Was used as the final climb in Tirreno Adriatico 2015, 3.1km @9.3%. Came in the last 6km
-
The Cycling News forum is still looking to add volunteer moderators with. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to
In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.
Thanks!
I predict an exciting Giro with everyone actually liking the route when it is all over with.
I do like it. It's more a 6 than a 7 but still good enough and a lot better than the past two editions.
My biggest gripe is the laughable ITT and stage 15. The rest is fine.
Yes, stage 17 is bad, but in the context of the third week I think it's ok. Stage 15 really needed to be a proper mountain stage though
My biggest gripe is the laughable ITT and stage 15. The rest is fine.
Yes, stage 17 is bad, but in the context of the third week I think it's ok. Stage 15 really needed to be a proper mountain stage though
Two TTs for 40km is bang normal, especially cause the main one is actually flat this time. If you had better mountains I'd agree it's too short.
Worst part for me is how easy it is to make it so much better, without changing fishing locations. Even Bormio can be better so easily with minimalistic design, Asiago can just go the regular Grappa side and then Foza like in 2017 and it's okay, cause even I know deep down that Bocca di Forca isn't happening while my grandchildren are alive.
Then you put that whatevername climb in Castelraimondo where Poels won and make Gorizia a murito stage, then you add 25km to the 2nd ITT and you suddenly have a route.
There is no excuses for logistics or altitude here.
If they needed to nerf one of the third-week mountain stages to limit the backloading (and I agree it's necessary not to go all out with all four of them), then they should have turned Champoluc into a breakaway day, not Bormio. It has the least exciting potential terrain (which says a lot when you can use the Valle d'Aosta finale) and it comes the day before Finestre, which makes it the only one of the four where you can't all but guarantee good GC action.
It's a shame he hasn't ticked off a Ronde or Roubaix yet else he genuinely might get skinny for this route
Agree on that. Now you have essentially a stage that tries to be a queen stage risking turning into a breakaway stage cause tomorrow is Finestre. The originally predicted route with less but steeper climbs was better for that reason IMO. Stage 18 of 2023 is an example. Hell, even Pratonevoso and Rabassa worked in that exact spot in 2018.
Another mediocre and backloaded Giro route but sadly that has been the norm lately. Still better than the Vuelta though.
+ Grande Partenza is good and better than the Tour and Vuelta equivalents
+ Third week is very hard and nice to have Finestre back
+ Sterrato stage
- Second week is too easy and stage 15 is joke
- Low amount of ITT kilometers
- Lack of high altitude climbs
Overall 5/10
+ Grande Partenza is good and better than the Tour and Vuelta equivalents
+ Third week is very hard and nice to have Finestre back
+ Sterrato stage
- Second week is too easy and stage 15 is joke
- Low amount of ITT kilometers
- Lack of high altitude climbs
Overall 5/10
The final week pure unipuerto is actually quite underrated. Alpe di Mera was also good in 2021, Tentudía was shockingly decent for a climb of its difficulty in 2022, Bejes delivered in 2023, Moncalvillo was pretty good in 2024, and that's basically all the stages that fit the bill from 2019 onwards. I'm definitely at a point where I see it as a very good option to start your final mountain block with, especially if it's the only major MTF of said block.
So I guess we should increase our expectations of Morredero for the upcoming Vuelta.
Cons: Awful route for first half of GT specialist Simon Yates
Pros: Excellent route for week 3 and 4 GT specialist GC Steven Kruijswijk
Pros: Excellent route for week 3 and 4 GT specialist GC Steven Kruijswijk
I have a lot of the same opinions I had last year though overall I think this route is better. There is once again quite a few things to like, like the low number of easy sprint stages, the sterrato stage, and I actually think doing some easy mountain stages in the alps helps massively to decrease the backloading. Like, the only reason we hate the bormio stage is because we know the incredible climbs in the area, but in isolation I don't think there is anything wrong with having this kind of stage in the third week.
But where the Giro once again completely drops the ball is individual stage design. All the medium mountain stages are okay but not a single one makes me truly excited. The Grappa stage is unbeliebably bad, I think the Aosta stage will suffer massively from having the most bang average final two climbs in existence and while I did just defended the Bormio stage....come on. Do you realize, the last time we've seen the mortirolo from its proper side Pogacar, Roglic, Vingegaard and Evenepoel combined for 0 GT podiums? Yet this will be the third consecutive time they are using one of the most legendary climbs in Italy from a side that turns it into the most generic HC climb you could imagine. No Recta Contador, not even the 2012 side, it has to be the 7% side that will make every cycling journalist pretend this stage is actually relevant due to name recognition.
That's what annoys me so much. They have a good overall plan here, but then the organization puts 0 effort into actually creating exciting stages. As some have said, you don't even have to look at complicated solutions to improve this route. You would just have to take the obvious option right in front of you instead of finding creative ways to make a good route bad.
But where the Giro once again completely drops the ball is individual stage design. All the medium mountain stages are okay but not a single one makes me truly excited. The Grappa stage is unbeliebably bad, I think the Aosta stage will suffer massively from having the most bang average final two climbs in existence and while I did just defended the Bormio stage....come on. Do you realize, the last time we've seen the mortirolo from its proper side Pogacar, Roglic, Vingegaard and Evenepoel combined for 0 GT podiums? Yet this will be the third consecutive time they are using one of the most legendary climbs in Italy from a side that turns it into the most generic HC climb you could imagine. No Recta Contador, not even the 2012 side, it has to be the 7% side that will make every cycling journalist pretend this stage is actually relevant due to name recognition.
