Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia 2021 stage 11: Perugia – Montalcino 162 km

[Ranagazoo]

Sean Kelly on Eurosport praying it doesn't rain because the stage is hard enough already..

 

[limak_]

I actually started my first post with it. It's called the Tour de France, not Nepal. If you go by that name, i assume the idea is to show all parts of the country, to traverse all the different regions. As such, the Tour is huggely skewed. And i have no idea why you would think of a climber when thinking of GT winners. Merckx, Hinault, Froome, Indurain, Armstrong... all the most dominant TDF winners, were all world class climbers AND timetrialers. Clinic aside (the pure climbers weren't clean any more than their more all-round rivals), there is no reason to have such an image in your head. For every pure climber victory, there are 5 all-rounder wins. Even Contador was a great TT'er.

I'm also not saying my vision of how a GT should look like is superior to yours (though obviously, we all know it is ) i was simply stating that GT's are in fact skewed towards climbers, even though some people claim they aren't. Is it really that weird to expect more from a potential GT winner, than to be only good at one thing? Like i said, in 1934 there was a 90k ITT. Good luck with that, Gaudu, Kuss, Sosa.

Ok, we both look at cycling from two completely different perspectives.

If you design a route for TdF or Tour of any-other-contry-on-Earth your main purpose is to make the race as exciting as possible cycling-wise, so you choose the regions which meet this requirement best - hilly and mountainous ones. Your main purpose isn't showing all the parts of country. Race organisers are not travel agencies or whatever.
And this is the real reason why GTs' routes look the way they look. Mountains is the only place where cycling can show itslef at its best. And the routes being hugely skewed in this way is just a natural consequence of that.
So obviously, I 100% agree with you that routes are skewed towards climbers. What I'm trying to do here is explaining to you what are the reasons for that and why it's totally reasonable.

Also I think it's riders who should adjust to the route designs, not the other way around.

Ask any amateur cyclist in the world what is the best, most desired place to ride your bike that makes you fell most excited and emotional about it. I can assure you 95% of them, if only had a chance to ride there, will answer "mountains".

 

[Red Rick]

We're almost there

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Nobody doing anything on the gravel

They are all too afraid of Rafael Nadal

They are a long way from Rome, so they shouldn't be.

 

[Tim Cahill]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1395006102807384066

Edit: Embedded the wrong tweet

 

[Pirazziattacks]

It may look like it, but it's still way more exhausting imo, and probably even more so at the speed the peloton is riding.

Harder to a degree, but this sort of really hard packed and smooth gravel isn't much worse than a rough paved road- at least on the flat anyway. It will be harder in the peloton where they can't all ride in the wheeltracks of course. The section the break's on now looks a bit looser though.

 

[Eclipse]

And the race is on

 

[topcat]

Sean Kelly and all of us in the other thread know it's all going to happen now

 

[Panda Claws]

A lot of riders have to je cursing that they did not try to make the breakaway lol.

 

[ppanther92]

At least a nice sprint into the sector.

 

[Rollthedice]

I want revenge. I want them to know that death is coming, and there is nothing they can do to stop it. - Ramco V, Last Blood.

 

[Kazistuta]

1 minute every 5 km.... come on, you can do it!!

 

[topcat]

Nibali

 

[Velolover2]

The Shark is shoving his teeth.

 

[Red Rick]

Ganna go brrrrrrr

 

[dgodave]

Looks unhealthy - all that dust.

 

[SafeBet]

Berhane and another Cofidis rider down. Splits happening!

 

[Mayomaniac]

Shorty nowhere near the front atm.

 

[Rollthedice]

Mister 1000 Watts ganna thin the peloton.

 

[Panda Claws]

Anyone dropped yet?

 

[ppanther92]

But nice splits now already.

 

[bigcog]

Could be carnage if Ganna keeps this up.

 

[topcat]

Looks like it's all happening

 

[Tim Cahill]

Ganna seems to be dragging Bernal away on his own on the descent

 

[Velolover2]

Ganna is made for this. Roubaix win already this year?