Race Design Challenge

[barmaher]

I didn't do two in a row though?

 

[fauniera]

Oh sorry, my bad. Mixed you up with Brullnux. Makes more sense now.

 

[Gigs_98]

Two guys already post their first monumental alp stages, while I'm sitting here, writing about great climbs south the alps
But thats obviously the main problem with a route based on the giro 1909. There are hardly any alpine stages.

 

[Billie]

Re: Re:

Giro d'Italia - Stage 12: Delebio - Santa Catarina Valfurva (162 km)

I like that one! I would put the start to a bigger town like Morbegno or Sondrio, but the combo of Santa Cristina, Mortirolo and Gavia is excellent, and i always wanted to see a downhill finish into Santa Catarina Valfurva. Should be a weekend stage, though.

Thanks. I wanted to start in Morbegno but rules say finsh-start next day have to be inside 75 km and Morbegno was just a couple km's too far from Como.

 

[Eshnar]

...And we passed the first half of the competition! Congratz to everyone

Judge 1:
Brullnux T: 4/5 C 4/5 (A great stage, a downhill finish would have been even better)
Barmaher T: 3/5 C: 3/5
Gigs_98 T: 4/5 C: 2/5 (Maybe a little bit early for a hard MTT, but I like it)
Billie T: 5/5 C: 5/5 ( having the mighty Motorola before Gavia is great )
Finn84 T: 2/5 C: 3/5
Libertine: T: 2/5 C: 4/5
Stromeon T: 3/5 C: 2/5 (A nice stage, should be fun to watch)

Judge 2:
Brullnux T: 4/5 C: 5/5 (great tribute to WW1)
Barmaher T: 2/5 C: 3/5
Gigs_98 T: 4/5 C: 3/5
Billie T: 5/5 C: 4/5 (Really good, but to get 5 on cultural you need a more significant finish town)
Finn84 T: 3/5 C: 4/5 (great location)
Libertine: T: 2/5 C: 2/5 (Libertine, someone might have hacked you... there is a pan flat stage in your route )
Stromeon T: 3/5 C: 2/5

Judge 3:
Brullnux T:4/5 C:3/5
Barmaher T:2/5 C:5/5
Gigs98 T:5/5 C:2/5
Billie T:4/5 C:3/5
Finn84 T:3/5 C:2/5
Libertine T:2/5 C:4/5
Stromeon T:3/5 C:4/5

GC after stage 11:
Barmaher 262
Gigs 261
Libertine 248
Stromeon 246
Brullnux 241
Billie 227
Finn 187

 

[52520Andrew]

Some really nice looking routes here, really helpful in learning about all the different roads over in Italy

 

[barmaher]

Giro di Barmaher

Stage 12 (ITT) Porretta Terme 59km

Okay, so I am surprised to be performing so well in this competition. I have not yet had a significant time trial or a mountain top finish. This changes today, specialists against the clock will be licking their chops at the feast of time trialling awaiting the Giro di Barmaher competitors today. Emilia-Romagna, the 11th region we visit in our Giro, is the arena for this test, which will take place on the Thursday of the second week.



Riders will transfer from Florence to Porretta Terme for the start of this individual time trial. A punishing test of 59km will face riders today, as they travel northwards through Emilia-Romagna towards the town of Bologna. The route is slightly downhill for the first 30km, so it should be quite fast. There is one minor sharp hill (1.5km at 8%) after around 12km, but really there is no climbing of note in the stage. This will suit specialists, strong men. Riders who perform well on a time-trial bike will want to make today pay. They should be able to take it easy tomorrow, before two very hard stages at the weekend.



Poretta Terme is certainly not the most remarkable town visited by the Giro di Barmaher. And let’s be honest, I only picked it as it was the most convenient location on the road from Florence to Bologna. That said, it serves as a base for winter sports enthusaiasts who like to have fun in the nearby mountains. And there is also a pretty successful soul music festival, which takes place in December of each year. And the town is nice enough to look at.

The route will meander along the banks of the River Reno, and pass some nice scenery along the way as it goes past Lama di Reno, Sasso Marconi and Casalecchio di Reno.