That's what annoys me so much. They have a good overall plan here, but then the organization puts 0 effort into actually creating exciting stages. As some have said, you don't even have to look at complicated solutions to improve this route. You would just have to take the obvious option right in front of you instead of finding creative ways to make a good route bad.
Hard mtf --> very hard mountain stage --> easy mountain stage
@Libertine Seguros has been preaching this for a decade.
I think with the extra loop to Bormio, and taking the longest way possible from Grappa to Asiago we can pretty confidently say it's closer to active self sabotage than regular 0 effort design.
And if the problem with Bormio isn't that we know what's in the area- it's that it's bad and there's only 3 real mountain stages better than that.
Hard MTF that isn’t a unipuerto in the third week actually has a worse track record than the unipuerto on a (usually) cat. 1 MTF. Tre Cime in 2023 doesn’t count because of the uniquely horrible field, but Gamoniteiru in 2021 being the only mountain stage of the week that didn’t deliver is a great example. Pyrenees in the 2021 Tour and Covadonga in the 2024 Vuelta are also good examples of big third-week that didn’t do all that much. So I would quite possibly take Bejes 2023 over Covadonga 2024 to open an Asturian mountain block, also because Bejes is always going to be in addition to harder mountain stages whereas Covadonga will be treated as a hard mountain stage in and of itself in the design process. IMO that’s an evolution of the Libertine doctrine, not a rehash (nor a revolution, for that matter).
But who the frog decided to put the Cima Strada 105 km before the finish without any climbs afterwards?
I know that with the rest of the route in mind, the alternative would have been to exclude Tonale completely, cause it wouldn't make much sense to have a tough stage that day, but it's just such a waste of the highest mountain in the race. They could have done something similar to the 2023 Passo Lupo stage, which turned out to be more exciting than expected (we could have done without Longo Borghini crashing out ofc), but that wouldn't really fit well with the previous and following stages here. Still, I'm missing a mountain stage where the last climb isn't the hardest one/an MTF.
It seems they're feeling a bit nostalgic and want to see Van der Breggen win in Imola after 5 years, PFP winning in Aprica after 10 years, and for Luperini to win on Monte Cesen after 30 years. I'm not too sure any of them will be on the start list though.
front page of CN says this Giro has "colossal climbing". lol. see what i mean? everyone just gobbles up the *** sandwich.
The gods were cruel when they decided to take my coveted "delete forum" button from me
i can hear him right now; Rob Hatch, "the MIGHTY Mortirolo!" as a group of 40 goes over the top together 14 minutes behind the breakaway.
Is it me or is the Siena stage a lot less hilly than Strade Bianche and much like the 2024 Strade stage which was NOTHING HAPPENING the day before a TT
Wanna know something crazy? I've had a Giro route prepared for the Race Design Thread for literally about two years that I've never got round to writing up.
It starts in Albania, and stage 1 has a route very similar to the closing circuit of this stage 1. It also includes the bigger climb from stage 1, although that was in stage 3 with an uphill (cat.3) finish in Krujë, because I had a flat stage on day 2. It then had a stage into Matera upon arriving back on the mainland (although this was later excised and replaced), then went up the west towards Napoli, across to Marche, then over to Tuscany. It included San Pellegrino in Alpe, in my case on stage 12, although I had the finish at Stazione Le Polle, a short 5km @ 9% MTF so that it would put the big climb close to the finish. It included Monte Grappa from Semonzo - albeit early in a brutal queen stage that also had Malga Budui, Cima di Campo and Passo Manghen before a finish in the Val di Fiemme. It also visited the Valle d'Aosta at the end, although the similarities in the actual stages here are very few.
There are huge, huge differences in the routes, don't get me wrong, but the number of things in common are somewhat surprising.
It starts in Albania, and stage 1 has a route very similar to the closing circuit of this stage 1. It also includes the bigger climb from stage 1, although that was in stage 3 with an uphill (cat.3) finish in Krujë, because I had a flat stage on day 2. It then had a stage into Matera upon arriving back on the mainland (although this was later excised and replaced), then went up the west towards Napoli, across to Marche, then over to Tuscany. It included San Pellegrino in Alpe, in my case on stage 12, although I had the finish at Stazione Le Polle, a short 5km @ 9% MTF so that it would put the big climb close to the finish. It included Monte Grappa from Semonzo - albeit early in a brutal queen stage that also had Malga Budui, Cima di Campo and Passo Manghen before a finish in the Val di Fiemme. It also visited the Valle d'Aosta at the end, although the similarities in the actual stages here are very few.
There are huge, huge differences in the routes, don't get me wrong, but the number of things in common are somewhat surprising.
It seems so to me as well and I'm not supe why it's so well liked. The biggest postie for me is that it's before the rest day.
Oh, and Van Aert. If S. Yates is actually decent on this stage we may see a carnage.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Teams & Riders The Remco Evenepoel is the next Eddy Merckx thread- Started by DNP-Old
- Replies: 29K
-
Teams & Riders The Great Big Cycling Transfers, Extensions, and Rumours Thread- Started by RedheadDane
- Replies: 11K
-
Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread- Started by Lequack
- Replies: 23K
-
-
-
Teams & Riders Everybody needs a little bit of Roglstomp in their lives- Started by johnymax
- Replies: 19K
-
Teams & Riders Jonas Vingegaard thread: Love in Iberia- Started by Samu Cuenca
- Replies: 7K
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram