Giro 2018 Route Rumours

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

You can tell there's no big races going on when the 3 GT route rumors thread are on top

You are severely underestimating the greatness of Tour of Denmark

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Curious to see if any rider will express skepticism about the whole thing...

Bakelants, ofcourse, said he wanted to do the Giro in 2018 but not like this.

Bakelants has an opinion on everything I guess
I'm not a fan of this start... From a political, logistic and sporting perspective.

Not sure what to think of all the big names that will attend the presentation, I guess they need to push it quite a lot. Don't remember many big names attending previous Grande Partenza presentations.

I would like to see a focus on co-existence and peace between Israel and Palestina... as the theme is co-existence and peace... doubt it will happen

 

[jsem94]

Does the logistical nightmare mean no Froome btw?

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Does the logistical nightmare mean no Froome btw?

It's not the Tour, so that means no Froome.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Who will ride the Giro of the biggest names? Froome, Dumo, Quintana and Bardet are pretty locked for the Tour I'd say. Unless the Tour goes full *** and fucks Dumo completely over.. Landa will ride, I think Aru will as well - will FDJ have Pinot focus on the Tour or send him to the Giro again? Then there's Nibali, chances are he will ride L-B-L, Tour and Worlds. Chaves is a pretty good bet for a Giro as well. Zakarin likewise, but I could imagine Katushe would want him to podium in the Tour. How about Lopez, I think a Giro + Vuelta combo is much more wise than a Tour right now.

 

[Gigs_98]

Who will ride the Giro of the biggest names? Froome, Dumo, Quintana and Bardet are pretty locked for the Tour I'd say. Unless the Tour goes full *** and **** Dumo completely over.. Landa will ride, I think Aru will as well - will FDJ have Pinot focus on the Tour or send him to the Giro again? Then there's Nibali, chances are he will ride L-B-L, Tour and Worlds. Chaves is a pretty good bet for a Giro as well. Zakarin likewise, but I could imagine Katushe would want him to podium in the Tour. How about Lopez, I think a Giro + Vuelta combo is much more wise than a Tour right now.

As you said, Landa and Aru are the most likely big names. I guess Chaves will go to the tour since iirc peaking there was already the goal this season, but it didn't work due to his injuries (If he is the tdf leader I expect one or even both Yates in the Giro though). Nibali has also already confirmed he'll go to the tour, so no giro for him. I expect Zakarin in Italy though since Kittel went to Katusha so the tour team will probably focus around him and there won't be any space for a gc rider. I agree that Giro+Vuelta might be wiser for Lopez, but Astana right now doesn't have a stronger leader than him so I can imagine that they send him to the biggest race.

Sky will surely send a gc rider to the giro, so probably either Poels or Thomas will go there (probably Thomas). Before this year I also thought there would be a good chance Bardet rides the Giro, since I think he originally wanted to do so in 2016. However now that he has been on the tour podium for the 2nd year in a row and even the win in the tdf seems possible, I doubt he'll ride the giro. Same for Uran who preferred the giro in the past, but now that he had success in the tour I doubt he'll return to his old racing schedule.

 

[Chrispol]

Re:

Who will ride the Giro of the biggest names? Froome, Dumo, Quintana and Bardet are pretty locked for the Tour I'd say. Unless the Tour goes full *** and **** Dumo completely over.. Landa will ride, I think Aru will as well - will FDJ have Pinot focus on the Tour or send him to the Giro again? Then there's Nibali, chances are he will ride L-B-L, Tour and Worlds. Chaves is a pretty good bet for a Giro as well. Zakarin likewise, but I could imagine Katushe would want him to podium in the Tour. How about Lopez, I think a Giro + Vuelta combo is much more wise than a Tour right now.

This is complicated. In the GP de Fourmies, Madiot said to a french guy that I know on french forums that from now on Pinot will do the Tour every year.

But Thibaut doesn't seem to agree on this opinion, saying in the press that after the Tour Madiot talked in the heat of the moment, and that he prefers to judge the route before deciding what GT he will going to ride.

He even said that if FDJ doesn't let him try Giro-Vuelta in the same year at some point, that means that he isn't fully bloomed in the team...