This is also deer country, so hopefully we will see some nice pictures of some really cute baby deer as it is calving season. One of the below pictures was taken from Sperticano, which the route travels through; can you guess which one?

The finish will take place in Bologna, one of the largest cities in Europe, capital of Emilia-Romagna, and home to the oldest university in the world (University of Bologna founded in 1088 beats Oxford by eight years). Although often overshadowed by Florence, Bologna’s importance in ancient, medieval and modern times means it has a very varied and interesting set of tourist attractions.

Riders will finish in front of the Due Torri after going past the Piazza Maggiore

Man of the Stage
One is spoiled for choice in Bologna. But I have gone for something a bit left-field today. So sorry Alberto Tomba, and I am really sorry Marconi.

But today’s man of the stage is Edgardo Mortara. Born as an Italian Jew in Bologna, he became the center of an international controversy when he was abducted from his parents by authorities of the Papal States and raised as a Catholic. He became a priest in the Augustinian order.

Born and raised Jewish during the first six years of his life, Mortara was taken from his family by church authorities after they learned that he had been given emergency baptism by a domestic servant during a serious infantile illness. In the Papal States it was against the law for non-Catholics to raise Catholic children. Mortara was adopted by Pope Pius IX and entered the seminary in his teens.

Edgardo was taken to a house for Catholic converts (a "House of Catechumens"[3]) in Rome, maintained at state expense. His parents were not allowed to see him for several weeks, and after this period were not allowed to see him unsupervised. Pius IX took a personal interest in the case (Kertzer confirms that the pope helped raise Edgardo), and all appeals to the Church were rebuffed. Church authorities told the Mortaras that they could have Edgardo back if they would convert to Catholicism, but they refused. According to Kertzer, the Mortaras had several audiences with the pope regarding the matter.

It is hard to state the furore caused by the affair at the time. The incident soon received extensive publicity both in Italy and internationally. In the Kingdom of Sardinia, the largest independent state in Italy and the centre of the liberal nationalist movement for Italian unification, both the government and the press used the case to reinforce their claims that the Papal States were ruled by medieval obscurantists and should be liberated from Papal rule. The Mortara affair increased discontent with the temporal power of the papacy within Italy. International leaders, including Catholic rulers such as Franz Joseph I of Austria and Napoleon III, requested that Mortara be returned to his parents; The New York Times published 20 editorials on the case.

In 1859, after Bologna had been annexed to Piedmont, the Mortara parents made another effort to recover their son, but he had been taken to Rome. In 1870, when Rome was captured from the Pope, they tried again, but Edgardo was then 19 and therefore legally an adult. He declared his firm intention to remain a Roman Catholic. During a public-speaking engagement in Italy, Mortara reestablished communications with his mother and siblings. In 1895, he attended his mother's funeral, led by the rabbi of Bologna. His nieces and nephews, as adults, recalled the frequent visits from him

In 2000, Jewish groups and others, led by several descendants of the Mortara family, protested the beatification of Pius. Spielberg is believed to be using the story as the basis of an upcoming film.

Munch for the Bunch
Over the centuries, Bologna has acquired many nicknames: "the learned one" (la dotta) is a reference to its university; "the fat one" (la grassa) refers to its cuisine. Bolognese obviously hails from the city we finish in today. And it is in the Po valley, so we could have gone with Parmesan, ricotta, and any one of many cured meats and sausages.

But the riders will have buried themselves today. And a nice easy day is in store tomorrow. So time for some decadence. Time for Zuppa Inglese. One of the most famous Bologna desserts, it’s a very old dish also served also in other Emilia Romagna towns and similar to Tiramisù. It is made with liquor (Rosolio or Marsala) soaked sponge cake, custard and cocoa powder. It takes its name from an ancient Elizabethan recipe.

