Giro 2018 Route Rumours

[Forever The Best]

Looks like this isn't gonna be a very good route. Meh. The stage to Sappada looks very good though. And they can make the Cervinia stage good too if they want.

 

[OlavEH]

Re:

Looks like this isn't gonna be a very good route. Meh. The stage to Sappada looks very good though.

Where will this stage go?

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

Looks like this isn't gonna be a very good route. Meh. The stage to Sappada looks very good though.

Where will this stage go?

Isn't the stage to Sappada or Sorgenti del Piave rumoured to be stage 15 with Forcella Zovo as the penultimate climb?

 

[OlavEH]

Re: Re:

Looks like this isn't gonna be a very good route. Meh. The stage to Sappada looks very good though.

Where will this stage go?

Isn't the stage to Sappada or Sorgenti del Piave rumoured to be stage 15 with Forcella Zovo as the penultimate climb?

Ok. That's possible. But they need something more than that. Passo di San Antonio + Zovo would before descending towards Sappada could be quite good.

I miss a proper Dolomite stage. There are too few of them. Especially those with climbs like Giau or Fedaia centrally placed in the stage (Pordoi via Fedaia, Cortina downhill finish, Tre Cime, etc.).

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

Looks like this isn't gonna be a very good route. Meh. The stage to Sappada looks very good though.

Where will this stage go?

Isn't the stage to Sappada or Sorgenti del Piave rumoured to be stage 15 with Forcella Zovo as the penultimate climb?

Ok. That's possible. But they need something more than that. Passo di San Antonio + Zovo would before descending towards Sappada could be quite good.

They need to climb San Antonio as well. And if possible 2-3 medium/hard difficulty climbs before San Antonio-Zovo combo.

 

[OlavEH]

Re: Re:

They need to climb San Antonio as well. And if possible 2-3 medium/hard difficulty climbs before San Antonio-Zovo combo.

If they start in Tolmezzo (like Eshnar wrote earlier in the thread), they proably need to loop around to Cortina and then go east. The toughest route would be via Passo del Pura and Sella Ciampigotto, then Tre Croci after Cortina. Otherwise they have to use SS52/SS51 to Cortina, which would make it much easier.

 

[May0maniac]

They could also go for a really short stage like this one:
http://www.openrunner.com/index.php?id=7987733
I'm not the biggest fan for short mountain stages, but it could work right after a Zoncolan MTF and a hard stage. Not a lot of flat between the climbs, the riders will feel the Zoncolan stage in their legs, and the San Antonio-Zovo combination with 2 good climbs before it would be pretty awesome.

 

[Eshnar]

apparently the presentation will be on November 29th (!)

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

apparently the presentation will be on November 29th (!)

 

[yaco]

Is the first time the Giro presentation has been after the Tour Presentation ?

 

[Eshnar]

in recent years, yes.

 

[sir fly]

Re:

apparently the presentation will be on November 29th (!)

For some reason I like the date...
And have to admit that didn't like all the Giro - Tour racing with presentations since that Tour 2012 (?) route was "hacked".

 

[mikii4567]

Re:

in recent years, yes.

erm, last year Tour was October 18 whilst Giro was October 24...

 

[Eshnar]

Re: Re:

in recent years, yes.

erm, last year Tour was October 18 whilst Giro was October 24...

close enough

 

[Attilaz]

I think Giro presentation is late this year because they will finalize the course after the tour is presented.
As far as I know, the tour has been loosing audience because of sky dominance.
It is the organizers own fault as the courses were tailor made for sky to win, but at the end they alienated general public.
The French in particular.

My guess is next year tour may not be spoon fed to sky.
This week, sky is meeting with giro organizers to discuss Froome participation.
Which means they want a course made for him.
TT of his liking, shorter and easier mountain stages etc.
Which will outrage fans in Italy as they are already very disappointed because of the start in Middle East.

I heard Nibali wants to focus on the classics next year and race the Vuelta in order to prepare the WC.

My guess is Froome to Giro made for him (as they will not participate otherwise).
Quintana for the Tour (I think he is past his peak) OR more likely it be be suited to a French rider (which is the organizers goal).
It may happen in 2018, but very likely scenario in 2019.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re:

It is the organizers own fault as the courses were tailor made for sky to win,

Why did the TDF cut all the TT kilometers in recent years if they wanted to make it for Froome? Surely if they wanted to have a course tailor-made for Froome/Sky they wouldn't have had an absurdly low amount of TT kilometers. I think it's quite the opposite, they tried to get Pinot/Bardet/Quintana as close as possible to Froome, which means no TT, because Froome beats them all easily in that discipline (he generally beats them uphill as well, so it's really rather hopeless to try and design a course against Froome).

 

[Attilaz]

Re: Re:

It is the organizers own fault as the courses were tailor made for sky to win,

Why did the TDF cut all the TT kilometers in recent years if they wanted to make it for Froome? Surely if they wanted to have a course tailor-made for Froome/Sky they wouldn't have had an absurdly low amount of TT kilometers. I think it's quite the opposite, they tried to get Pinot/Bardet/Quintana as close as possible to Froome, which means no TT, because Froome beats them all easily in that discipline (he generally beats them uphill as well, so it's really rather hopeless to try and design a course against Froome).

First, Froome is a great rider, but without sky and favorable stages, he won't go anywhere. he actually does not even take part of the events, and when he is forced i.e. olympics, he does not look too good.

