Giro d'Italia 2019 rumours

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Overall I think its a pretty decent route. Ponte di Legno is the hardest stage since...?

Since Purito decided to design a 2015 Vuelta stage i think.

I'd agree with that. That Andorra stage that Purito designed is still insane.

 

[Nirvana]

Re: Re:

Apparently Sagan might ride, easy jersey if he does

With Valverde also going, that could be an interesting battle for that jersey between two very different and versatile riders. Similar to their battle for the green at this year's Vuelta.

In the Giro is impossible since the point system is the same of the Tour with the addition of a second intermediate sprint with another 20 points on offer. To have a GC rider win the points jersey there should be a mass abandon in the second and third week and still a rider that uses to go in breakways regularly has more chances, consider that this year Ballerini scored more than 30 points more than Yates and Frapporti only two less only racking up point from intermetiate sprints and other than Yates there was only Dumoulin in the top 10.

Even if Valverde will dominate the hilly stages, be up there in every mountain stage he'll likely end up with not more points than a random Modolo or van Poppel and that considering the presence of at least a couple of stronger sprinters that will win the flat stages, otherwise one second tier sprinter like them could easily win it. Nizzolo for example has already won two times only racking up top five placemets on pan flat stages and the second time he finished with more that the double of the points of Valverde.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

"What a waste of the Stelvio and the Mortirolo"

~Red Rick, 1993

It was the first cycling race I ever saw. So I had to put it here.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Overall I think its a pretty decent route. Ponte di Legno is the hardest stage since...?

Since Purito decided to design a 2015 Vuelta stage i think.

This one is definitely harder IMO. True queen stage.

Was 2017's Bormio stage really that much easier?

No, I don't think so, but it was a weak *** Mortirolo and still Stelvio from its more human side. They are probably equally hard if you are just looking to get through the stage, but such a stage as this will most definitely create bigger gaps. This Gavia-side is equal to easy Stelvio in 2017, maybe harder? Dunno. But the first couple of climbs makes it overall harder IMO, this is really a brute, as was the Bormio-stage you are referring to tho.

"What a waste of the Stelvio and the Mortirolo"

~Red Rick, 1993

Lmao.

I would say they Stelvio west and Gavia south are comparable. In fact, I would think the Bormio stage would be way cooler with Gavia south instead of Mortirolo from Edolo, and it's a little sad we there was a valley headwind and that we didn't get Stelvio from Prato.

But really those climbs are all such long burners that doing anything before such a climb is kinda eh.

 

[Nirvana]

On the Italian forum they said that Martinelli in an interview with the Gazzetta said that they'll come with Lopez to win the Giro next year, if Astana will also take the A team support could be another 2015.

 

[MatParker117]

Re:

On the Italian forum they said that Martinelli in an interview with the Gazzetta said that they'll come with Lopez to win the Giro next year, if Astana will also take the A team support could be another 2015.

Sky and Bahrain will be a notch above the team Tinkoff bought in 2015 as well, fun on the bun.

 

[Koronin]

It'll be interesting to see what type of team Movistar ends up sending to the Giro. First they need to figure out if they are sending Landa along with Valverde or just Valverde. I think that may determine whether they sending a younger team or a full fledged team to go after the overall GC. They may send a very young team to get experience and learn and hope they can support Valverde or they may send a more experienced team.

Sky should send a decent team, but I doubt their A team. Astana sounds like it will be their A team. Bahrain should have a decent team and if Nibali goes it should be a strong team. The other question is M-S and who do they send and how strong of a team for support do they send.

 

[SafeBet]

The route has Vincenzo Nibali written all over it. Long stages, hilly TTs, no muritos and a Lombardia lite stage. They're basically begging him to ride the Giro in 2019.

 

[Kyllingen86]

Are there any sterratto somewhere on the route?

 

[Laplaz]

Re:

It'll be interesting to see what type of team Movistar ends up sending to the Giro. First they need to figure out if they are sending Landa along with Valverde or just Valverde. I think that may determine whether they sending a younger team or a full fledged team to go after the overall GC. They may send a very young team to get experience and learn and hope they can support Valverde or they may send a more experienced team.

Sky should send a decent team, but I doubt their A team. Astana sounds like it will be their A team. Bahrain should have a decent team and if Nibali goes it should be a strong team. The other question is M-S and who do they send and how strong of a team for support do they send.

Carapaz already said it's his main goal for next season, so we will see who else Movistar is sending.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

The route has Vincenzo Nibali written all over it. Long stages, hilly TTs, no muritos and a Lombardia lite stage. They're basically begging him to ride the Giro in 2019.

Indeed. Plus he's probably the rider who usually improves the most from the first to the third weekend and therefore benefits the most from a backloaded route.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re: Re:

The route has Vincenzo Nibali written all over it. Long stages, hilly TTs, no muritos and a Lombardia lite stage. They're basically begging him to ride the Giro in 2019.

Indeed. Plus he's probably the rider who usually improves the most from the first to the third weekend and therefore benefits the most from a backloaded route.

Excellent points! It's not just the French who make a GT to best suit their riders

 

[Red Rick]

One good climb after stage 16, and it's a million miles from the finish

Calling it backloaded.

Fundamentally it's less backloaded than 2018, 2016, 2014, especially 2012 and I could damn well argue 2011 as well.