 

[Gigs_98]

100th GIRO D'ITALIA stage 12: Narni - Montalcino (188 km)

A sterrato stage, in the 100th giro d'italia, finishing in Montalcino? I am sure absolutely nobody expected something like that
Well honestly it was already clear that many people will make such a stage before the challenge even started and as a big fan of sterrato I decided to do one too. The start of the stage is in Narni, a city in the middle of italy and you can take this literally, because geographically a little hill which belongs to Narni, is the centre of italy. Shortly after the start the first little climb to San Pellegrino starts. That one is very easy but it will play an important role in the building of the break. Although the next few kilometers are a little bit hilly, there are no categorized climbs until the start of Viceno, a 3rd category climb which gets pretty steep at the end. Before the start of this ascent there is a TV in Orvieto, a city which hosted the finish of the sterato stage from the giro 2011, the last one until now. The next more or less serious climb, goes up to Radicofani, but probably nobody would really care about this climb because everything that follows afterwards is so much more difficult. Before this hard section starts, there is another intermediate sprint in San Quirico d'Orica. Like the first TV this sprint is uphill. And then, after a little bit more than 140 kilometers, the riders finally reach the point we all have waited for. STERRATO. To be honest, this section probably wont cause that much action, its simply flat with some short ascending, or descending sections. After a short paved piece of road the sterato starts again, just that this time its shorter but there is no flat in these 5 km's. Now the riders get a little bit of rest before they have to climb up to Montalcino, probably the most famous sterrato climb of the tuscany (only tuscany because otherwise it would be the finestre). The climb became famous in 2010 when a rainy giro stage, which was won by Cadel Evans, finished there.

The time gaps were huge and it was surely one of the best stages in the whole race, and that means something if you speak about the giro 2010. The climb itself isnt a classical 2nd category climb. The first few kilometers are brutally steep and might lead to time gaps, while the second half of the climb is more or less flat. Only the last kilometer is uphill again and that kilometer is paved again.

As you can see on the profile, there is a whole kilometer in the middle of the climb with over 10% elevation gain, and there is even a short stretch of 18%. To be honest, we all know that the main reason why there was such carnage on the Montacino stage 2010 was the rain and ofc. there is no guarantee we will have rain again, but 1.) Its not that unlikely to have bad weather at this point of the year and 2.) even without rain this last climb might cause pretty big time gaps. Sterrato gives riders the chance to gain time although they are in a worse climbing shape and of course the riders had a very hard MTT the day before so they will already be tired. Its hard to say what will happen but from my experience gravel always causes interesting race situations. I also really enjoyed the sterrato stage 2011 although there were no time gaps between gc contenders and it wasnt raced almost as hard as 2010. Another aspect which makes the stage interesting is the gravel before the final climb. I am not sure if anything will happen there, but its absolutely possible that there is a split in the peloton. Hopefully not because of a crash, but because someone sets a high pace at the front and some riders loose contact on the technical sections. That would obviously make the rest of the stage even more interesting and it could cause a 2010 like situation even without rain.

Narni:

Montalcino:

 

[Finn84]

Stage 12, Ponte a Ema - Schignano, 172 km

Like Libertine Seguros earlier, I have a stage which starts in Ponte a Ema, the hometown of Italian cycling great Gino Bartali. And like that stage, we make a visit to Franco Bitossi's hometown Camaioni. The stage includes some steep climbs, first of which is Piastre. (7.8%/7.2km) The second climb is much steeper but at the same time shorter (9.8%/3.4km). Towards the finish we have an unusual setting with intermediate sprint just 4.5 kilometres before the end in Vaiano, the hometown of Fiorenzo Magni. The last 4.5 kilometres include 8% gradient uphill, so the gaps can be made in the end.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Don't mean to offend you Barmaher, but the only reason I look forward to your stage, is the Munch for the Bunch. Some of the dishes were especially delicious looking!

 

[Brullnux]

LA CENTESIMA STAGE 12 BELLUNO-OVARO 110km

Flat, very short transitional stage for the breakaway, or for the sprinters who would like a shot in their penultimate chance for victory.

In all honesty, this isn't the best of stages. But stages like this are needed, like Libertine said. It is only the third flat stage so far, where the sprinters are undoubtedly the favourites. However, it is not all doom and gloom. Because this is the Giro, more time gaps will appear here than in the mountains . I am of the opinion that flat stages like this in GTs should be short, to provide as much excitement as we can muster out of it. Because it is so short, riders will be looking to attack at any opportunity, and we may see another epic break like Tony Martin's at the Vuelta 2013.