All GT are shortening the TT because they do not make sense anymore in modern races.
Regardless a shorter TT -with the right characteristics -can be more favorable than a longer one.
TT existed because Mountain Stages used to be very tough.
Nowadays mountain stages are overall short and much easier.
If they just make some proper long Mountain stages, sky won't be able to perform. no sky, no Froome. Therefore all the mountain stages in recent Tours have been "soft".
French riders did not step up until last year.
Giro usually has 2-3 stages where Froome won't be able to perform well. It is more unpredictable for many reasons. i.e. weather.
Just the fact that sky is meeting giro organized to discuss is quite a turn off.
Don't forget they have a budget 6-8 times higher than any other team and attract the English speaking "last minute" crowd. So Froome at the Giro, is more money for the organizers.

 

[Tonton]

Fake news...like the buffoon would tweet.

Organizers want money, including (and it's a big item) TV ratings that allow for expensive commercials slots, which justifies big TV deals. Keeping it close ensures that. As much as most of us hated the '17 TdF design, it achieved exactly that. Jackpot.

If you're an ASO exec, do you really care about Froome, Quitana, Pinot, or Bardet? Or do you care about growing the money and your nice end of year bonus that comes with it?

 

[Pennino]

Fake news...like the buffoon would tweet.

Organizers want money, including (and it's a big item) TV ratings that allow for expensive commercials slots, which justifies big TV deals. Keeping it close ensures that. As much as most of us hated the '17 TdF design, it achieved exactly that. Jackpot.

If you're an ASO exec, do you really care about Froome, Quitana, Pinot, or Bardet? Or do you care about growing the money and your nice end of year bonus that comes with it?

Could be true, but on the other hand nowadays racing doesn't really prove that the once so mighty Tour de France is the "toughest sporting event on the planet".

When they tell you those stories of the legendary Mont Ventoux, you'd expect totally exhausted riders to come in.

Maybe it's definitely time for some rotation between Grand Tours. Why on earth is the Tour still on the main spot on the calendar every year? They're downgrading historic races every year, yet they let happen that the Tour declines to a questionable level, year after year.

 

[staubsauger]

The Giro has been the hardest grand tour in cycling since at least 2008,now.

 

[Asturiano]

Re:

The Giro has been the hardest grand tour in cycling since at least 2008,now.

Well, it's difficult to define the adjetive "hard". If you talk about profiles maybe. But you have to into accont some other aspects of the race.

 

[Eshnar]

Some updates.
Stage 9 is rumoured to finish in Campo Imperatore (aka Gran Sasso). Stage 13 to finish in Nervesa della Battaglia (at the foot of Montello... decent chance to see some sterrato?!). Zoncolan and Sappada (town) confirmed as stages 14 and 15.


1 Jerusalem ITT
2 Haifa - Tel Aviv
3 Be'er Sheva - Eilat

4 Catania-Caltagirone
5 Agrigento-Santa Ninfa(Valle del Belice)
6 Caltanissetta-Etna(Osservatorio Astrofisico)
7 Tropea? - Scalea?
8 Scalea? - Montevergine
9 Pesco Sannita - Campo Imperatore

10 Francavilla? - Gualdo Tadino
11 Fano - Iesi ITT OR Filottrano - Imola
12 Filottrano - Imola OR S.Marino ITT
13 ??? - Nervesa della Battaglia
14 S.Vito al Tagliamento - Zoncolan
15 Tolmezzo - Sappada

16 Trento - Rovereto ITT
17 ???
18 ??? - Prato Nevoso (or surroundings)
19 Busca - Monte Jafferau
20 Susa? - Cervinia
21 ??? - Roma

 

[May0maniac]

Good news, we haven't seen Campo Imperatore in a long time and I prefer a finish in Cima Sappada after Passo di San Antonio and Forcella Zovo to a Sorgenti del Piave MTF (there's probably just not enough space to host a MTF). My guess is that they'll probably decide the amount of km of ITT after seeing the Tour route, maybe they can attract some gt riders with longer TTs.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Good news, we haven't seen Campo Imperatore in a long time and I prefer a finish in Cima Sappada after Passo di San Antonio and Forcella Zovo to a Sorgenti del Piave MTF (there's probably just not enough space to host a MTF). My guess is that they'll probably decide the amount of km of ITT after seeing the Tour route, maybe they can attract some gt riders with longer TTs.

Isn't the 30km in the Tour confirmed?

In any case, the Tour also has 35 km of TTT, which benefits most of the ITTers massively, though it might differences between different h2h pairings differently compared to an ITT.

The only 2 riders who want more ITTs at the Giro aren't going anyway. The Zoncolan and Finestre should make sure of that for Dumoulin, and Froome and Sky are not gonna win the Tour if Froome goes to the Giro.

 

[OlavEH]

7 MTFs? And 3 of the in 4 stages in the first half. Is that likely?

+ Etna MTF
+ Sappada stage could be interesting if they use San Antoino and Forcella Zovo.
+ Monte Zoncolan
+ Jaffrau stage if they use Finestre

- Montevergine and Pratonevoso as MTFs are pretty dull. Not as bad as Oropa, but still.
-- Is there any 200++ km hilly/medium mountain stages.
--- No proper stage in the central Dolomites. No Gavia, Stelvio, Mortirolo either.
---- Start in Israel