Giro d'Italia 2019 rumours

[Eshnar]

Re:

Just a rumour.

it's a rumour because it's not official, but it's a very insistent one, so I would really keep an eye on it.

 

[Gigs_98]

This would be superb news imo. Gives attackers a completely new option

 

[Red Rick]

This would be superb news imo. Gives attackers a completely new option

It does.

But attack on Manghen or GTFO is out the window now

 

[Gigs_98]

This would be superb news imo. Gives attackers a completely new option

It does.

But attack on Manghen or GTFO is out the window now

Tbf that was never likely to happen anyway. And even with the new route you aren't gonna gain 3 minutes by attacking on the penultimate climb either

 

[Eshnar]

This would be superb news imo. Gives attackers a completely new option

It does.

But attack on Manghen or GTFO is out the window now

On one hand you have a point, but on the other it's not like with the new design you are gonna gain much time at the end either. Croce d'Aune is not exactly the Mortirolo, and the changes only put the finish ~10 km farther away. If someone is significantly behind in GC, he still nees to do something on Manghen.
In case no one has to, however, the finish should be much more entertaining than originally planned.

 

[Eshnar]

From local article (and again, the cicloweb forum)

It looks way more serious than just a rumour...

 

[Eshnar]

The new route of stage 20 is confirmed. According to Mauro Facoltosi, RCS themselves have distributed the new profiles for the last 4 stages. The only other change is on the final ITT, which will be 16.9 km long, a bit longer than originally presented.

 

[sir fly]

Rumour justified.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Rumour justified.

XDXD

 

[Valv.Piti]

Thats a nice little change tbh. Even if they dont blow the race apart, it will still be pretty selective towards the end. It reminds me a bit of the stage to Monte Bora (or something like that) in 2008 or the stage Si Yates won last year, but its harder than both.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Thats a nice little change tbh. Even if they dont blow the race apart, it will still be pretty selective towards the end. It reminds me a bit of the stage to Monte Bora (or something like that) in 2008 or the stage Si Yates won last year, but its harder than both.

Monte Pora, but yes, the finale looks quite similar to that one.

 

[Escarabajo]

The Giro official site is not updated yet.
Eshnar, do you have a link to where I can find the stage 20 details?
Thanks.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

The Giro official site is not updated yet.
Eshnar, do you have a link to where I can find the stage 20 details?
Thanks.

no, the new profiles (the last 4 stages to be exact) have been mailed by RCS to various media/journalists, but they will be put on the official site in April as always I guess.
Some other stages are probably gonna have a few changes too, but for now there are profiles only for the last 4, as they were presented to the locals a few days ago.

 

[Escarabajo]

Thanks Eshnar. We'll wait.

 

[Lequack]

They posted this pumped up video:
https://twitter.com/giroditalia/status/1115962634799591426

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Thanks Eshnar. We'll wait.

It looks like we're almost there, the profiles are still the old ones, but the text description of the stages has been updated. The change in stage 20 I've mentioned is confirmed. Also stage 15 will have no San Fermo, the finish will be 3 km after the descent of Civiglio.
Also, stage 8 is now mentioned to be the longest, with 239 km (it was originally 235), and the description states it will have various "muri", which in the original version aren't really there (unless they have their own definition of "muro"...), so we'll see.

 

[tobydawq]

How come there are so many changes to the parcours? I don't recall this happening before unless natural "disasters" have made some of the roads unpassable.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

How come there are so many changes to the parcours? I don't recall this happening before unless natural "disasters" have made some of the roads unpassable.

actually this was very common in the past... Only in the last 2-3 years nothing much happened.
Tbh the change to stage 15 is because San Fermo is still closed and they thought it could be opened in time, so that one is probably not on RCS...

 

[Gigs_98]

Not having san fermo might not actually be that bad. I kinda doubt someone would go all out on civiglio in a gt if there is still a climb to come. Now there will probably be a proper gc battle on the final climb

 

[Valv.Piti]

So all these route changes will actually make it better IMO. Bigger chance of something happening on Civiglio without San Fermo in a GC-setting and stage 8 originally looks kinda meh on the stage profile. A muri-stage would be awesome, but lets still remember theres a pretty tough time trial the day after.

Would be awesome with the Muro di Sormano, but still a nice stage. Eshnar, the stage finishing in Pinerolo, do you know if that's the same little climb they used in 2016 after Pra Martino?

Edit: How does this route stack up to that of 2016, 2017 and 2018? As I have said multiple times, I like the parcours and think it should be plenty hard to create some awesome racing.

 

[Red Rick]

I guess Civiglio action wouldnt happen with San Fermo without Muro di Sormano

Id prefer if they used the final hill of last Lombardia tjough, nobody should fear that

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

So all these route changes will actually make it better IMO. Bigger chance of something happening on Civiglio without San Fermo in a GC-setting and stage 8 originally looks kinda meh on the stage profile. A muri-stage would be awesome, but lets still remember theres a pretty tough time trial the day after.

Would be awesome with the Muro di Sormano, but still a nice stage. Eshnar, the stage finishing in Pinerolo, do you know if that's the same little climb they used in 2016 after Pra Martino?

Edit: How does this route stack up to that of 2016, 2017 and 2018? As I have said multiple times, I like the parcours and think it should be plenty hard to create some awesome racing.

They all had better first weeks. But overall I think a lit were somewhat underwhelmed by most of them. We were all ricking over the 2017 route IIRC and for 2018 many thought the lack of ITT and wasting the Finestre made it bland. I thought Finestre wasnt wasted, and much to my own horror I was right

 

[Gigs_98]

Sadly if you look at the final 50 kilometers of stage 8 it's quite hard to really find any muri close to the current route. The fact that it is now 4 kilometers longer means they might have added a few extra difficulties but don't expect this to suddenly become a properly hard stage.

Generally I still think it's a decent route with a horrible first half but a fantastic 2nd one. I'm quite confident in saying we will end up remembering the gc relevant stages of this race as pretty good but that doesn't mean we won't be bored to death before the Pinerolo stage. It's like 2016 which I now have really positive memories of although it was a horrible race before stage 14.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Would be awesome with the Muro di Sormano, but still a nice stage. Eshnar, the stage finishing in Pinerolo, do you know if that's the same little climb they used in 2016 after Pra Martino?

It is the same.

The route is quite good imo. But I'm gonna elaborate a bit further soon in my analysis

 

[Laplaz]

Re: Re:

Would be awesome with the Muro di Sormano, but still a nice stage. Eshnar, the stage finishing in Pinerolo, do you know if that's the same little climb they used in 2016 after Pra Martino?

It is the same.

The route is quite good imo. But I'm gonna elaborate a bit further soon in my analysis

Can't wait for it!