Belluno is the most important city in the eastern alps, it is a beautiful small city on the top of the hill. The town is actually named after that hill, belo-dunum in Celtic means 'Splendid hill'. Named this because of its favourable position at the top of the hill instead of in the valley so that it could be easily attacked. It is surrounded by the alps left, right and centre. the scenery in this valley is fantastic. The Belluno Treasure, unsurprisingly, was found in this town. Pope John Paul I was born in belluno, so it has a recent religious reference.

The scenery today will be brilliant, and because of the few difficulties of the day, the riders will have plenty of time to enjoy it all.

The only pass of the day is Passo Mauria, there is also a very steep uncategorised climb earlier on (1.5km @ 13.3km, then a false flat), and an easier one (1.2km @ 8%, then a false flat 25km from the finish). It comes after 52km of the day, almost exactly halfway. It tops out with 50km to go, and is both technical and narrow, so a few attacks might come from stage hunters or the break which i expect to be big. I expect it to be hard race to control, especially if there are many attacks on the climb, which will make some of the less good climbers drop.

A very long false flat leads to the finish, and the finish, hopefully will be a drastic chase by the sprinters' teams realising too late that they should win this stage.

 

[Stromeon]

Giro di Stromeon Stage 12: Ravenna - Venezia 170km

There comes a point in the Giro where you've larked around in the south and the centre, the leg of the boot so to speak, and it's all been very fun and merry and we should have seen 11 varied and (mostly) interesting stages up to this point. But all this has to come to an end. It's time to hit the big mountains. The Alps. The Dolomites. The legendary passes of northern Italy.

But there's just one small problem.

The ****ing Po floodplain.

Yes my friends, it's time to confront this fearsome beast in its entirety, an area which has reduced grown men to tears, managed to unseat Alberto Contador where all other mighty mountain passes have failed, and created havoc among the peloton. We set out on our epic quest from the beautiful city of Ravenna, detailed by Libertine earlier, famous for its Byzantine mosaics and architecture and a key city in the history of Italy after what we commonly know as the Roman era (the Byzantines being a continuation of the Roman empire). This should provide a brilliant backdrop to the departing into the untamed wilderness, as well as being a culturally significant city to add to the growing collection on the route. The first half of the stage is a long and arduous journey through the Po delta itself: we pass through the town of Porto Viro where the altitude drops alarmingly to three metres below sea level; how the riders cope with this extreme high pressure will be a key factor in determining the race.

There is eventually some respite for the riders as we reach the beautiful island town of Chioggia before heading inland. Now another challenge presents itself to the riders - the mammoth, Paramo de Letras rivalling climb up to 13 metres above sea level, as reach another beautifully scenic city, Padua, for an intermediate sprint. We turn back towards the coast and, heading down an extremely technical descent in a perfectly straight line for 30 kilometres, we pass through Mestre and onto the bridge that brings us to Venice. Venice is a city that needs no introduction, we all know it from its world famous picture-postcard architecture, imposing piazzas and labyrinth of canals. Historically one of if not the most important centres of trade in Europe, and an expanded city-state wielding a great deal of influence, it goes without saying that Venice is one of the most important places in Italian history. Therefore it seems only right that we pay this marvellous place a visit.

So luckily, should the racing fail to be action-packed and riveting, there are some cultural gems of Italy to see at the start, finish and along the way. We had to cross the Po at some point, so why not do it in style, embracing all that is Po?

Ravenna:

Padua:

Venezia:

 

[Billie]

Giro d'Italia - Stage 12: Edolo - Verona (208 km)

Stage 13 is a transitional stage in the middle of week 2. I opted to make this an easy stage because the sprinters have not had many chances yet. Still the final is spiced up a bit to make the leadout trains a bit smaller/less strong.

Start will be in Edolo, a valley town in between Aprica, Mortirolo and Tonale. The route will head South through the Valcamonica all the way to Lago d'Iseo. There the riders will ride around the East bank of the lake which gives them a good view on Monte Isola, an island in the middle of the lake.

