tbh, an Unipuerto where the first part is steepest have way overdelivered in the last few years
...that Oropa stage? Oropa is nothing like hard enough for a hockey stick profile, especially not such a short stage. Montecampione or Mont Ventoux or PSM Unipuerto, sure, I'll buy that. Those climbs are hard enough that they will be decisive in and of themselves. Hockey stick 130km to Oropa was just awful. That was the absolute nadir of the short-mountain-stage fetishization and one of the rare situations where the Tour actually outdoes the Giro - the thing that attracted people to the short mountain stages was that, because of their short distance, riders were less afraid of going from afar and taking opportunities given to them elsewhere by the parcours. Making the short mountain stage Unipuerto completely takes that out of the equation and just renders it an uphill sprint and plays into the hands of the mountain trains because the whole assembly will be hitting the base fresh. If Pantani hadn't gone nuts there and the Giro become obsessed with treating him like he was Binda, Girardengo, Coppi and Bartali rolled into one, then it's a complete nothing climb. Think of all the great Giro sites that weren't in Giro 100, and yet Oropa was, in a 130km Unipuerto stage that would have been considered a pretty easy mountain stage in the Giro Rosa.
 
...that Oropa stage? Oropa is nothing like hard enough for a hockey stick profile, especially not such a short stage. Montecampione or Mont Ventoux or PSM Unipuerto, sure, I'll buy that. Those climbs are hard enough that they will be decisive in and of themselves. Hockey stick 130km to Oropa was just awful. That was the absolute nadir of the short-mountain-stage fetishization and one of the rare situations where the Tour actually outdoes the Giro - the thing that attracted people to the short mountain stages was that, because of their short distance, riders were less afraid of going from afar and taking opportunities given to them elsewhere by the parcours. Making the short mountain stage Unipuerto completely takes that out of the equation and just renders it an uphill sprint and plays into the hands of the mountain trains because the whole assembly will be hitting the base fresh. If Pantani hadn't gone nuts there and the Giro become obsessed with treating him like he was Binda, Girardengo, Coppi and Bartali rolled into one, then it's a complete nothing climb. Think of all the great Giro sites that weren't in Giro 100, and yet Oropa was, in a 130km Unipuerto stage that would have been considered a pretty easy mountain stage in the Giro Rosa.
Obviously the stage design was shambolic. It's probably the stage that overdelivered the most in the last 5 years. All just a consequence of having the best climber needing to attack cause of a big boy ITTer in the lead.

Obviously I remember that stage fondly because of Dumoulin winning. Also the stage after was *** dreadfully designed as well
 

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