Giro d'Italia 2023 Giro D’Italia Route Rumors

[Red Rick]

Would be interesting if we have a good TTer who would take like 2 minutes early.

If his main opponent is Carapaz (similar in TT's imo), we may get the same borefest. For having a good GT routes are only half of the equation. The other, and perhaps the more important part are the competitors. Hopefully Almeida or any other good TTer will be in form..

This Giro is pretty field dependent. Hindley may be inclined to want to race the Tour now that he has crossed the Giro off his list.

Apart from Evenepoel, Almeida and maybe Roglic I don't see many of the top 10 GT riders inclined to race the Giro

 

[OlavEH]

Apart from Evenepoel, Almeida and maybe Roglic I don't see many of the top 10 GT riders inclined to race the Giro

Carapaz? And hopefully Bernal if he returns.

 

[houtdffan]

This route shows you can have a fair amount of flat ITT (looks to be ~62km of flat ITT) and still be a GT that favors the climbers

Govenou, take note

 

[ashhutch1997]

Alpe di Siusi is much less of a fearsome climb that Monte Lussari is.

Yes, but this Monte Lussari is being slightly overhyped, it's steep but its not like they are doing a monster MTT up Monte Grappa ect.

 

[Red Rick]

Lussari is basically Les Praeres but 50% longer and Les Praeres is definitely easier than Siusi, so the difference isn't massive, and hopefully counterbalanced by it being the end of the race rather than the third weekend.

Uh it's a TT with over 1000m of altitude gain, likely over 40 minutes overall, and with gradients where riders will be very afraid of having a bad day.

 

[Extinction]

The Tre Cime di Lavaredo stage...man, that is a Beast (only the Giro can put together such a string of climbs).

 

[houtdffan]

Hindley lost 3:48 to Remco in the Vuelta ITT

Given there are double the number of flat ITT km in this Giro compared to the Vuelta, Hindley may lose 6-7 minutes in the flat ITT to Remco.

He's going to have to drop Remco by many minutes on multiple mountain stages to win

 

[Statze2]

Hindley lost 3:48 to Remco in the Vuelta ITT

Given there are double the number of flat ITT km in this Giro compared to the Vuelta, Hindley may lose 6-7 minutes in the flat ITT to Remco.

He's going to have to drop Remco by many minutes on multiple mountain stages to win

Remco was peaking for the Vuelta, Hindley was not in a really good form. If both are peaking for the same event, Remco still would be far ahead of Hindley but not 6-7 just in time trials.

 

[YavorD]

Carapaz? And hopefully Bernal if he returns.

Yeah, but neither of them is good enough TT'er to get enough time on Hindley IMO. Which was my main point. If we don't have good enough TT'er the whole point of having an early TT to build gaps, provoking climber to attack.

This Giro is pretty field dependent. Hindley may be inclined to want to race the Tour now that he has crossed the Giro off his list.

Apart from Evenepoel, Almeida and maybe Roglic I don't see many of the top 10 GT riders inclined to race the Giro

Agreed on the former. If we get even 2 of them 3 and Carapaz plus (questionably) top form Bernal and trouble free Lopez, we may be on for a great Giro even without Hindley.

 

[OlavEH]

Yeah, but neither of them is good enough TT'er to get enough time on Hindley IMO. Which was my main point. If we don't have good enough TT'er the whole point of having an early TT to build gaps, provoking climber to attack.

I forgot Roglic. He may show up in the Giro. Rog and Evenepoel vs Bernal and Hindley would be potentially great.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Hindley lost 3:48 to Remco in the Vuelta ITT

Given there are double the number of flat ITT km in this Giro compared to the Vuelta, Hindley may lose 6-7 minutes in the flat ITT to Remco.

He's going to have to drop Remco by many minutes on multiple mountain stages to win

Hindley was miles off his best in the Vuelta so it's not that useful an indicator. Evenepoel should still be like 3 minutes up going into the Alps though, maybe more if he also takes time in the mid-mountain stages and easy MTFs, which should allow for shipping major time once and maybe twice, but it's a route with three separate mountain stages that are harder than anything he's ever done before and he's never climbed with the best in the race on anything HC, so it's very hard to predict how much time he will need for the stretch from Crans-Montana to Tre Cime.

 

[Red Rick]

Hindley lost 3:48 to Remco in the Vuelta ITT

Given there are double the number of flat ITT km in this Giro compared to the Vuelta, Hindley may lose 6-7 minutes in the flat ITT to Remco.

He's going to have to drop Remco by many minutes on multiple mountain stages to win

Hindly was just in worse form in the Vuelta. If he's in Giro climbing shape I would expect him to lose under 4 minutes in the first 2 TTs surely

 

[yaco]

disagree entirely.