After reaching Iseo the route goes eastwards towards first Brescia and later Verona. This is completely flat but for a small climb early on. The Passo del Tré Termini (8.2 km @ 5.8%) should not have much influence on the outcome here.

Once arrived in Verona, we will have passage through the city before doing one local lap. It's a lap that will be known to most of you cause it's the one where the road race of the World Championships were contested in 1999 and 2004. Both races were won by Oscar Freire. The first when the relatively unknown Freire jumped away from the favourites upon entering the final straight. The other was won in a sprint of a small favourites group.

The lap is headlined by the climb (4.5 km @ 4.6%) up to the Torricelle. A small climb that is not very steep and should not be that hard too overcome for the sprinters. An attacker can always try but he'll have to be very strong to hold off the peloton in the final 8 km of descent and wide run-in in Verona itself.

The finish line will be at the same spot it was in 1999 and 2004, right in front off the Piazza di Bra . It's one of the biggest piazza's in Italy headlined by the Verona Arena, an old Roman Amphitheatre that has been host of the Giro arrival three times. In 1981 (Battaglin), 1984 (Moser) and 2010 (Basso)when the final timetrial arrived in the Arena where the podium ceremony was held aswel.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 12: Treviso - Trieste, 173km

This is another less-than-monstrous stage, but this is a classic Giro-styled late-stage nightmare of a stage. The profile is slightly longer than the actual stage length due to a glitch (my fault) early in the stage. This makes no difference to the profile though as the first half of the stage is utterly flat... Po Valley and all that.

This isn't a long stage, and it's backloaded. Like yesterday, if the wind plays ball, the totally open, flat expanses of the Po Valley could form a potential banana-skin for contenders. The all-important part begins with 65km remaining. The riders cross the river Soca and into Pieris.

Trieste has a long and storied history with the Giro d'Italia, and it is one particular moment that I have decided to pay tribute to - this being the legendary annulled 1946 stage, which caused dramatic headlines all over Italy. Trieste is an immensely historic city with a location that has been at the tri-point of Slavic, Germanic and Italian cultures meeting, and indeed has belonged to all of these groups. Up until World War I it was part of the Austrian-Hungarian dual monarchy, before being ceded to Italy. It featured in the Giro prominently in the 1930s, with local hero Giordano Cottur winning the last stage pre-war in 1939.

(this picture is actually from Sanremo, but is to illustrate Cottur rather than the course)

After WWII, Trieste was a free city. Yugoslavia had controlled it briefly, killing or imprisoning many native Italians and Slovenes, but Trieste fell on the western side of the Morgan Line and therefore the Italians claimed it until Free Territory status was confirmed for a short period from 1947 until 1954, during which local teams could choose to enter either Italian or Yugoslav competitions; representations from the territory participated in both the Giro d'Italia and the Peace Race. In the end, by 1954, the province surrounding Trieste was split once and for all, with "Zone A" going to Italy and "Zone B" going to Yugoslavia.

This background may help explain why the Giro d'Italia choosing to run a stage to Trieste in 1946 was such a controversial idea; when they crossed the river and into Pieris, they had effectively entered "Zone A" of Trieste, and were met with, shall we say, a hostile reaction. Rumours and facts are hard to separate in the event, but it is said that in this mixed-population area, Slavic-origin inhabitants of the Free Territory blocked the road to protest the Giro, resulting in rocks being thrown at riders, some of whom were injured in the ambush as the police attempted to restore order. The race was neutralized, though those who chose to ride on to Trieste would be escorted by police for safety. In response to the neutralization of the race, Italian natives of the Free Territory responded with attacks on Slovene-led organizations, and giving those few riders who continued on to the finish a heroes' welcome. Chief among them was the first finisher of the day, none other than Giordano Cottur, the local boy on the local team who won here before the war, and was winning here afterward.

The local team was that of the bike company Wilier Triestina, whose very name comes from the expression of unity between Trieste and Italy; to say it was a popular triumph is an understatement. While the city hosted the end of the Giro in 2014, the stage was dull; it is time to do something more exciting with the city.

