94th Giro d'Italia May 7 - 29

[taiwan]

Oooooooooooooh

 

[Eshnar]

I HAD to post that pic

 

[Christian]

Nice picture!

Laurent Didier: Ready to ride hard for Alberto (French)

What is your role in helping Alberto Contador?

We have three rouleurs: Tossato, Klostergaard and Morkov. In the high mountains, it is Hernandez' and Navarro's job to help Alberto. Richie Porte, Gustov and I are responsible for the medium mountains and the flat.

 

[cineteq]

Looking at the team rosters, it's hard to figure out who are the leaders...Except for few like Saxo, Geox, etc...

 

[Ferminal]

I HAD to post that pic

How is the surface of the road? Doesn't look too great from that pic, nor the Scarponi video.

That photo makes it look like a rugged climb in general!

 

[will10]

Yeah should make things interesting. Androni is the interesting one for me: Sella, Rujano or Serpa?

 

[Sasquatch]

Call me crazy but I do believe a sprinter could win the points jersey if they really want it. A sprinter that is strong enough with a strong enough team to control the peloton over early stages where climbs are near the finish and sprint for 2nd or 3rd place, (assuming a rider or two tries an adventurous break), could very well survive the mountains and win the jersey.

Those stages in the middle will be the tough ones but that gives that sprinter an opportunity to go in a breakaway too.

 

[jens_attacks]

Yeah should make things interesting. Androni is the interesting one for me: Sella, Rujano or Serpa?

probably rujano for the overall.serpa doing the hard work for him.and sella doing crazy breakaways and putting the pressure on the other teams.one of my favourite teams for this giro.

"We will tackle the Giro - said Team Manager Gianni Savio - with determination and enthusiasm, some to honor the Giro again, as we did in the past. The intention is to offer our fans new ride. We chose Jose Serpa as testimonial of the new currency of competition because it is the rider with most appearances in our training. Divide equally with the rank of captain Jose Rujano and Emanuele Sella. As a philosophy we will continue to inspire the team motto: One for all and all for one. "

 

[Havetts]

How is the surface of the road? Doesn't look too great from that pic, nor the Scarponi video.

That photo makes it look like a rugged climb in general!

Can you link me that video Scarponi made/was in?

 

[Sasquatch]

Yeah should make things interesting. Androni is the interesting one for me: Sella, Rujano or Serpa?

Sella to go for stage wins and potentially pick up the KOM jersey in the process and Rujano and Serpa as the GC guys IMO.

 

[meandmygitane]

lovkvist has bad recuperation for a gt rider, and the tour last year had a way waker field than the giro this year, especially when many guys lost time or dropped out completely cuz of the dutch stages like pozzovivo

Yes, that's why I only say "a possibility".
It will be interesting to see how he fares, he'll have to improve to get top-15, I agree with you there.

 

[Ferminal]

Call me crazy but I do believe a sprinter could win the points jersey if they really want it. A sprinter that is strong enough with a strong enough team to control the peloton over early stages where climbs are near the finish and sprint for 2nd or 3rd place, (assuming a rider or two tries an adventurous break), could very well survive the mountains and win the jersey.

Those stages in the middle will be the tough ones but that gives that sprinter an opportunity to go in a breakaway too.

The problem is many of them will DNS/DNF before or during the killer weekend. So all points earned are trashed from the race. Last year not one of the (bunch sprint) stage winners finished the race, Greipel was the last to withdraw after he finally won a stage heading into the final weekend. The points classification looks rather silly, with Henderson the first recognised sprinter in 10th.

After Stage 12 there are nine stages of punishment ahead for the sprinters, I'm just not sure any of them will want to endure it when most of them have goals for July.

2, 10 and 12 are locks for a classic bunch sprint.

3 and 4 are 50/50. If 3 is a sprint it might be for the stronger types who were able to stay at the front over the final ramp. 4 should be a sprint, but not all of them will necessarily make it back over the climb.

