Giro d'Italia 33rd Giro d'Italia Donne, June 30th-July 10th, 2022

[Samu Cuenca]

Last year's Giro, the first organised by PMG Sport, saw SD Worx sweep the podium with Anna van der Breggen (her 4th title, surpassed only by the legendary Fabiana Luperini's 5 wins), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Demi Vollering as well as winning 3 stages, 3 out of the 4 jerseys and the team classification. Marianne Vos claimed her 30th stage win, Emma Norsgaard her first and Lorena Wiebes her first two, while Coryn Rivera (now Labecki), who had lost her very supporting father to Covid a few months earlier, took an emotional victory on the last stage.

This year’s race is back at WWT level, promises two hours of daily live coverage and has a prize pot equal to the Tour de France Femmes' (250.000 Euros, 50.000 for the winner). It starts with a 4.75 km time trial in Cagliari, Sardinia. You may be fooled into thinking this is a prologue, but it isn’t. According to UCI rules a prologue can’t exceed 4 km in a women’s race, for some reason. The organiser could therefore have been quite cruel and had a lot of long stages afterwards and still not have broken the allowed 140 km daily average, but that is not the case. There isn’t actually a single stage of more than 140 km in the race, and the average stage length is just over 100 km.

Stage 2 is a 106.5 km flat stage between Villasimius in the south of the island and Tortolì in the middle of it. The peloton will be riding close to the coast all day, so crosswinds could possibly come into play. There is only one categorised climb on the stage (1.5 km, 5.2% avg., 9% max.), and it starts after only 6 km of racing, so this could be the first time riders like Elise Chabbey and Lucinda Brand will be testing their legs. The small lumps before the finish seem to have have 5-7% maximum gradients, but they still shouldn’t cause major problems for the likes of Balsamo, Kopecky and Vos. They could still be used as stepping stones for late attacks though. There's two left turns in the final 1100 meters, but the last 700 is on a big and straight avenue.

Stage 3 is the last one in Sardinia. 113.4 km will be covered to get from Cala Gonone in the middle of the island to Olbia in the north of it. Once again, they’ll be staying close to the coast throughout the stage. The first 22 km are mostly downhill and there are no categorized climbs. A bunch sprint seems inevitable. There are some turns in the last 3 km and a final roundabout 900 m from the finish.

Day 4 is a rest day, which allows the peloton to travel to the mainland before the start of stage 4.

GC Favourites
Annemiek van Vleuten
Marta Cavalli
Kristen Faulkner, Juliette Labous, Lucinda Brand, Mavi García
Niamh Fisher Black, Clara Koppenburg, Elise Chabbey, Krista Doebel-Hickok, Erica Magnaldi
Riders like Silvia Persico, Olivia Baril, Mikayla Harvey, Neve Bradbury, Alena Amialiusik, Gaia Realini, Rachel Neylan, Riejanne Markus, Leah Thomas, Brodie Chapman

Jokers (uncertain form and/or targeting the Tour de France): Elisa Longo Borghini, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Évita Muzic, Blanka Vas, Amanda Spratt

Potential stage winners (not already mentioned): Marianne Vos, Elisa Balsamo, Lotte Kopecky, Emma Norsgaard, Arlenis Sierra, Charlotte Kool, Soraya Paladin, Marta Bastianelli, Sofia Bertizzolo, Chiara Consonni, Clara Copponi

Startlist: https://firstcycling.com/race.php?r=9064&y=2022&k=8
Roadbook: https://www.giroditaliadonne.it/eng-anita/

 

[roundabout]

Could have sworn there was a thread yesterday

Ah, there it is

Giro d'Italia - Giro D’Italia Donne, 6/30-7/10

The time is here for the first women’s Grand Tour of the year, the Giro Donne. We have a prologue and 9 road stages on the docket here, with the start list being still finalized, which I will post it below when available to myself or other forum members. Prologue: Stage 1: Stage 2 After...

forum.cyclingnews.com

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Could have sworn there was a thread yesterday

Ah, there it is

Giro d'Italia - Giro D’Italia Donne, 6/30-7/10

The time is here for the first women’s Grand Tour of the year, the Giro Donne. We have a prologue and 9 road stages on the docket here, with the start list being still finalized, which I will post it below when available to myself or other forum members. Prologue: Stage 1: Stage 2 After...

forum.cyclingnews.com

Well I guess never actually confirmed that I was creating the thread, so that's my own fault.

 

[RedheadDane]

Is this the creation of a new "Dot"?

Of course, the dates are wonky in the other thread.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Is this the creation of a new "Dot"?

Of course, the dates are wonky in the other thread.

