Pre Giro d' Italia-thread!

[Koronin]

Re:

@Jspear and @Koronin
So there is no conclusion if Movistar implodes or wins sth but at least you have proved you both are from USA. :lol:

:lol: guess that was fairly easy to prove. I guess it shows there are at least some fans over here. :lol:

 

[Gerrard Slipped haha]

This route gets a 7/10 from me, not a perfect one ofc, certainly a room for improvement, but I think the placement of the stages we have is great, especially the second week finale is booked as well as it could be. The biggest question mark is obviously the Jafferau stage, but it has a giant potential.

Only thing I would actually change is that I'd make Prato Nevoso stage the Verbania 2015 or 2010 Monte Grappa-like, with the finish on the descent. And I actually like how the ITT is not very long, say what you want, I am taking a kinda lazy and uncreative 34km flat ITT over something twice as long, since now Dumoulin and Froome can't just sit on everyone's wheel in the mountains, because they are probably not making up some crazy amount of time on guys like Pinot or MAL on this stage, especially if the Superman goes Switzerland 2016 mode here.

I will make another post before the race about the favorites, but what are everyone's thoughts on Sky? I mean if Poels isn't in top form this certainly doesn't look like a typical Tour-esque team for Sky. Henao doesn't strike me as a guy who can fill the Nieve/Landa role, not sure about Elissonde's and DDLC's form too, maybe someone who has followed their season so far closely can say something? Either way, MAL and Chaves both are going to have a very strong support, hoping Oomen can deliver too for Big Tom.

 

[Robert5091]

http://inrng.com/giro/
There are time bonuses available on all the stages except the time trials:
- 10-6-4 seconds for the first three riders respectively on each stage
- 3-2-1 seconds are available for the first three riders at the second of two intermediate “TV” sprints on each of the road stages

 

[Jspear]

Re:

http://inrng.com/giro/
There are time bonuses available on all the stages except the time trials:
- 10-6-4 seconds for the first three riders respectively on each stage
- 3-2-1 seconds are available for the first three riders at the second of two intermediate “TV” sprints on each of the road stages

Nice! I enjoy the race dynamic that can bring...

 

[Robert5091]

Froome might well go for all the bonus seconds he can - as per the Vuelta last year
http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/r...bonus-can-search-vuelta-espana-victory-347268

 

[Akuryo]

131 VIVIANI Elia
132 CAPECCHI Eros
133 CAVAGNA Rémi
134 MØRKØV Michael
135 SABATINI Fabio
136 SCHACHMANN Maximilian
137 SÉNÉCHAL Florian
138 STYBAR Zdenek

So no Enric Mas in Italy. And I like it. Let him go all out at the Vuelta!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Did those Enric for Il Giro rumors really originate from Lefevre?

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

131 VIVIANI Elia
132 CAPECCHI Eros
133 CAVAGNA Rémi
134 MØRKØV Michael
135 SABATINI Fabio
136 SCHACHMANN Maximilian
137 SÉNÉCHAL Florian
138 STYBAR Zdenek

So no Enric Mas in Italy. And I like it. Let him go all out at the Vuelta!

Viviani is at the very least going to win 5 stages. Perfect team and his biggest rivals are likely going to be Sam Bennett, Danny van Poppel and Modolo.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

131 VIVIANI Elia
132 CAPECCHI Eros
133 CAVAGNA Rémi
134 MØRKØV Michael
135 SABATINI Fabio
136 SCHACHMANN Maximilian
137 SÉNÉCHAL Florian
138 STYBAR Zdenek

So no Enric Mas in Italy. And I like it. Let him go all out at the Vuelta!

Viviani is at the very least going to win 5 stages. Perfect team and his biggest rivals are likely going to be Sam Bennett, Danny van Poppel and Modolo.

Mareczko! Modolo is completely irrelevant as a sprinter these days. Okay, Mareczko isn't at his best this year as well. Which is a shame since in the past Mareczko could beat Viviani. Would've been a great battle between these two. Now Viviani, as much as he has improved, wins a bunch of stages, simply because there's no one to challenge him. Unless Bennett or Van Poppel step up big time for this Giro.

They really should've invited either Cofidis or Vital Concept instead of Wilier. Although both Bouhanni and Coquard haven't been top notch so far this season as well. Laporte has been though. Certainly some sort of irony that Cofidis gets all these wildcards due to sponsorship commitments, but for the one major race where they really would add something they're chanceless of participation and don't care anyway.

I don't get why Vegni always invites Wilier anyway. Zomegnan used to snub them, when they were useless. Mareczko better brings his 2016 shape to the corsa rosa. In that case he's certainly gonna be a factor. It's his chance to step up finally. Absolutely horrible time for an off year form wise.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Mareczko has eight wins this year so far. Hardly an "off year". And yes, I know what kind of races he won. But still.

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

Mareczko has eight wins this year so far. Hardly an "off year". And yes, I know what kind of races he won. But still.

Yeah, let's hope you're right and I'm wrong. I mean Guardini hardly wins in Malaysia and Croatia these days against poor competition. Maybe Mareczko only took a somewhat slower build-up to the Giro in contrast to Guardini's obvious decline. Would be nice, since there's still an open check between Viviani and Mareczko from 2 years ago when the italopolish youngster outsprinted his designated team leader in Argentina!

Actually I'm looking forward to the grande partenza in Jerusalem. Should be one of the best gt starts ever with the prolog up the temple mount and some very picturesque shots!



*Edited by King Boonen

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Re: Re:

Actually I'm looking forward to the grande partenza in Jerusalem. Should be one of the best gt starts ever with the prolog up the temple mount and some very picturesque shots!

