Mount Etna and The Giro

[SoNiK4]

Hopefully this scenario doesn't happen, but I'm assuming there is an alternative route in the event that Etna acts up?


http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/04/11/Mount-Etna-volcano-calms-down/UPI-35571302531440/

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Ash clouds, poor light conditions, storms, choking dust, mudslides...

This is the Giro. It's about par for the course.

 

[Barrus]

Ash clouds, poor light conditions, storms, choking dust, mudslides...

This is the Giro. It's about par for the course.

Yup, I think they would just send the riders along, just as long as the lava does not run over the road

 

[SoNiK4]

Yup, I think they would just send the riders along, just as long as the lava does not run over the road

Haha, true...even if Etna does act up I can hear Zomegnan repeat what he said when the route was first unveiled...."It's a hard Giro but the Giro has to be hard, it has to be difficult."

 

[Christian]

It's all about show for Zomegnan. Starting on a different continent, racing up Europe's most active (IIANM) volcano ... the crazier, the better. I think there will be a distinct smell of burnt rubber, I was there some years ago and people were lighting cigarettes on the stones

 

[Parrulo]

this year they ride over a volcano next year they start the race in africa and force the peloton to swim across the Mediterranean all the way till Italy in the middle of a stage.

 

[Mambo95]

this year they ride over a volcano next year they start the race in africa and force the peloton to swim across the Mediterranean all the way till Italy in the middle of a stage.

He won't do that while the top Italian is someone who can't swim (or least he couldn't when he was at CSC, maybe he's learnt since).

 

[Christian]

this year they ride over a volcano next year they start the race in africa and force the peloton to swim across the Mediterranean all the way till Italy in the middle of a stage.

Indeed - instead of pompous showboating they should do a stage on Lampedusa for once and draw some attention to this inhumane and disastrous situation, but there is no place for that in the glamerous world of Berlusconiland ...

Kudos for the L'Aquila stage though

 

[Archibald]

but flight operations at the city's airport were unaffected, the report said

funny that there was and EasyJet ad alongside the article!!

If the planes are flying, you can bet the peleton will be riding (with no need for newspapers down the jersey on the descent!)

 

[Christian]

funny that there was and EasyJet ad alongside the article!!

If the planes are flying, you can bet the peleton will be riding (with no need for newspapers down the jersey on the descent!)

I wonder if helicopters will be able to go up though ... if not that will make for some rather cr@ppy coverage

 

[Arnout]

Indeed - instead of pompous showboating they should do a stage on Lampedusa for once and draw some attention to this inhumane and disastrous situation, but there is no place for that in the glamerous world of Berlusconiland ...

Kudos for the L'Aquila stage though

Wait what? Thousands and thousands of refugees are fleeing (understandably) to this island of barely a square inch and you call it inhuman that it is cramped over there?

Actually I think the Italian government is doing a good job, they are processing these people quite fast (giving them permits to travel into Europe), but there is no way they can prevent this pile of humans on a tiny island.

It's not the topic to discuss these kind of things, but I think this post is quite ignorant.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

They've already climbed Italy's other most storied active volcano (Vesuvio 2009); I think the Vuelta was mooting the idea of starting in Africa, as the first GT to do so. They were talking about a prologue in Melilla and a circuit race in Ceúta or vice versa, forget which way round, because they knew if they visited one they'd have to visit both; never really got past a Guillén pipe dream though, I think. Don't think the Moroccans would have been too happy with it anyway.

 

[Christian]

Wait what? Thousands and thousands of refugees are fleeing (understandably) to this island of barely a square inch and you call it inhuman that it is cramped over there?

Actually I think the Italian government is doing a good job, they are processing these people quite fast (giving them permits to travel into Europe), but there is no way they can prevent this pile of humans on a tiny island.

It's not the topic to discuss these kind of things, but I think this post is quite ignorant.

Lampedusa: 16 toilets for 3000 refugees

"The hygienic and sanitary conditions on Lampedusa are inacceptable", declared Doctors without Borders (MSF) on Friday. According to MSF, 3000 refugees must share 16 porter potties, there are only two water containers and every person must do with one and a half liters of water per day.

"It is unbelievable that this is happening in Italy - a G8 country. The conditions are worse than those in refugee camps all over the world, where MSF is present.", bemoans Kostas Moschochoritis, head of MSR Italy.