No it's not. I had absolutely no idea the other thread existed until a couple of minues ago!

I like mine better though, so sorry, @Jumbo Visma Fan :), but @Red Rick, please stickify this one!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Stage 4 offers a nice hilly 121 km course in and around Cesena. GC action is to be expected.

Profile of the Bertinoro climb on Veloviewer (the maximum gradient is quite overstated):
https://veloviewer.com/segments/22710899

Profile of Barbotto

I couldn't find a profile for Monteleone (other than from a website, I try to avoid), which was why I didn't post the thread days ago. The climb was used as recent as during the second stage of this year's Coppi e Bartali. It was also part of the Cesena stage in the 2004 Giro d'Italia, where a young whippersnapper by the name of Emanuele Sella was victorious. The first kilometre is at over 9%, before it "flattens out" towards the top.

They'll then avoid the Muro di Sorrivoli, and instead do a different climb, which is apparently around 3 km at 7%. The first kilometre is steep, with percentages above 10, before it gets easier. There's another short uphill section a couple of kilometres after the top of it, before a 5-6 km descent to some kind of uphill finish in Cesena.


Stage 5 is the longest of the race. 126 km will take the riders from Carpi to Reggio Emilia. It's mostly flat with no categorised climbs, so it will probably be decided in another bunch sprint. There's a left turn 200 meters from the line, so expect to see some crashes.

Stage 6 is 115 km from Sarnico to Fausto Masnada's hometown of Bergamo. It features 5 laps of 18 km with a 2 km climb in it, before a 26 km route to the finish. The fnish is the same as the one used in the Giro di Lombardia and the Giro d'Italia with the Città Alta 4 km from the line.

Bergamo also hosted the last stage of the 2012 Giro Rosa, where Marianne Vos, Emma Pooley and Emma Johansson reached the line together:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHevD1qM6VQ

Stage 7 is one for the climbers. A classic hockey stick stage leads to the top of Passo del Maniva. It was last used in the 2019 Baby Giro, where Andrés Camilo Ardila killed the race in a Colombian spectacle. Domenico Pozzovivo also won there two times in the now defunct Brixia Tour.

Stage 8 is a 105 km montain stage in Trentino with a descent finish in Aldeno.
Passo Bordala was used during the stage to Passo Coe (won by Pavel Tonkov) in the 2002 Giro, but they climbed it from Arco over Passo di Santa Barbara. After they've descended down to the finish line in Aldeno for the first time, they'll climb Bordala once more from Villa Lagarina, but only to the point where it meets the road from Aldeno.

The descent to Aldeno is the first 10 km on the profile below.

Stage 9 is another tough one and could decide the whole race, unless someone, who's just extended her contract for one final season, has already crushed the opposition at this point.

Three mountain passes will be crossed; Fai della Paganella, Passo del Durone and Passo Daone. The top of the last one is 26 km from the finish. Those last kilometres are either uphill or downhill, and the final 2.5 km are at over 6%.

Fai della Paganella/Passo Santel was the penultimate climb on the stage won by Alejandro Valverde stage win in the 2016 Giro. They didn't go all the way to the top on that occasion and used a different climb to get to the finish in Aldeno.

Passi Durano and Daone have both been used as the penultimate climb on stages to Madonna di Campiglio won by Ben O'Connor in 2020 and by Mikel Landa in 2015.

Stage 10 is a kind of parade stage to Padova, which features one categorised climb. Padova used to host the Classica Citta di Padova, which was held five times between 2008 and 2014. Ivan Quaranta also managed to win a stage in the city 22 years ago.

The roadbook says there's a series of pedestrian traffic in the final 3 km, but hopefully they don't mean that people will actually be crossing the streets. The riders will turn left in a roudabout with 800 m to go before a finish on a wide road next to the pretty Prato della Valle square.

I've cut the map, because I couldn't have more than 20 pictures.

 

[yaco]

I am very interested in who will win the 4.75 ITT - I doubt there is a clear cut favourite - I'll go with Kopecky with little confidence but there could be a surprise result.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

No it's not. I had absolutely no idea the other thread existed until a couple of minues ago!

I like mine better though, so sorry, @Jumbo Visma Fan :), but @Red Rick, please stickify this one!

Everybody likes their own better, but mine is only slightly better than yours.

 

[RedheadDane]

Everybody likes their own better, but mine is only slightly better than yours.

This one gets the edge for writing dates in a normal way.
That's actually how I was taught to do it at university. If you write the dates like this, there can be no confusion.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

This one gets the edge for writing dates in a normal way.
That's actually how I was taught to do it at university. If you write the dates like this, there can be no confusion.

