no block haus for the Giro?

[Leopejo]

Va bene...I give up. I respect your tencity and the fact that you have always been polite. And I hope you wont hold it against me (think me impolite) when I say: "There are those who are blind because rthey can't see and there are those who are blinde because they don't want to see..."
Peace

I respect what you say, but consider you wrong. You know, there are those who see what is not there.

 

[Leopejo]

Certainly, when you consider that the other "tough" climb of the race, is featured in stage 5........which is just 125kms long.

As for the route. If they wanted to re-visit all the original Giro "hosts", why not start in Naples and arrive at the Dolomites a week later?

If they needed to come into Rome from the North, why not repeat stage 9 of the 2000 Giro, where Casagrande looked to have secured the pink, by putting all his rivals to the sword.
It may not be the Mortirolo, but it's a lot like that Aprica run in.
San Pellegrino in Alpe, 12.6 km at 8.75%
Abetone, 12 km at 5.1%

That was the second stage of a Giro I saw live (my first was the previous day, when Axel Merckx won). What a sunburn I got at the Abetone pass!

For those who happen to be in Italy in July, the "Prato-Abetone" granfondo has both those climbs.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Folks, there are these things called transfers. Riders don't like them, but they have been going on forever. It would have been quite easy to have a rest/transfer day two days before the finish in Rome, which is an ITT after all. They might have been able to pull it off without the rest day using some of Mellow's course ideas, turning a "transfer" into a reasonable 1-2 hour bus ride after a stage.

It's going to take one clever rider to figure out where and when to try and derailed the railroad boys.....

That is what I now see. An Astana and perhaps Liquigas train pulling Basso and Levi along through all the climbs up to the last 5k of every mountain stage, with Menchov in tow. Very similar to Lance and USPS very exciting style he used from about 2001-2005.

I agree with BroDeal. This is very much like the relatively flat Vuelta Menchov won (by following wheels). Last year's Vuelta was almost as bland, except for one stage: Anglru. This Giro however has no Angliru. The Blockhaus wasn't even an Angliru. So keep your expectations low folks. [I should note, this year's Vuelta has what could be a very interesting course, probably the best of the three GTs. No Pyranees, but lots and lots of climbing and very up/down stages should give a lot of breakaways, and be perfect for a climber. Early pick Sammy]

Very little spots for a climber to make up time. Maybe Stage 16. Other mountain stages will see splits in the seconds.