 

[LaFlorecita]

I really hope we will see Tibo at the Giro again next year, but it's likely he will do TDF instead.

 

[Escarabajo]

There are some good names that could benefit from just going to the Giro instead of the Tour such as Pinot, Chaves and Lopez. However sponsors have the last word in decision me thinks. And we could well see these three names at the Tour.

 

[yaco]

Re:

Who will ride the Giro of the biggest names? Froome, Dumo, Quintana and Bardet are pretty locked for the Tour I'd say. Unless the Tour goes full *** and **** Dumo completely over.. Landa will ride, I think Aru will as well - will FDJ have Pinot focus on the Tour or send him to the Giro again? Then there's Nibali, chances are he will ride L-B-L, Tour and Worlds. Chaves is a pretty good bet for a Giro as well. Zakarin likewise, but I could imagine Katushe would want him to podium in the Tour. How about Lopez, I think a Giro + Vuelta combo is much more wise than a Tour right now.

Think you'll find that unlike the TDF in 2017, the 2018 TDF will have the strongest fields,seeing teams believe Froome is vulnerable - My guess is the Giro will have Aru, Chaves, Lopez, Kelderman and Landa as the headline acts - And probably some up-and-coming GC riders.

 

[yaco]

Re:

There are some good names that could benefit from just going to the Giro instead of the Tour such as Pinot, Chaves and Lopez. However sponsors have the last word in decision me thinks. And we could well see these three names at the Tour.

My guess is only Pinot from this group will be a certainty for the TDF.

 

[May0maniac]

Nibali said that he'll ride the Vuelta as a prep race for the WC, but it will probably be like the Tour last year, and I guess that he'll probably ride the Tour. Maybe the really hard WC RR will make a few riders think of doing Giro+Vuelta so that they can arrive in great shape, not everyone is able to ride Tour+Vuelta and the WC without cracking. Of course a few riders could also skip the Vuelta after the Tour to prepare for the WC RR.

 

[Eshnar]

From http://www.cicloweb.it/2017/09/18/ufficiale-giro-ditalia-2018-partira-gerusalemme/

Jerusalem - Jerusalem 10.1 km ITT

Haifa - Tel Aviv 167 km

Be'er Sheva - Eilat 226 km

 

[Alexandre B.]

Interesting first stage.

 

[spalco]

That's disappointing, surely there's some hillier routes available. But I guess security considerations are more important.

 

[sir fly]

Hoped that (at least) one of the opening stages will be hilly.
Nice rolling tt.

 

[Eshnar]

stage 3 is entirely on the desert, it should be interesting.

 

[sir fly]

Re:

stage 3 is entirely on the desert, it should be interesting.

Could bring even more action than a hilly profile, then.
Good choice.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Meh.

 

[Gigs_98]

Does anyone know if Israel is very windy? Stage 2 is along the coast, so maybe there is a chance for crosswinds as well

 

[Robert5091]

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5017843,00.html

Organizers of the Giro d'Italia were persuaded to start the competition in Israel by the Jewish Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, who made aliya (the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Land of Israel) to Israel and agreed to finance most of the competition's expenses out of his own pocket.

Convinced of the competition's potential popularity and its positive impact on tourism and Israel's public image, the Israeli government agreed to chip in to help with the expenses.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has already announced that the Israel Police and his office will share the costs of security and policing, which will include, inter alia, helicopters, road closures, and a security detail for the cyclists.

In total, the cost of bringing the competition to Israel is estimated to be $20 million.

 

[Robert5091]

Does anyone know if Israel is very windy? Stage 2 is along the coast, so maybe there is a chance for crosswinds as well

There was a big sandstorm in the Negev/Eilat in May this year
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4964141,00.html

Wind in Tel Aviv on average is westerly - could be interesting.
https://weatherspark.com/m/98222/5/Average-Weather-in-May-in-Tel-Aviv-Israel

 

[Valv.Piti]

That first time trial is worth it, I didn't expect some super hilly first stages anyways.

 

[TheGreenMonkey]

The Giro is starting in Israel.
Which brainless *** came up with this *** stupid move?

 

[carton]

The desert stage and the Jerusalem TT are all well and good but surely there are more interesting routes out of (or better yet, into) Haifa (a city best known for the hill it was built under).