Giro d'Italia 2023 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1: Fossacesia Marina – Ortona 19.6 km ITT (Saturday, May 6th)

Apr 30, 2011
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From @Eshnar's excellent 2023 Giro d'Italia: Stage-by-stage Analysis thread: https://forum.cyclingnews.com/threads/2023-giro-ditalia-stage-by-stage-analysis.38851/#post-2828612

Start order provided by @search: https://mcusercontent.com/1334a3762...b233-0695374afbb8/Giro_01_Ordine_Partenza.pdf

Stage 1: Fossacesia Marina – Ortona 19.6 km ITT

Saturday, May 6th, 13:50 – 17:10 CEST

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Technical Overview:

The 2023 Giro starts with an interesting ITT, long (for stage 1 standards) and mostly flat along the Costa dei Trabocchi, on the Adriatic. Starting from Fossacesia Marina, the riders will just follow the coast for 16.8 kms, with no hills and less than a handful of curves in sight. This will end once they reach the second checkpoint, where the route turns inland to reach the hilltop town of Ortona (GPM4, 2.8 km at 2.3%). This climb consists of a ramp of 1.2 km at 5.4% before some false flat, first descending and then ascending again to the finish.


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The Climbs:

Ortona: GPM4, 2.8 km at 2.3%

Not much to add to what I described in the overview. It will get timed, so it will determine the first blue jersey and someone might try to save their energy just for this.

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What to Expect:

Pure power will be the deciding factor, as the route is mostly just a long exposed straight, and the final climb is not steep at all. Gaps might be quite consistent, especially if it is windy.

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Ortona
 
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Sep 20, 2017
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Pure power course with no corners until they hit the little hill, looks great for Ganna, especially with the cross-tailwind that is currently forecasted (with a headwind, I think the Evenepoel threat would increase). Evenepoel to take 15-20 seconds on Roglic.
 
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Apr 30, 2011
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A shame that Tudor has taken over from Tissot as official time keeper. The latter has a very nice page for results, map and start times.
 
Feb 20, 2012
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Pure power course with no corners until they hit the little hill, looks great for Ganna, especially with the cross-tailwind that is currently forecasted (with a headwind, I think the Evenepoel threat would increase). Evenepoel to take 15-20 seconds on Roglic.
I can't decide if I'm pessimistic or not but I'm very bearish on Roglic' pan flat ITT and worry it's not overrated because most TTs he does are much hillier. I think he could easily lose 30s.

And I may have *** sources but the ones I use have a light cross/head wind.
 
Apr 30, 2011
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I can't decide if I'm pessimistic or not but I'm very bearish on Roglic' pan flat ITT and worry it's not overrated because most TTs he does are much hillier. I think he could easily lose 30s.
He lost less than 1'' per km in Copenhagen to Van Aert. I doubt he will lose twice as much here on the flat part.
 
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Aug 29, 2009
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Evenepoel just said that this "no recovery" type of effort indeed should suit him well. He believes that he is in better shape than for the Vuelta and aims to be the best of the GC contenders.
 
Feb 20, 2012
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He lost less than 1'' per km in Copenhagen to Van Aert. I doubt he will lose twice as much here on the flat part.
Never really compiled data but I have the feeling that if a TT rains out gaps between riders in similar circumstances do get smaller. But all things considering Copenhagen was pretty good.
 
Feb 20, 2012
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I can't decide if I'm pessimistic or not but I'm very bearish on Roglic' pan flat ITT and worry it's not overrated because most TTs he does are much hillier. I think he could easily lose 30s.

And I may have *** sources but the ones I use have a light cross/head wind.
Actually it just looks like crosswind I never realised how much the edge of the Boot goes west/east as it goes down.
 
Sep 12, 2022
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He lost less than 1'' per km in Copenhagen to Van Aert. I doubt he will lose twice as much here on the flat part.
How is that comparable? Distance was 2-3x less, it was raining, and the course had way more corners.

Not to say that Roglic won't do well in the TT on Saturday. I think he'll only lose around 20s on Evenepoel although I hope it will be much more.
 

KZD

Feb 21, 2019
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It difficult to go against Ganna in a flat Giro TT but I actually back Stefan Küng for this one. He is a beast in these 20-30 minutes TTs and on top of that he deserves to finally win a stage at a Grand Tour.

Remco could win this if there was a headwind, this way I think the third place its the most likely but he should still put 20 seconds into Roglič and Thomas.
 
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Apr 13, 2021
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What are the chances of Remco making a wrong turn on the final 3km ? Maybe he will not do a wrong turn but cross the line protesting the dangerous course because of the corners in Ortona.
 
Jul 10, 2014
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Isn't it strange that Covid has only selected to beat up Jumbo Visma, while leaving most others alone.