ITT is where you can absolutely be sure that the GC is in play and there is epic drama and suspense as you don't know how riders will go.

it is the race of truth.

Except it does not attract viewers - You add the sprint stage 14, then four of the six weekend stages will be unexciting.

 

[zlev11]

absolutely awesome route. i was worried about the direction they were going to go in after last years horrible route, but this is great. thank god. i love it.

 

[OlavEH]

The Tre Cime di Lavaredo stage...man, that is a Beast (only the Giro can put together such a string of climbs).

And they're still from using the full potential for a Tre Cime finish. They could have done Cibiana-Fedaia-Pordoi-Giau and Tre Croci before the Tre Cime finish. That says something about how tough it is possible to design Giro stages.

 

[houtdffan]

Hindly was just in worse form in the Vuelta. If he's in Giro climbing shape I would expect him to lose under 4 minutes in the first 2 TTs surely

That may be true.

However, he should also lose 45-60 seconds on the flat part of the MTT as well

 

[yaco]

Hindley is riding the TDF - Assuming that Roglic rides the Giro then the climber types are likely to gravitate to the TDF where they could grab a podium behind Pogacar and Vingegaard.

 

[RedheadDane]

Now for the important stuff.
Does anyone have any photos of riders in (weird) suits?

 

[OlavEH]

Hindley is riding the TDF - Assuming that Roglic rides the Giro then the climber types are likely to gravitate to the TDF where they could grab a podium behind Pogacar and Vingegaard.

Would be sad. Rog may very well not be on the same level as last year's Vuelta. So it should be completely possible for a Hindley in peak shape to beat him.

 

[sir fly]

Yeah, but neither of them is good enough TT'er to get enough time on Hindley IMO. Which was my main point. If we don't have good enough TT'er the whole point of having an early TT to build gaps, provoking climber to attack.



Agreed on the former. If we get even 2 of them 3 and Carapaz plus (questionably) top form Bernal and trouble free Lopez, we may be on for a great Giro even without Hindley.

Even substantial gaps in the flat tt don't guarantee the climbers will put the hammer down before Tre Cime and Lussari.
...Leave the work at the front to the leader's team and grind uphill hoping for fatigue to kick in by the closing stages.

 

[KZD]

Carapaz? And hopefully Bernal if he returns.

I think Thomas could be Ineos leader as it could be too early for Bernal (my bet is that he returns to GT racing in the Vuelta). I expect Kelderman to come for Jumbo if Roglic doesn't. I would really like to see Kooij debuting here as well.

As for the route, I think its well balanced, around 70km of ITT kms (stage 9 says 30.7km in the graph but 33,6km in the header so I am not sure which one is right) but there is plenty of mountains, stage 20 is the kind of stage in which one could lose many minutes and stages 13, 16 and 18 are also very hard with some nice mid-mountain stages earlier on, even if I miss a hard hilly like the one from Tirreno 2021. I disagree with those that say that the sprinters are going to have a bad time, well in the mountains for sure but I see 7 or 8 possible sprint stages and only two of them are in the third week. Finally that MTT, I like the idea of bringing it back but I don't think Monte Lussari is the right climb for it. In the context of this Giro, I would replace it by a hard mid-mountain stage (with very tired from the two days before it could have made big differences anyway) and would have made stage 9 TT, a proper long one, with around 50km and more hilly instead of pan-flat

 

[Statze2]

Would be sad. Rog may very well not be on the same level as last year's Vuelta. So it should be completely possible for a Hindley in peak shape to beat him.

Don´t think that Hindley is riding the Giro again. He can go to the tour and ride behind Pogacar, Vingegaar and maybe Remco. There he can hide a bit and can make another suprise if he is finishing at the podium.
At the Giro everything else than a win would be "disappointment". So i think there is nothing to win for him at the Giro

 

[Escarabajo]

huge fan of MTTs.

but not this silly one.

7-8% not this idiocy.

and i absolutely despise ITTs where riders make a bike switch.

They wanted to make sure that everyone changed their bikes before the climb!!!

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

This route shows you can have a fair amount of flat ITT (looks to be ~62km of flat ITT) and still be a GT that favors the climbers

Govenou, take note

The 2022 Tour had like 50 km of flat ITT and yet favored the climbers. Not a huge difference.

 

[Escarabajo]

Has the arch-traitor Vegni been redeemed, at least partially?

Week 2 is a bit weak for my taste. But those medium mountain stages could be fun. As long as they are not pan flat I am fine with it. I am happy that the Crans Montana stage turned out to be very good. Never been a friend of the 3rd week loading but I am starting to get accustomed to that at the Giro.