So yes I call that inhumane and cramped.

 

[roundabout]

Vesuvio is a sand dune compared to Etna in terms of activity. I mean you get the scenery and a bit of smoke but that's about it.

 

[Christian]

Vesuvio is a sand dune compared to Etna in terms of activity. I mean you get the scenery and a bit of smoke but that's about it.

From what I read on wikipedia Vesuv was last active in 1944 while Etna seems to have some action more or less every two years in the last decade

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Vesuvio is a sand dune compared to Etna in terms of activity. I mean you get the scenery and a bit of smoke but that's about it.

I said "most storied" "active volcano", not "most active".

Vesuvio is active and has an infamous history. Hence they have climbed one of Italy's two most famous volcanoes. Just the other one's a lot more active.

 

[roundabout]

I get what you're saying. My point is that apart from history it could well just be like any other climb with little reason to think about alternative routes.

Even the parking lot is large enough.

 

[Skip Madness]

Poor Stromboli, very much the Vuelta of Italy's active volcanoes.

 

[Eshnar]

Hence they have climbed one of Italy's two most famous volcanoes. Just the other one's a lot more active.

Stromboli and Vulcano are FAR more active than Vesuvio, so I guess it's the fourth

For who said about "Zomegnan's show".... Etna was climbed in the Giro for the first time in 1967. Zomegnan's idea?

 

[Eshnar]

Hopefully this scenario doesn't happen, but I'm assuming there is an alternative route in the event that Etna acts up?


http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/04/11/Mount-Etna-volcano-calms-down/UPI-35571302531440/

If Etna erupts in those very days, it'll be a problem

official answer from Zomegnan last year.

 

[Lanark]

Stromboli and Vulcano are FAR more active than Vesuvio, so I guess it's the fourth

For who said about "Zomegnan's show".... Etna was climbed in the Giro for the first time in 1967. Zomegnan's idea?

True, it's not completely new, but a lot has changed since 1967 (a much bigger media circus at the finish, higher financial stakes), enough to make it a very gutsy move by Zomegnan.

Compare it to the dirt roads from Krohnplatz and Finestre, sure the GT's used to ride over dirt roads in the mountains all the time, but that doesn't make it any less special that they do it in today's circumstances?

 

[Eshnar]

True, it's not completely new, but a lot has changed since 1967 (a much bigger media circus at the finish, higher financial stakes), enough to make it a very gutsy move by Zomegnan.

Compare it to the dirt roads from Krohnplatz and Finestre, sure the GT's used to ride over dirt roads in the mountains all the time, but that doesn't make it any less special that they do it in today's circumstances?

Of course it does, and I'm happy with that.
But 1967 is really not like 1910, there were already mass media, tv, etc.
However, I just want to point out that Etna was climbed in 1967 AND in 1989.
Let's ignore that 1989 can be considered "contemporary era"... 1989 is 22 years after 1967.
And 2011 is... 22 years after 1989.
I guess it is not casual.

 

[Cimber]

this year they ride over a volcano next year they start the race in africa and force the peloton to swim across the Mediterranean all the way till Italy in the middle of a stage.

If the immigrants can do it, the peloton can do it

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stromboli and Vulcano are FAR more active than Vesuvio, so I guess it's the fourth

For who said about "Zomegnan's show".... Etna was climbed in the Giro for the first time in 1967. Zomegnan's idea?

I repeat, I said Vesuvio was the most famous active volcano other than Etna in Italy.

Stromboli and Vulcano could well be more active, but that wasn't the criterion I was applying. They are less famous than Vesuvio and Etna, and all four are active. Fame was the criterion I was applying, and few would dispute that more people know of Vesuvio than of Stromboli or Vulcano, mainly because most of Europe does the Roman Empire at school.

 

[rhubroma]

Lampedusa: 16 toilets for 3000 refugees


So yes I call that inhumane and cramped.

That's because we don't have a normal right government in Italy. The only such political leadership that has to work with a separatist and xenophobic party, the Northern League, just to keep itself together.

They are the ones responsible for the disaster, but this isn't the whole story. Regions like Tuscany are offering dignified refuge to the refuges (not clandestini as the right wing calls them - see the power words have in conditioning perceptions?). The problem is the inappropriateness of Lampedusa and the political leadership, not Italy as a whole.

Back to the race. What's a little hot, sulfuric vapor anyway. It's the Giro!