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Giro 2017, stage 15: Valdengo – Bergamo 199 km

Not sure why people ask about making a stage thread rather than just doing it. We're just copying Eshnar's great writeups, anyway.

Eshnar said:
STAGE 15: Valdengo – Bergamo 199 km

START TIME: 12.10 CEST

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Technical Overview:
The penultimate weekend ends with a medium mountain stage, in a way that feels underwhelming, considering the past stage and the rest day ahead. The route presents no difficulties for the first 150 km, as the peloton moves east towards the hills of the area around Bergamo. At that point, the route follows the same finale of the last Lombardia. Unfortunately skipping the best part. The first climb the peloton will face is Miragolo S.Salvatore (GPM2, 8.7 km at 7%), a very regular climb that tops at 40 km to go. Its descent is technical but very short, and it is followed immediately by the second categorized climb of the day. Selvino (GPM3, 6.9 km at 5.4%) isn't much of a challenge, if legs aren't already been heavily tested. The descent is technical and 12 km long, and leads to a flat section of roughly 12 km. The last and possibly key difficulty of the day is the uncategorized climb to Bergamo Alta, 1 km at 7.9% with a very steep second half, including a short cobbled sector. The climb tops at 3.5 km to go, 3 of which are taken by a straightforward descent.

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The Climbs:
Miragolo S.Salvatore GPM2
Very regular climb.
T15_S01_Miragolo_web.jpg


Selvino GPM3
Very easy after the first km, and quite short, too.
T15_S02_Selvino_web.jpg


What to expect:
A breakaway stage I guess. The potential to make it meaningful for the GC is there, and the rest day would incentivate it, but it would take a huge team effort to do a successful attack.

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Story Time:
Felice Gimondi was born in Sedrina (which is on the way of this stage, even though not marked on the profile) on September 29th, 1942. A complete kind of rider, he started his pro career in 1965, when he got a 3rd place at the Giro and a hugely surprising (overall!) win at the Tour, which won't ever manage to repeat. In 1966 he won the Paris-Roubaix and the Giro di Lombardia, and in 1967 won his first Giro d'Italia. In 1968 he won the Vuelta, becoming the second rider in history to won all three Gts, after Anquetil. His career is a neverending list of placements at the most diverse races, so I'm not going to list them all. In 1973 he won the World Championship, and he retired in 1978, with 3 Giro wins, 1 Tour, 1 Vuelta, 1 Milano-Sanremo, 1 Roubaix, 2 Lombardias, and the all-time record of podiums in the Giro, 9.

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Current Standings:

NED 1 DUMOULIN, Tom (SUNWEB) 59:31:17
COL 2 QUINTANA, Nairo (MOVISTAR) + 2:47
FRA 3 PINOT, Thibaut (FDJ) + 3:25
ITA 4 NIBALI, Vincenzo (BAHRAIN - MERIDA) + 3:40
RUS 5 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (KATUSHA ALPECIN) + 4:24
NED 6 MOLLEMA, Bauke (TREK - SEGAFREDO) + 4:32
EST 7 KANGERT, Tanel (ASTANA) + 4:55
ITA 8 POZZOVIVO, Domenico (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 4:59
LUX 9 JUNGELS, Bob (QUICK - STEP FLOORS) + 5:28
CRC 10 AMADOR BIKKAZAKOVA, Andrey (MOVISTAR) + 5:36
NED 11 KRUIJSWIJK, Steven (LOTTO NL - JUMBO) + 7:03
ITA 12 CATALDO, Dario (ASTANA) + 7:13
GBR 13 YATES, Adam (ORICA - SCOTT) + 7:43
ITA 14 FORMOLO, Davide (CANNONDALE DRAPAC) + 7:55
POR 15 FARIA DA COSTA, Rui Alberto (UAE Team Emirates) + 7:58
SLO 16 POLANC, Jan (UAE Team Emirates) + 9:11
BEL 17 HERMANS, Ben (BMC RACING) + 10:26
BEL 18 MONFORT, Maxime (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 11:07
ITA 19 PETILLI, Simone (UAE Team Emirates) + 16:02
CZE 20 HIRT, Jan (CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE) + 19:05
 
Re:

yaco said:
I suspect it will be tough for the breakaway for the rest of the Giro, with teams fighting for GC, while other teams like Sky and Orica chasing stages.

Don't see Orica switching to chasing stages unless Yates really throws in a shocker and plummets out of top10 & white jersey calculations. Currently both are still very much to play for as he's looking more likely than not to take significant time back on the majority of those in front of him.