I still marvel that some Europeans can’t understand a Month/Day/Year format, not you of course though.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

This one gets the edge for writing dates in a normal way.
That's actually how I was taught to do it at university. If you write the dates like this, there can be no confusion.

No, this one gets the edge for understanding that the first stage isn't a prologue

Everybody likes their own better, but mine is only slightly better than yours.

I'll give you credit for finding profiles for some of the remaining climbs

 

[RedheadDane]

I still marvel that some Europeans can’t understand a Month/Day/Year format, not you of course though.

We can understand it well enough. We just also understand that it's weird.
But you people also use miles...

 

[Lui98]

Answering to the poll, I think that Marta will win the Giro

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The stage begins very shortly. Unfortunately the live coverage starts after riders like Vos, AVV, ELB, Norsgaard, Persico, Faulkner and Balsamo have already finished.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Georgia Baker leads with 5'49. Longo Borghini and Van Vleuten were 5 and 6 seconds slower respectively and Vos 10 seconds.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Faulkner has done it again!
5'45 is now the fastest time.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The live coverage has until just been highlights/delayed coverage.
Balsamo is 6 seconds behind Faulkner, so she can possibly take the lead tomorrow.

 

[SafeBet]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1542484726182813697

View: https://twitter.com/Leonardo44447/status/1542484726182813697?s=20&t=szLYub1kprh8BsO6DM4xlQ

 

[yaco]

Kopecky is the rider who could beat Faulkner's time - BEX's ITT equipment is top notch.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Provisional 4th for Kopecky, half a second slower than Balsamo and 6 seconds behind Faulkner.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Labous was about 15 seconds behind and Cavalli 18. The wind also picked up through the stage, so starting early wasn't a bad choice.

 

[yaco]

We must appreciate how good Bike Exchange,'s ITT set up is in 2022 - Interesting that MVDP will be using the same skinsuit as BEX in tomorrow's ITT.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

A bit of a weird podium ceremony, where Faulkner's bottle opened easily, but Baker and Balsamo's took ages and then turned out to be empty.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Kind of annoyed, I had just assumed the usual 10 days no rest day format, I was away so missed the start of the race. Now settling in live for stage 2 (stage 1), definitely seeing a real step up in professionalism on the organisation and coverage. I had my reservations about the timing and the intentions of the TDF, coming in after the Giro was weakened by the, in retrospect, foolhardy attempt to scramble a race together in 2020, and the fact races which were better connected were able to circumvent the live broadcast rule and keep their WWT status when the Giro was relegated stuck in the craw, but it seems from first impressions that it has had the desired effect.

A bit of a shame that the proximity of the Tour has had an impact on the field with e.g. no Vollering, Niewiadoma, Moolman-Pasio, Lippert, Rooijakkers, Lippert, Moolman-Pasio or Brown (in the latter case, not that anybody can make any criticism of the strength of the team that FDJ are fielding!!!), but there were always a few who would skip the race (Johansson for example seldom raced the Giro) and otherwise impressions are good. The coverage is hugely improved, with good graphics and helicam footage which we didn't get for several years, as well as a parcours which includes a lot of bigger races and fewer straight up circuits (though there are a few like the Bergamo stage), less of an imbalance (a TTT and an MTT in recent years), as well as, with the increase in TV coverage, and the race being long and the leader's jersey not being with one of the biggest teams, we are seeing the smaller and domestic teams getting value out of making breakaways, and with ten days of racing, the bunch are happy to allow breakaways and deal with them later. The race will therefore look immediately more recognisable and relatable to the novice fan, as the format looks more familiar to that which we see in a men's Grand Tour - this type of artificial BotD action with riders who aren't expected to stay away being away and the helicams showing the local scenery and landmarks may not necessarily change the spectacle so much, but it does help it feel like a Grand Tour in comparison to, say, the Women's Tour (of Britain), the Tour de Suisse and the other short stage races, and it helps those Italian small teams, who have been rather left behind in recent years compared to 10-15 years ago as Alé (the team that is now UAE) and more recently Valcar have basically become division killers in Italy, to earn value, attract riders and build a better rider development proposition than they have done in recent years where Italian women's cycling has been a bit squeezed out from its traditional role as a top scene alongside that of the Netherlands.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Balsamo wins it on the line, just ahead of Vos, by enough that Marty's confusion is not really warranted but close enough to be a tight one. Movistar hit the front way too early with only one rider ahead of Norsgaard, and she got boxed in and didn't look to have it, Kool surfed the right wheels to make it up to 3rd ahead of Kopecky.