94th Giro d'Italia May 7 - 29

[larryduff]

Where did you find odds of 20/1? Best odds i can find are 6/1.

He is 20/1 to win with Paddypower. I presume those 6/1 odds are for him to podium? Highest I can see him is 5/1 to podium, Where is the 6/1 available please?

 

[Frosty]

He is 20/1 to win with Paddypower. I presume those 6/1 odds are for him to podium? Highest I can see him is 5/1 to podium, Where is the 6/1 available please?

Paddypower, giro - outright betting. Nibali is 11/2. No-one is 20/1 currently although the odds may have changed recently. Nibali for the podium is 8/11.

 

[larryduff]

Paddypower, giro - outright betting. Nibali is 11/2. No-one is 20/1 currently although the odds may have changed recently. Nibali for the podium is 8/11.

Freudian slip there meant to write Anton. No idea why I wrote Nibali. Apologies. Post edited.

 

[El Pistolero]

Freudian slip there meant to write Anton. No idea why I wrote Nibali. Apologies. Post edited.

According to Freud that means you would most likely have some feelings for Nibbles

 

[Francois the Postman]

Car cam!

Is the Giro another one to have a go at that?

 

[Francois the Postman]

Geox already all over the place

 

[Francois the Postman]

Rabo fastest at time check, Sky coming through as 3rd.

 

[hoolaparara]

So I was looking at this weeks stages to work out which ones to lose sleep over and I threw away the first 6 before having second thoughts about stage 5 & 6.

The normal soul-destroying tour de france style would nullify these stages, but I spent the last week watching the sbs highlights programs from giro 2009 and pretty much all of these provoked some form of entertainment if not that much actual change.

I'd still write off 6.. its an uphill finish but the shape looks too wrong to do anything serious. Stage 5 is pretty short but sharp the sort that could produce tiny gaps? but looking at the last few kilometres profile seems to flatten out as well..

So action or no action? I'm starting to think it is going to be comfortable workday mornings.

mmm just read the preview.. the gravel is on stage 5.. maybe not.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

stage 5 should be fun.

stage 3 might even be ok, but ultimately end in a reduced bunch gallop.

 

[Cimber]

Ye stage 5 will be awesome. Esp if it rains like last year. Anyone knows how the weather will be?

 

[Kwibus]

Ye stage 5 will be awesome. Esp if it rains like last year. Anyone knows how the weather will be?

You know what sucks... that I won't be able to see it
Bloody work won't allow me to leave early wednesday.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Ye stage 5 will be awesome. Esp if it rains like last year. Anyone knows how the weather will be?

weather will be great. sunny and hot.

 

[Kwibus]

weather will be great. sunny and hot.

That's too bad

 

[Cimber]

weather will be great. sunny and hot.

Ye too bad tbh. But guess we will see cloud dusts alá PRB then

 

[meandmygitane]

Ok, here is my findings (with warnings for the errors which are certainly there), only guesstimated using TdF-climb categorization and a mix of climb's vertical displacement, length and grade.


TdF-ratings:
cat/Race: Giro'11 TdF'10 TdF'11
HC -------- 6 6 ?
1 -------- 10 10 ?
2 -------- 5 9 ?
Sum -------- 21 25 23


Giro'11 HC-climbs should be Etna (Rif. Sapienza), Crostis, Zoncolan, Piancavallo, Colle delle Finestre, Passo Fedaia
and Cat 1. which are right on the borderline to being HC is Etna(Rif. Citelli), Passo Giau.


So why does it seem harder than TdF'10?
Maybe:
1. Steeper climbs and not longer and less steep climbs
2. More mountaintop-finishes means that the mountains are "used" more effectively.
3. More offensive racing?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I think more challenging intermediate stages. We don't get enough Tour stages that can really shake things up. It's basically flat stage (sprint or uphill sprint), high mountain stage or transitional stage when the break goes.

Plus, in addition to number of climbs, it's where they are. Monte Grappa was the only climb in that stage. But the stage had the same effect as the Col de la Madeleine stage, which had three climbs before Madeleine. Similarly, this Montevergine stage, with just two cat.2 climbs (maybe a cat.2 and a cat.1 if this was the Tour), is much more effective and has more of an effect on the GC than the Pau stage of the Tour, with four cat.1 or HC climbs.

 

[El Pistolero]

I think more challenging intermediate stages. We don't get enough Tour stages that can really shake things up. It's basically flat stage (sprint or uphill sprint), high mountain stage or transitional stage when the break goes.

Plus, in addition to number of climbs, it's where they are. Monte Grappa was the only climb in that stage. But the stage had the same effect as the Col de la Madeleine stage, which had three climbs before Madeleine. Similarly, this Montevergine stage, with just two cat.2 climbs (maybe a cat.2 and a cat.1 if this was the Tour), is much more effective and has more of an effect on the GC than the Pau stage of the Tour, with four cat.1 or HC climbs.

Check stage 1 and 4 out this tour.

 

[jens_attacks]

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

another funny interview from the lampre boys,after scarponi michele bah-bah-bah.daniele righi is indeed a funny guy.

"-first thing you think when you look into the eyes of scarponi?
-he's crazy.

-did you ever had a masseuse?
-no.
-is it unfortunate?
-yes!"

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Check stage 1 and 4 out this tour.

I think both will go to about 100 riders getting to the final few km. A bit like stage 1 in 2008, but more challenging. Some time will be opened up, but it will all be right at the very end, and will probably be uphill sprints (as marked in my rather negative expectations). Having Gilbert around may make it more interesting, but if he has his April form he won't need to attack until the last km either.

And then we have a bunch of wasteful stages until we finally get to the Pyrenees for about stage 18. Even the Super-Besse stage doesn't feel like it's as hard as it should be.

 

[meandmygitane]

A strange thing I noticed on the Etna stage, let's count on it as ASO would


Etna - Rif. Citelli 1634m - cat.1:
The Giro counts from Linguaglossa 534m, then it's 18,0km at 6,1% (1097m altitude gain)
When I count from Fiumefreddo di Sicilia 65m to Linguaglossa 534m we can add 11,1km at 4,2%, looks like it's uphill all the way.
Then it's 29,1km at (1569m altitude gain) at 5.3%, wow!
Compare it with Col d'Aubisque: 29,2 km at 4,2 % (Hors Catégorie)




PS. Fact is that the second Etna climb is more or less up all the way with 43,2km left at 4,06% (1752m ascent) but obviously it's pretty slack on it's lower slopes (but with some interesting ramps .DS

 

[Ferminal]

Ah, that's it.

When I look at the "climb profile" I was thinking that it wasn't as long as I remembered it being when only the stage profile was there.

But the individual climb profiles both start a fair way after they actually begin going uphill.

 

[jens_attacks]

angelo fuccin zomegnan :

"L'étape aura bien lieu, peu importe ce que disent les médias. Il n'y a pas eu de graves coulées de laves et la zone devrait être en état"

lol the lava won't affect the riders.they have firefighters ready for action if things will get hot.

Zomegnan a également notifié que la descente du Monte Crostis avait été reconnu une nouvelle fois par l'organisation et il certifie que "les cyclistes ne courront aucun danger"

so crostis descent is ok,he even rode it himself on this:

 

[Eshnar]

lol the lava won't affect the riders.they have firefighters ready for action if things will get hot.

Zomegnan will never let Etna erupt until Monday.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Angelo Zomegnan is turning into cycling's answer to Vladimir Putin.

 

[greenedge]

Remember everyone is in top notch for TDF. wrong approach but if Cav is this bad you can expect that he will be better for TDF