This. So much history on these roads. But also the Negev stage should bring some great pictures. I prefer this definitely to GT starts in some random Dutch town (no offense).

 

[King Boonen]

Hi all,

Please keep the politics out of this thread. This can be discussed in the Cafe thread specifically for politics in sport and I'll be moving the political discussion there. This is not an attempt to stop the discussion, it is just to keep the racing and the politics separate so that each discussion can actually be followed. If you feel strongly about this issue then, personally, I suggest you boycott the Giro.

Cheers,

KB.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Actually I'm looking forward to the grande partenza in Jerusalem. Should be one of the best gt starts ever with the prolog up the temple mount and some very picturesque shots!

This. So much history on these roads. But also the Negev stage should bring some great pictures. I prefer this definitely to GT starts in some random Dutch town (no offense).

Or Danish town... what's so special about Herning?

 

[Ivan_Basso_77]

Re: Re:

Actually I'm looking forward to the grande partenza in Jerusalem. Should be one of the best gt starts ever with the prolog up the temple mount and some very picturesque shots!

This. So much history on these roads. But also the Negev stage should bring some great pictures. I prefer this definitely to GT starts in some random Dutch town (no offense).

Or Danish town... what's so special about Herning?

Exactly... if one thinks the Netherlands is a low land, then he should visit Denmark. I understand that the Grand Tours want a bigger promotion, but stages outside the country's borders IMHO aren't the way to do it. Really in the last 10 years there is no Giro whose parcours are completely in Italy.

 

[RedheadDane]

We got hills... just... not in that part of the country.
And at least we aren't partically under sea level.

 

[Ivan_Basso_77]

I agree about the under the sea level thing, but when I remember what "hills" were categorised in the 2012 Giro stages in Denmark just to get the mountains classification underway, I still can't help laughing a little.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Actually I'm looking forward to the grande partenza in Jerusalem. Should be one of the best gt starts ever with the prolog up the temple mount and some very picturesque shots!

This. So much history on these roads. But also the Negev stage should bring some great pictures. I prefer this definitely to GT starts in some random Dutch town (no offense).

Or Danish town... what's so special about Herning?

Exactly... if one thinks the Netherlands is a low land, then he should visit Denmark. I understand that the Grand Tours want a bigger promotion, but stages outside the country's borders IMHO aren't the way to do it. Really in the last 10 years there is no Giro whose parcours are completely in Italy.

You know, cycling doesn't necessarily need hills to be exiting

 

[Valv.Piti]

I actually think Denmark, in general, is more hilly than the NL since small hills are spread across the country whereas they are very concentrated in NL.

The Grande Partenza in Denmark in 2012 was pretty terrible, by the way. As was it in 2016 in NL, but at least people weren't crashing left and right.

 

[Ivan_Basso_77]

Re: Re:

Actually I'm looking forward to the grande partenza in Jerusalem. Should be one of the best gt starts ever with the prolog up the temple mount and some very picturesque shots!

This. So much history on these roads. But also the Negev stage should bring some great pictures. I prefer this definitely to GT starts in some random Dutch town (no offense).

Or Danish town... what's so special about Herning?

Exactly... if one thinks the Netherlands is a low land, then he should visit Denmark. I understand that the Grand Tours want a bigger promotion, but stages outside the country's borders IMHO aren't the way to do it. Really in the last 10 years there is no Giro whose parcours are completely in Italy.

You know, cycling doesn't necessarily need hills to be exiting

I'm well aware of that, at the end of the day it's up to the cyclists to make it exciting.

 

[Ivan_Basso_77]

Re:

I actually think Denmark, in general, is more hilly than the NL since small hills are spread across the country whereas they are very concentrated in NL.

The Grande Partenza in Denmark in 2012 was pretty terrible, by the way. As was it in 2016 in NL, but at least people weren't crashing left and right.

It's possible. I simply recall from my geography classes that Denmark is a very low land in general.

Yeah, those stages could have definitely been designed better. They could have gone past some of the fjords, for example.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

I actually think Denmark, in general, is more hilly than the NL since small hills are spread across the country whereas they are very concentrated in NL.

The Grande Partenza in Denmark in 2012 was pretty terrible, by the way. As was it in 2016 in NL, but at least people weren't crashing left and right.

We've got a few places with low hills outside AGR territory. In fact, they did one of the hardest climbs of NL in the 2nd stage of that Giro, but instead of including that hill in the final circuit, they opted for an entirely flat circuit.
Depending on the length of the circuit, it's not enough to make the stage super selective, but it would be enough to drop most of the sprinters.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Actually I'm looking forward to the grande partenza in Jerusalem. Should be one of the best gt starts ever with the prolog up the temple mount and some very picturesque shots!

This. So much history on these roads. But also the Negev stage should bring some great pictures. I prefer this definitely to GT starts in some random Dutch town (no offense).

Exactly... if one thinks the Netherlands is a low land, then he should visit Denmark. I understand that the Grand Tours want a bigger promotion, but stages outside the country's borders IMHO aren't the way to do it. Really in the last 10 years there is no Giro whose parcours are completely in Italy.

You know, cycling doesn't necessarily need hills to be exiting

I'm well aware of that, at the end of the day it's up to the cyclists to make it exciting.

Ah, I thought that was your point, with being against starts outside Italy?

 

[Broccolidwarf]

With 20 of 22 giro rosters confirmed, I think it is interesting to note, that AG2R, Bahrain and Movistar, are basically reserving all their best GT riders for the tour.

It seems this is the season (while Froome does the double), that they are all throwing the kitchen sink at the tour.

 

[Ivan_Basso_77]

Too many quotes... @Broccolidwarf, generally I'm against visits to other countries from all the Grand Tours. Otherwise, IMO the race loses a bit of its' identity.