In general I agree, recent editions that have underwhelmed have done so partially because the GC has been too close meaning the first 2 weeks are spent waiting for the last week and the last week is spent trying to hold position rather than make up time. Obviously MTFs do a good job at opening up time gaps but I'm hopeful that the medium mountiains, TTs, muri, and sterrato will create the time gaps inplace of MTFs. If anything I prefer these types of stages to create time gaps as MTFs favour the best climbers who I would prefer had to make up time in the final week but I admit a harder MTF wouldn't go amiss. Abetone after Pradaccio or Terminillio instead of Marsia and a >40km TT on stage 10 then the first 2 weeks are perfect
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2016 had Rifugio Aremogna of all climbs as its only MTF in the first two weeks, didn't stop either the route or the racing from being pretty damn good.
Sure, a bigger MTF in the first half would add something (wouldn't say no to a non-terrible side of Etna either if Sicily is the replacement Grande Partenza), but it's a drop in the bucket compared to a hypothetical route where all four of Asiago, Bormio, Champoluc and Sestriere are done properly - if that happened, it would instantly be an all-time great route even with a very average remaining 17 stages.
3/3 road stages the day before Finestre have delivered about as much as you could have asked for given where they finished (Macugnaga, Cervinia, Prato Nevoso). Granted, those three stages were in relatively favourable Giri overall, but Finestre very much isn't guaranteed to block action the day before (especially not when it keeps being stage 20).
Also, anyyone with two brain cells would take those two stages over any variation of Farrapona before Angliru, but it's pretty clear that you've locked into hating on this route no matter what the final iteration is like...
100% agree, a climb needs to be properly steep and hard to force action far from the finish, a climb like grappa is hard and could lead to early action but if the group are so minded they could easily go over the top in a group of 20 like we saw with Passo Giau in 2023. Even Coll de Pradell didn't see attacks as it was so far from the end although it did trim the group down and made the final 2 climbs more open for racing. I think the list of climbs that would force action far from the finish that you can descend safely in grand tours is probably less than 5. If the tearrain and distance to the finish after the climb is suitable that number increases massively
The route is ridiculous in the first 2 weeks without a real mountain stage.
The mountain stages of the last week are not that great to have attacks from far.
Horrible route, and the Giro is getting too soft.
Probably the Giro 2018 was the last decent route. Not great, but decent.
The obvious solution to 90% of the problems the giro faces is to switch its calender position with the vuelta so they don't have to make the race easier to accomodate for top GC riders focussing on the tour and they can use high elevation climbs that are usually snowed off. This will never happen though as it would require ASO to concede the better position in the calender to RCS which will never happen and the UCI are useless so they won't step in and do the obvious things so many fans want.
Or they could stop caring about who turns up and just try and make the race as good as possible and raise the profile of the race naturally so that top riders want to win it as much as the tour. in fact they should try to capitalise on the tour being exclusively behind a pay wall in a few large markets and try selling it to tv channels to show it for free to further build its popularity
I disagree, rumours suggest quite an entertaining first 2 weeks. Yes, it's still backloaded, but the opening weekend in Albania looks promissing (if it happenes). Futermore there seems quite some variation. Hills, medium mountain, mountain top finish, TT and even gravel. Less sprint stages than in previous years. I would say, the first 2 weeks are much better than the average 2 weeks of the giro.
I agree that giro routes have been underwhelming the last years (yes, even tour routes looked better), but I really don't understand the hate so far on this year by some posters on this forum, while rumours looks good so far.
Still best route in several years. Okay MTF to Marsia. Sterrato stage. At least two good medium mountain stages, and perhaps more depending on what they do the first 5-6 days. The last week includes one big MTF, Finestre + Sestriere and a pretty good Aosta stage. The most disappointing aspect would be a possibly too short Bormio stage. That should rather have been a possible tappone.
I think the very lack of MTFs in itself make the mountain stages better. Bormio is more likely to see action if Finestre is the only better opportunity afterwards.
It is the racers which make the racing- you get ‘bad routes’ raced well which are far more entertaining than ‘good’ routes raced conservatively
If you put Finestre 120 km from the finish line, nothing will happens there.
people said that as well in for the stage Froome turned around in 2018 when Finestre was only the 3rd last climb of that stage. (you should know that with your forum name) (so quite a bad example)
I really have the impression you dislike the route just for the sake of disliking it. Or you really think mountain stages are better if they have hard HC finishes and cols have to be famous, otherwise it's a bad mountain stage.
I actually enjoy the origanality of the rumours so far. A good mix of never used combo's, not to many hard mountain top finishes and a lot of possibilities for attacking from far, ambush or just entertaining medium mountain. And still a few classics.
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Probably I didn't expressed properly. Imagine Finestre 120 km from the finish line, and then 120 flat km until the finish. Nothing will happens on Finestre.
My point is the route is also important, not just the riders making the race hard.
there is nothing like that on the route. While I don't like every stage they at least give riders and teams options. I'd rather this than a route that is just variations of difficult mtfs where there is virtually no room for interesting tactics
A sterrato stage isn't a good thing?
What about proper medium mountain stages the two first weeks?
And that combo of climbs on the Aosta stage?
If the route is common knowledge within the peloton there is no way it's not gonna leak. But then usually January is way too late to announce the route of a race in May, which for many riders will be the big season goal so I wouldn't be surprised if they have given them some information.
I think this fits into the picture perfectly. Something about the first three stages was thrown into doubt, while the rest of the route is already done. But you can neither announce the route without the start so they needed to postpone while giving teams some information in order to make sure nobody will skip the race due to a lack of knowledge of the route. It's a little annoying though if we don't get any official news until January.
I think this fits into the picture perfectly. Something about the first three stages was thrown into doubt, while the rest of the route is already done. But you can neither announce the route without the start so they needed to postpone while giving teams some information in order to make sure nobody will skip the race due to a lack of knowledge of the route. It's a little annoying though if we don't get any official news until January.
You mean why they won't just put it out altogether? I would guess presenting a route without the grand depart would spark a lot of questions and make the organization look more chaotic than a late route reveal. It's an open admission that they f*cked up the planning phase of bringing the start to Albania and that they are way behind schedule in that regard. Only revealing the route to the teams has the same result for us hardcore cycling fans who spend hours on a forum discussing this stuff, but more casual fans will simply never take notice of what's going on this way.
Given this news, I just don’t see more than one out of Pogačar, Remco, Roglič and Vingegaard riding the Giro next year. There's just too much uncertainty associated with this race even when compared to the Vuelta
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