Giro d'Italia Feminin Photos and Videos

[BBRoberts]

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ismkeKQ7t48 Stage 1 - Ciclismo in Rosa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPkRD1Ej3SE Stage 1 - Part 1 - Rai Sport 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyutM6_PqgM Stage 1 - Part 2 - Rai Sport 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vpJHEG_7IE Stage 1 - Part 3 - Rai Sport 1

Photos:
Stage 1 - Cicloweb
http://picasaweb.google.com/CiclowebFemminile/GiroDonne20101aTappa#

Stage 1 - WCN
http://www.womenscycling.net/2010/EventsPages2010/07_Giro/01_Stage1.htm

Stage 2 - Cicloweb
http://picasaweb.google.com/CiclowebFemminile/GiroDonne20102aTappa#

 

[Anonymous]

cracking.. thank you

 

[the big ring]

Very keen to hear how Pooley, Laws, et al lost 2+ minutes on stage 2

 

[Skip Madness]

It was in a crash, but the time loss was annulled as it was in the last three kilometres.

 

[BBRoberts]

Giro Donne teams

Here's an interesting note. It's an Italian race, although I wouldn't say it's dominated by Italian women. Most UCI teams from any one nation for the women are usually one or two. Italy has like 6 UCI women's teams for a country the size of Arizona. That's pretty impressive. So cycling is hugely popular in a country becoming increasingly congested with cars and people. However their best climber who might podium is gone, retired last year. Clearly the Giro is the premiere stage race of the year and it should recieve first rate coverage both on TV and the Internet. 40-50 minutes is not bad from Rai Sport, but it seems this is a bit special. They bumped it up this year. In the past, sometimes they only offered 10 minutes daily with 30 minutes on the weekend. Other then Rai Sport, it appears this Tour will not be covered by any big media international outlets. The timing is also bad, cause it starts nearly at the same time as the TDF, so that's a big problem for this race I think when it comes to TV coverage. If it was instead perhaps in August, it might do better in what was formerly the Grande Boucle old time slot.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The thing with competing with the Tour (though they're not competing, of course), is that though you lose a lot of the likelihood for live coverage, you do gain audience, in that quite a lot of the world's eyes are on cycling at that time of the year; many people who might stop watching cycling when July 25th rolls around. If the Giro Donne results or stage winners can get mentioned on the TV coverage of the Tour, that's a decent amount of exposure. In August, there's less competition, but a whole casual audience is totally lost.

I'm not saying your idea is bad, in fact I think it's quite good. I'm just stating something that may be used as the counter-argument.

 

[BBRoberts]

Catch 22

This is also true. Women's races can benifit when layered with men's events if they are not played down as second fiddle side shows. If it's professionally presented to the public along side the men, then I agree. For instance in 1989, Jeannie Longo benifited from the same fans which lined the road for the men. As you see here, the after treat was the women's race, which used the same roads as the men on the same day, 2nd fiddle, but the French are, well were/are tremendous supporters of their riders both male and female. However the Tour d'Aude has been dropping in popularity, which fallout from the TDF and UCI has not only affected the demise of the Grande Boucle, but has a ripple effect.

 

[BBRoberts]

The Saga continues...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo8VLA_C0ho Stage 2 - Part 1 - Rai Sport 1 TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oA7J6HSmt8 Stage 2 - Part 2 - Rai Sport 1 TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6qNIk5XTT8 Stage 2 - Part 3 - Rai Sport 1 TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q-atGxkQBY Stage 3 - Part 1 - Rai Sport 1 TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JZQZot855M Stage 3 - Part 2 - Rai Sport 1 TV

Part 3 is missing

 

[the big ring]

Sharon Laws broke her collar bone in the stage 2 crash :-(

I find the reports lacking in detail.

 

[BBRoberts]

Reports

Generally the reports in English sites have always been poor, but they usually are. I wouldn't say the non Engish sites have good solid reports either, but you can find other facts piece meal here and there. For instance if you comb a number of the Italian cycling news sites, you can fit together a better over all report of what happened, but it's a huge pain most people aren't willing to do. The only good thing is recently is that Google can translate a number of languages so it's easier to get some rough English, although sometimes literally Babel. Google translation seems to be better then some of the translation sites I have used however. Velonation sometimes has a few more facts, check them too.

 

[BBRoberts]

Abbott and Pooley

Pay Attention:

In this video you see Mara Abbott go head to head with Emma Pooley on Mount Serra last year. It's about a 3000 foot climb, and Mara held back for Arndt and let Pooley pace. Abbott could of gone much faster and this is just a short climb compared to the Stelvio, and even in the previous stage before the Stelvio they climb 5000 feet right from the gun, and then much more later in that stage before the next day when they climb the Stelvio Pass. Notice also in this video the only other rider in the clip really is Claudia Hausler and you can tell she's not a climber although she tried to limit her losses. Lucky for Claudia they got rid of the Surmano, but they won't get rid of the Stelvio Pass!!

This are the two best climbers in the world, climbing 101...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_G4KFpxrB4