Many of these had a little more in the first 12 stages while having much, much less in the last 4 stages.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

The route has Vincenzo Nibali written all over it. Long stages, hilly TTs, no muritos and a Lombardia lite stage. They're basically begging him to ride the Giro in 2019.

Indeed. Plus he's probably the rider who usually improves the most from the first to the third weekend and therefore benefits the most from a backloaded route.

Excellent points! It's not just the French who make a GT to best suit their riders

Don't know how but it always ends up to suit the Sky riders better.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

One good climb after stage 16, and it's a million miles from the finish

Calling it backloaded.

Fundamentally it's less backloaded than 2018, 2016, 2014, especially 2012 and I could damn well argue 2011 as well.

Many of these had a little more in the first 12 stages while having much, much less in the last 4 stages.

It's not backloaded in a "everything will come down to the final two days" kind of way but very backloaded in a "there is no mountain stage till stage 13" kind of way. 2018, 2016, 2014 and 2011 all had mountain stages or at least relatively hard mountain top finishes in the first week to sort the gc. In this edition there will be 20 riders who think they can win the giro starting stage 13 with this mindset and that is something we haven't seen since 2012. What makes this a lot better than 2012 is that there are already two TT's in the first week, meaning riders will have a reason to attack, and that stage 13, 14 and 16 all look more crucial than stage 17, 19 and 20. Because of that I'm not actually overly sad about the route design of week 3. I think the Antholz stage could end up being quite a good opportunity for an ambush (Everyone will be tired after stage 16, there will be a frantic battle to get into the break on the first climb and after that the stage is hilly but not super hard. It kinda looks like a longer version of the 2016 Formigal stage), stage 19 might not have a great design but I actually like the idea of a stage where it all comes down to the final climb late in a gt, especially if that climb isn't hard enough to decide the whole gc on it's own (La Rabassa in the vuelta this year was a comparable mtf and it was probably the best stage of the whole race) and stage 20, while not exactly having a design that screams long range attack, definitely gives riders a chance to go for suicidal attacks or at least let the race explode on Manghen (Passo Rolle isn't a monster but if they start that climb with a 15 men peloton even that pass could have a huge impact). And if that doesn't happen the final climb can still create a great showdown.

 

[Red Rick]

What you're saying is because the first 13 stages don't have enough it's less bad that the last 4 stages have too little?

80% of action in this Giro is packed in 4 consecutive stages right now. How is that any good? The pacing is terrible.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

What you're saying is because the first 13 stages don't have enough it's less bad that the last 4 stages have too little?

80% of action in this Giro is packed in 4 consecutive stages right now. How is that any good? The pacing is terrible.

Where did I imply that?
What I meant was that because the 4 consecutive stages between stage 13 and 16 are so hard it's not that bad that the last 4 stages are on the easier side. The other way around it would be catastrophic but the way it is I quite like it.
And I also don't like that there isn't a single mountain stage in the first 12 days but my comment was a reaction to you claiming the route isn't backloaded so I didn't write about that as I though you don't see it as a problem.

 

[Tim Booth]

Are there any sterratto somewhere on the route?

There’s a gravel road across to the descent of Pian del Lupo on stage 13

 

[Kyllingen86]

Are there any sterratto somewhere on the route?

There’s a gravel road across to the descent of Pian del Lupo on stage 13

Okay thanks.

Disappointing not to see more.

 

[Robert5091]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mitchelton-scott-finalise-25-rider-roster-for-2019/
Looks like MS will go for Giro & Vuelta and leave TdF for the Sky A team.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

On the Italian forum they said that Martinelli in an interview with the Gazzetta said that they'll come with Lopez to win the Giro next year, if Astana will also take the A team support could be another 2015.

Lopez should go to the Tour next year. Take advantage of the altitude and fewer TT kilometers. He also will have a strong team so better go to the Tour IMHO.

 

[yaco]

Re:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mitchelton-scott-finalise-25-rider-roster-for-2019/
Looks like MS will go for Giro & Vuelta and leave TdF for the Sky A team.

How you could make this assumption from that article is beyond me !

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mitchelton-scott-finalise-25-rider-roster-for-2019/
Looks like MS will go for Giro & Vuelta and leave TdF for the Sky A team.

How you could make this assumption from that article is beyond me !

lol just read it and you are 100% right. :lol:

 

[Eshnar]

I'm resurrecting this thread.
A few recent local articles state that the finish of stage 20 will change quite significantly wrt the original plan.
Instead of having the following finish:

The riders will change course at the crossroad at 1015m and start the descent that goes towards Feltre. After roughly 3-4 km, they will take a secondary road known as Col Melon, and climb back again to the original finish spot at the top, just approaching it from east instead of west.

The profile of the alleged new finale would look sth like this (from forum.cicloweb.it )

(NOTE: This profile uses the SW side of Croce d'Aune, which tops 100m higher than what I said. As I understood the rumours, they will climb the W side as originally planned, which looks similar anyway)

In related news, Manghen is still closed due to the catastrophic floods we were talking about in this thread, but they are working on it and it should be ready for the race.

Finally, it is still unclear if S.Fermo will be open in time for stage 15. If not, the finale might be the same as last year's Lombardia, or even skip the final climb altogether.

 

[sir fly]

Just a rumour.