Giro Stage 9: Milano

[BroDeal]

Round and round we go. Discuss...

 

[Anonymous]

not looking good.. at the moment its forecast to be chucking it down in milan.... (rain forecast for 2pm)

could be fun... personally, if they are gonna do a circuit all afternoon, can we ditch the team cars, and just have pits set up somewhere, so if they need assistance, new tyres or food or something they can just pit..

 

[Animal]

Yes, and there are several traffic-worn, granite-cobbled piazzas along the way. It could be lethal.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

Good news: Horrillo is out of his induced coma, can respond and has moved his arms and legs.

Susan

 

[Animal]

With tram lines. See "Piazza Lega Lombarda" on Google Stree View

 

[Animal]

Good news: Horrillo is out of his induced coma, can respond and has moved his arms and legs.

Susan

That is good. I hope he has a speedy recovery, and can ride again this season.

 

[craig1985]

Good news: Horrillo is out of his induced coma, can respond and has moved his arms and legs.

Susan

That's fantastic to hear. Any chance to pass on any best wishes?

Seriously, I hope he gets his wife to buy him a lotto ticket.

 

[Animal]

Piazzale Biancamano too. 90 degree turn on granite cobbles.

 

[Anonymous]

Piazzale Biancamano too. 90 degree turn on granite cobbles.

With tram lines. See "Piazza Lega Lombarda" on Google Stree View

just had a look a photo on google earth of the junction.. that is a freaking mess..


ive just gone around the whole course on google earth (its great isnt it) some very tight bits and narrow sections, some nasty juntions with tram lines, so bad sections of cobbles... lets hope for dry weather..

 

[Animal]

Google maps do a split screen where you can see the map in the bottom half, and the streetview in the top. You can "drag" the viewer around the map to see various locations.

Piazza Cavour (right near where I used to work in the Via Senato) is absolutely crazy!

 

[Stelvio]

The Piazzale Loreto combination with 2k to go looks interesting as well.. Tight right hander into a street with trees and a dual track tram line in the middle followed by another tight right hander and then a 90 degree left hand turn. I guess there will almost be an Arenberg dash to be in the top 20 or so on the final lap. The Corso Buenos Aires appears to be used in both directions so it will be rather narrow until 400 meters to go

Looking at a current webcam shot of Milano I wouldn't be surprised by a shower (thunderstorm maybe) later in the afternoon.

 

[Cobblestones]

No announcer on Universal sports today. Just background noise.

 

[Parrot23]

No announcer on Universal

Wonder if he's going to start commentary when things heat up later?

 

[BroDeal]

No announcer on Universal sports today. Just background noise.

Woo hoo. The commentary finally gets better.

 

[Parrot23]

LOL, he's started now. But the commentary so far is mainly helicop/moto sound. Great stuff!

 

[Apollo]

cyclingnews is reporting

15:16 CEST
The stage today has been neutralized, by the way. The riders complained that the course was too dangerous. So we can expect a sprint, but we may well see a large bunch hang back and let the sprinters fight it out among themselves. Which is what the sprinters prefer anyway.

That means we won't see any changes in the GC or jerseys (barring something awful happening, which of course we don't hope.)

Why am I even bothering watching

 

[Mellow Velo]

Stage has been neutralised as the riders have complained it's dangerous.
A few cars parked on the course. Never heard of towing them away?
Or is this the way things are going to go from now on?

 

[Bala Verde]

if someone is interested in Rabo gear... There's an auction on Ebay and the proceedings will go to 'Right to Play' foundation. If you really want to dig in, here's Menchov bike

http://shop.ebay.nl/merchant/righttoplay2009_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZ

looking forward to the sprint, if it is going to happen at all! The cobble section seems pretty disruptive...

 

[Stelvio]

[...]The stage today has been neutralized, by the way.[...]

Why am I even bothering watching

Nothing would have happened in the GC today anyway (except for race ending crashes).

 

[ingsve]

I'm confused. Is it officially neutralized or is it just "neutralized"? An officially neutralized stage usually means there are no results or anything so ther would be no reason to even sprint except to entertain the crowd.

 

[CPwheelie]

15:30 CEST
Hm, we think we have figured out the rationale for the slow pace today. Are they thinking, "You can make us ride this dangerous course, but you can't make us ride it fast"?

hmmm.... why did I wake up early for this? Come on, where is that suicidal ISD solo breakaway!!!???!!!???

 

[Cosette]

The Belgian commetator mentioned that he thought it's a shame that the titles (like Bunch packed and so on) are in English and not in Italian. And truth be told. I'm inclined to agree with that...

Has the race been neutralized, or have they just collectively decided not to ride to fast??

 

[CPwheelie]

And they're stopped!

hmmm.... this week hasn't been the best ever for the Giro huh?

Oh, moving again.... they should let fans ride with them... they are going slow enough!

 

[Mellow Velo]

Last lap at 32.6 kph.
RAI have been comparing the favourites standing.
Leipheimer v Basso.

It's suddenly dawned on them that, with the 61km ITT up soon, Ivan has made up a grand total of 4 seconds on the two "monster" mountain stages!

They hardly pulled out all the stops for their centanary Giro.

 

[Quicksilver]

Sorry guys but the rest day is tomorrow, what a shower of lazy ******s I am going back out on the bike.
Boring boring boring, who wants to watch a touring event! Might start watching the cricket.
The cream of pro cycling has just gone sour.