Giro d'Italia 2020, Stage 2: Alcamo – Agrigento 149 km

[Red Rick]

Boys and Girls, this is not the Tour de France. Copy paste season is upon us. No excuses for threads to be late

Nice uphill sprint finish, though I do think te final km is too easy for any real gaps.

Have no idea if Ganna can keep La Maglia Rosa.

Stage 2: Alcamo – Agrigento 149 km
Sunday, October 4th, 12:45 CEST

Technical Overview:
The first road stage of this Giro is a rather short uphill sprint. The stage starts in Alcamo and features tough terrain from the get-go, with four consecutive short climbs that are not hard but will definitely favour the formation of a strong break of the day. Only the third of these climbs is categorized, Santa Ninfa (GPM4, 5.6 km at 4.2%), while the fourth has the first intermediate sprint at the top, in Partanna. From there, the road becomes mostly flat, following the southern coast of the island. It does feature a few ups and downs, but overall it should be a very easy terrain all the way to the finale, which starts after the second intermediate sprint in Porto Empedocle. Here the riders will approach the “Valle dei Templi”, the Valley of the Temples, one of the most famous landmarks of the island. Funny enough, it is not a valley, but a ridge that from the sea goes up to the hill where Agrigento sits. This is exactly what the riders will do too. The climb to Agrigento (GPM4, 3.7 km at 5.3%) has seen some good racing in the past, even if its numbers are not impressive. The last time the Giro arrived here, in 2008, the GC guys were in the mix (although the overall route was harder). This climb was also in the Worlds 1994, won by Leblanc.

The Climbs:
Santa Ninfa: GPM4, 5.6 km at 4.2%
Constant climb without any hard ramp. No profile available.

Agrigento: GPM4, 3.7 km at 5.3%
An interesting climb to have an uphill sprint on. The profile is on the last kms detail.

What to expect:
As I said, the climb itself can do some damage but the overall stage is very easy compared to its predecessors. That said, this is definitely not a bunch sprint. A fast climber (…or Sagan) should take it, but there shouldn’t be any gaps.

La Valle dei Templi

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Who will succeed Ricky Riccò?

 

[roundabout]

2008

CQ Ranking - Giro d'Italia, Stage 2 : Cefalu - Agrigento

CQ Ranking is the world's leading cycling ranking and extensive results database. Also known as Cycling Quotient.

cqranking.com

there is a video of the last few km on youtube which includes a gem of Harmon (I think it was him) saying that Rodriguez could challenge for the overall

Stage this year is much easier though as Eshnar wrote in the preview, so I'd say Matthews/Sagan/Ulissi over the GC guys

 

[Keram]

Please Sagan win already . I cant imagine his last win was 10th july 2019. So much changed since then. I feel like it was decade ago.

 

[SafeBet]

Matthews with his first of many wins in this Giro.

 

[BlueRoads]

Story of the day will be... can Zabel defend his jersey?

 

[Amazinmets87]

Prospective break of the day?

 

[Pantani_lives]

Break:
Gallopin (AG2R)
Ravanelli (Androni)
Romano (Bardiani)
Frapporti (Vini)
Zabel (Israel)

Stage: Ulissi

 

[tobydawq]

The last time they finished here. Poor Purito.

I would be a bit surprised if it gets that selective tomorrow.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNu3yk6zM5s&ab_channel=asadfallik

 

[Gigs_98]

The last time they finished here. Poor Purito.

I would be a bit surprised if it gets that selective tomorrow.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNu3yk6zM5s&ab_channel=asadfallik

Rodriguez had such a weird career. He was good but not a worldbeater till his late 20's and then suddenly he became one of the worlds best cyclists in his 30's. It's just so strange to know how good the guy was and then you see a video of him when he was already 29 or something, and the commentator has to explain "he's not just Valverde's domestique". Yeah no sh*t, the guy is a multiple monument winner, has podium finishes in all three gt's, won many many gt stages and smaller stage races, but he just hadn't done any of that yet. So much was still to come for Purito at the time of this video.

 

[Parker]

Rodriguez had such a weird career. He was good but not a worldbeater till his late 20's and then suddenly he became one of the worlds best cyclists in his 30's. It's just so strange to know how good the guy was and then you see a video of him when he was already 29

Well there he lost to Riccardo Ricco and as time went on riders like Ricco became a lot more scarce.

 

[roundabout]

Rodriguez had such a weird career. He was good but not a worldbeater till his late 20's and then suddenly he became one of the worlds best cyclists in his 30's. It's just so strange to know how good the guy was and then you see a video of him when he was already 29 or something, and the commentator has to explain "he's not just Valverde's domestique". Yeah no sh*t, the guy is a multiple monument winner, has podium finishes in all three gt's, won many many gt stages and smaller stage races, but he just hadn't done any of that yet. So much was still to come for Purito at the time of this video.

Don't forget the best GT finish of 17th at that point.

 

[Lequack]

EF got fined $4000 for their new jersey designs apparently

 

[Sciatic]

Awesome temple—hope we get some help-shots of that tomorrow.

 

[movingtarget]

Matthews and Sagan to fight this one out.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Matthews and Sagan to fight this one out.

I don't think Sagan will be there. Matthews could, though. I'm also interested to see if Vendrame can make a good result here.

 

[Jan the Man]

Diego Ulissi?

 

[42x16ss]

EF got fined $4000 for their new jersey designs apparently

Pretty sure it was for the cool AF duck helmets. Makes me want one even more now.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Pretty sure it was for the cool AF duck helmets. Makes me want one even more now.

It can't be the helmets because it was during the team presentation. Saw speculation that perhaps they did not inform the UCI of the kit change - would be kinda silly on their part if that's the case.

 

[Oliver]

Ulissi vs Matthews

 

[Lequack]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1312483999336460290

View: https://twitter.com/AstanaTeam/status/1312483999336460290?s=20

 

[thiscocks]

Ulissi

 

[SKSemtex]

Matthews with his first of many wins in this Giro.

It is almost impossible for me to imagine Mathews winning the race where Sagan is in. In all those years I remember only one stage. TDF 2016 where Orica outnumbered Sagan.
I hope we can stay with this one win.

 

[tobydawq]

It is almost impossible for me to imagine Mathews winning the race where Sagan is in. In all those years I remember only one stage. TDF 2016 where Orica outnumbered Sagan.
I hope we can stay with this one win.

I think your memory failed you a bit, there

 

[Keram]

ES 2 will be broadcasting Liege and Giro at the same time apparently. At least czech version. I am curious how they can handle this.