I have stuck two categorized climbs in the last 30km or so, both short and incredibly steep - as a bonus nod to tradition the second also passes the bike path across the mountain ridge above the city which is named after Cottur. But before that there's some coastal scenery to enjoy, and everybody knows the Italian coast is beautiful.

Anyway: 2 climbs, one of which has a brief period of cobbles, some nasty hairpins and some Puritotastic gradients. The first is 2,5km at an average of a little over 9%, before descending to the finish line, a little flat around the city and then the second, the brutal San Giuseppe della Chiusa, around 2,4km @ 10%, just 7,6km from the line. This calls for fast and strong descending, this calls for persistence, this calls for punchy specialities, but nobody is going to want to waste too much energy today for there are worse days to come.

 

[Eshnar]

Sorry about the delay, I have no internet at home since yesterday morning... Now that I'm at work I will send the votes shortly

 

[Eshnar]

Judge 1:
Brullnux T:2/5 C:2/5
Barmaher T:4/5 C:3/5 (like the long iTT)
Gigs98 T:5/5 C:4/5 (great stage)
Billie T:3/5 C:2/5
Finn84 T:4/5 C:3/5 (nice hilly final)
Libertine T:3/5 C:4/5
Stromeon T:2/5 C:5/5 (really nice location)

Judge 2:
Brullnux T: 2/5 C 3/5 (I really like Belluno)
Barmaher T: 5/5 C: 2/5 (a great ITT that should create big gaps)
Gigs_98 T: 3/5 C: 4/5 (a good tribute stage)
Billie T: 2/5 C: 2/5
Finn84 T: 4/5 C: 4/5 (a very solid uphill finish)
Libertine: T: 4/5 C: 5/5 (very good, I love Trieste)
Stromeon T: 1/5 C: 3/5 (sorry, I just like sprint stages that Brullnux and Billie designed better)

Judge 3:
Brullnux T:2/5 C:2/5
Barmaher T:4/5 C:4/5 (really good ITT)
Gigs98 T:5/5 C:3/5 (I gave 5 to all the Montalcino stages I think )
Billie T:3/5 C:2/5
Finn84 T:3/5 C:3/5
Libertine T:4/5 C:4/5 (If only they used that finish in 2014...)
Stromeon T:2/5 C:5/5 (Location-wise, perfect)

Unfortunately I have the spreadsheet I use for the GC at home... so I'll publish the classification tonight hopefully. You can do the math if you want

GC:
Gigs 285
Barmaher 284
Libertine 272
Stromeon 264
Brullnux 254
Billie 241
Finn 208

 

[Billie]

Giro d'Italia - Stage 13: Garda - Riva del Garda (53 km)

The second timetrial is placed quite early (halfway through the second week) but I'm convinced this is how it should be done. Timetrials scare the riders, they don't want to spend energy the day before (hence the easy stage 12). And the main goal of a timetrial is placing the climbers behind the timetrialists so they have to attack later on. And we see it over and over again that climbers are more likely to attack if they're already behind compared to when they try to gain whatever time they think they'll lose in a TT on the final weekend.

The earlier timetrial started of flat before the uphill run-in in Asissi. This one around the Garda lake is the other way around. After the start in Garda, the riders will have to ride 11 kms uphill to San Zeno di Montagna. Over that distance the altitude gain will be about 500 metres. That means a climb of around 5% so mainly false flat and not the steepest percentages. Next up is a technical and steep descent where the riders will have to show how good they are at handling their heavier timetrial machines. From around km 20 the riders reach the main road around the like which is completely flat. 30 kilometres where the heavier power beasts will be able push around their big ring to gain time on the smaller climbers. The final kilometres through the picturesque city centre of Riva del Garda is more technical again but this is definatly one for the strongmen.

Lago di Garda:

Riva del Garda:

 

[Finn84]

Stage 13, Lucca - La Spezia, 149.5 km

The stage honors two great sprinters. It starts from Mario Cipollini's hometown and ends in Alessandro Petacchi's hometown. No surprise the stage is build to favour the sprinters.

The highest point of the stage is 63 metres and there won't be any mountain sprints in this stage. On the road, the riders will go past Pisa and its leaning tower.