6 will be a sprint if the teams are strong enough, but the gradual climb will weaken them and the final km rises slightly, the top10 may be mixed.

8 will be another exercise of sprinters vs puncheurs.

For arguments sake, say Petacchi, Cav, Farrar etc could top5 on 5 or 6 of those days (even if an attack wins, they can still sprint for the minors).

For the others:

5 and 11 will be puncheurs vs climbers.

7, 9, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20 all MTFs.

16 is the ITT which will be climbers vs ITT'ers.

17 and 18 will probably be break-days, with climbers and maybe the toughest sprinters/puncheurs in the bunch.

Say 2 of the 7 MTFs go to the break (I think only 1 though - Montervergine or Macugnaga), that leaves 5 for the main GC climbers to contest. Even then, it's doubtful a successful break will be huge, eating up all the points for the contenders.

Both the ITTs will favour Contador more than any other points contender.

In no particular order I would have Contador, Rodriguez, Scarponi, Visconti and Ventoso as challengers for the points.

There are probably too many genuine sprinters for someone like Visconti (in the mould of Bettini 2005) to take it. Ventoso is interesting as he can top10 in the full sprints and win the harder ones. Yet he has been away from the top level for a while, I'm not sure how he will handle a GT.

Unless Cav, Farrar or Petacchi come out and say they will be in top form and will complete the race, I'm not confident in any sprinter, other than Ventoso.

 

[Ferminal]

Can you link me that video Scarponi made/was in?

http://video.gazzetta.it/giro-di-italia-2011/index.shtml

If you scroll through the videos you will find it there.

 

[Havetts]

http://video.gazzetta.it/giro-di-italia-2011/index.shtml

If you scroll through the videos you will find it there.

Thanks Ferminal .

 

[Eshnar]

How is the surface of the road? Doesn't look too great from that pic, nor the Scarponi video.

That photo makes it look like a rugged climb in general!

Dunno. Never been there.
From the Gazzetta video it seems really bad.

 

[taiwan]

Belletti is quite interesting for the red jersey. His climbing is decent, will place in the full bunch sprints and this will be a major objective for the year, being on an Italian pro conti team. Am starting to consider that it could go to Farrar or even Petacchi, remembering that Farrar was close last year until he got docked his points for being OOT on whatever stage.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

WTF? This is the Crostis descent. Other than strategically placing hungry, rabid pit bulls, I'm not sure how you can make this even more dangerous.

 

[just some guy]

WTF? This is the Crostis descent. Other than strategically placing hungry, rabid pit bulls, I'm not sure how you can make this even more dangerous.

Apparently there will be nets to catch the riders !!!

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

for real?? nets??

rujano starts with number 3 of his team like he did in 2005

 

[Eshnar]

for real?? nets??

rujano starts with number 3 of his team like he did in 2005

Nets.
Like those used in skiing.
They used them in the descent of Vivione (2008). First dangerous descent I could think of.

 

[just some guy]

for real?? nets??

rujano starts with number 3 of his team like he did in 2005

Yep. Nets should be good to watch.

The descent of the Crostis worried Contador more than the climb to the finish on the Zoncolan. He admitted he had never seen anything like the dirt road section at the top and the near vertical drop off at the side of the narrow road. “It scares me,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport who followed him during his ride.

He was told that the race organisers will erect safety nets to catch any riders that may crash on the descent but said: “That doesn’t go close to the limit, it goes over it.”

 

[Ferminal]

There were nets on Gavia last year IIRC.

 

[canyonball]

Indeed. I had the vague idea of watching Tschopp going down the descent with those.

Don't know if this has already been posted. Movistar's line up for Giro. No Bruseghin.

 

[El Pistolero]

I hope there's no Colombians in this race or someone could get killed.

 

[Eshnar]

I hope there's no Colombians in this race or someone could get killed.

Serpa is Colombian.
Be glad there's no Frank Schleck.