The short nature of the stage will give a good chance for fast speed throughout the stage. This will probably make it tougher for those riders who are tired from the previous stages.

 

[barmaher]

Giro di Barmaher

Stage 13 Modena to Padua 182km

Like many Giri in this competition, we are heading northwards towards the Dolomites. After a tough ITT yesterday into Bologna, GC riders will use today as an opportunity to recuperate. The second weekend is when Grand Tours typically start to get really tough. There will be no heroics today. Attackers have a few opportunities to attack in the last 50km, so there is a chance for a brave rider to take the day. But like almost all my sprint stages, I offer hope, but not too much, and we should see another high speed bunch sprint in Padua.

We need to get from Bologna to within striking distance of the Dolomites, so why not pick the two prettiest cities in the area, and go through a very pretty national park that inspired Percy Shelley to reach for his pen and served as a retirement home for Petrarch? Especially when this park has some hills that will help the stage distinguish itself from a humdrum transitional stage. So all set for a bit of fun. We should see an interesting last 90 minutes here, which is probably the most one can expect in a flat stage in week 2 of a Grand Tour.



Riders will have a brief transfer from Bologna to Modena for the start of this transitional stage. We will leave the region of Emilia Romagna and travel into Veneto, traversing the Po valley and reaching Veneto, within touching distance of some very high mountains. As we can see here, the hills near the end are steep enough. A Category 3, a category 4 and an uncategorised bump come in quick succession. However, there is a 20km pan-flat run-in to the line in Padua, so it will be difficult to keep the pack at bay.



Climbs
Cat 3. Colle Euganie 340m altitude 4.5km @ 7.1%
Cat 4. Castelnuovo 293m altitude 3.3km @ 7.9%

Modena has been selected for its beauty, but also so that we can pay homage to the town’s car manufacturing tradition. An ancient town, it is known as "the capital of engines", since the factories of the famous Italian sports car makers Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani and Maserati are, or were, located here and all, except Lamborghini, have headquarters in the city or nearby. The university of Modena, is the second oldest in Italy, and sixth oldest in the world.

Riders will roll out from the famous bell tower (Torre della Ghirlandina), which along with the cathedral and the piazza, are another UNESCO World Heritage site.

Riders will roll through the Po valley, and then hit the Euganean hills, which form a regional park, and will provide the biggest spectacle of the day beside the start and finish (both on and off the bike).

The Euganean Hills have been celebrated for their picturesque beauty and their hot springs. Here, at Arquà, which now bears his name attached to it, Petrarch found peace and harmony towards the end of his life. He discovered the village in 1369; there, he stated in his letter to posterity, "I have built me a house, small, but pleasant and decent, in the midst of slopes clothed with vines and olives,"—a house that may be seen there today.

The Euganean hills, like an archipelago of steep-sided wooded islands rising from the perfectly flat agricultural plain, inspired the setting of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills; Shelley likens the hill he has found himself upon, at first to an island in "the deep wide sea of Misery", then he sees that

Beneath is spread like a green sea
The waveless plain of Lombardy,
Bounded by the vaporous air,
Islanded by cities fair—
which brings his thoughts to Venice "thou hast been/Ocean's child, and then his queen;/Now is come a darker day," and finally to a wish for an idyllic retreat.

Vaporous air might be a bit rich, but sprinters should be struggling for breath over these climbs. But like I say, it should come (more or less) back together for the finish in Padua.

Though under an hour from Venice, Padua seems a world away with its medieval marketplaces, Fascist-era facades and hip student population. As a medieval city-state and home to Italy’s second-oldest university, Padua challenged both Venice and Verona for regional hegemony. A series of extraordinary fresco cycles recalls this golden age – including in Giotto’s remarkable Cappella degli Scrovegni, Menabuoi’s heavenly gathering in the Baptistry and Titian’s St Anthony in the Scoletta del Santo. For the next few centuries Padua and Verona challenged each other for dominance over the Veneto plains. But Venice finally settled the matter by occupying Padua permanently in 1405.

As a strategic military-industrial centre, Padua became a parade ground for Mussolini speeches, an Allied bombing target and a secret Italian Resistance hub (at its university).

We will finish in front of the Duomo. Because it looks very nice.

Man of the Stage

For five centuries the name of Palladio has been synonymous with architecture. Born in Padua on 30 November 1508, Andrea Palladio designed villas and bridges in the Veneto countryside, town palaces and theatres in Vicenza, and churches and convents in Venice. After his death in 1580 his works and his famous treatise, Four Books of Architecture, strongly influenced the architecture of Northern Europe, from Great Britain to Russia, before crossing the ocean to become a model for public buildings and country residences from the Americas to Australia.

Andrea Palladio gave his name to an entire style of architecture, Palladianism, whose most obvious features – simple lines, satisfying symmetry and mathematical proportions – were derived from the architecture of antiquity and particularly that of Rome.

We will pass some of his villas during this stage, which are collectively a UNECSO World Heritage site.

This man was another truly great Italian.

Munch for the Bunch

In my opinion, this is truly the most wonderful part of Italy, if not the world for food. Veneto and Emilia-Romagna are choc-a-bloc with world-famous cheeses, desserts, vinegars, wines, cured meats and main meals.

But I have decided to go for something a bit more rustic.

The cotechino is a charcuterie product famous in Padua, similar to salami, but requiring cooking; usually it is boiled at low heat for about four hours. Its name comes from cotica (rind), but it may take different names in the different production areas. According to tradition, it is served with lentils on New Year's Eve, because lentils—due to their shape—are 'credited' to bring money for the coming year.

For good luck, we are going to serve both with polenta, which has historically been the staple of northern Italian diets.

This trio (cotechino, polenta and lentils) can be found in many restaurants in Padua. An optional glass of Montegrande Colli Euganei Cabernet will be offered to the riders, but I doubt the GC boys will partake. Apart from Purito.

 

[Brullnux]

Barmaher... The munch for the bunch section every single time makes my mouth water violently.

Also, I am going to have to post my stage tomorrow, as I have no time today at all, apart from these 5 minutes, which is nowhere near enough to do a good overview. Apparently schools and teachers find it appropriate to give students buckets of homework as they are now in GCSE years, so blame them, not me.
I hope this is OK

 

[barmaher]

Using 5 minutes to praise me is a good use of time.

 

[Eshnar]

Before I forget, here is Libertine's stage 13:

Stage 13: Monfalcone - Monte Zoncolan, 157km

It's a pretty big annoyance to me that this stage comes on a weekday, but it's with good reason, and it's Friday at least so people can be forgiven slacking off to watch a good old fashioned sufferfest on their screens. It's also worth noting that while the 100th Giro may be about remembering the history of the sport and the country, a large part of what has made the Giro what it is is the willingness to innovate and discover; they are forever finding new climbs, discovering new parts of the country, bringing back long-forgotten goat tracks, experimenting with throwback strade bianche stages, whilst the lack of a fixed finale unlike the Tour and, at least in the modern era, the Vuelta, has meant a greater flexibility in design. Therefore this is the stage where we pay tribute to the recent innovations of the Giro with one of its newest icons, along with a brand new unused monster.

Because of how brutal these two megaliths are, I have not prefaced them with anything and the stage is short. It's about parcours design 101 here; I have three big stages back to back here, and so we know full well that the first will not see any action unless forced, because riders will be saving energy for the stages to come. Hence: a stage where they simply cannot conserve energy, because this will be a gruelling stage all about survival despite its short length.

The brute that is Monte Crostis was of course planned for the 2011 Giro, on a brutal stage which would then have preceded the Rifugio Gardeccia stage (not that that one needed any improving of course), but fate intervened; tensions in the péloton were high and riders were feeling very fragile after the death of Wouter Weylandt on the roads in week 1, followed by some rather terrifying photos (albeit exacerbated by an unhelpful camera tilt) of the road at the top of Crostis.

The actual climb and, for the most part, the descent, are not too dangerous on Monte Crostis. However, that wide open stretch across the summit, the initial downhill and then the flat, was simply a bridge too far for the race that year and the project was abandoned. However, with a bit of funding to get some barriers in there, repave the road and so on... it is on. It is so on.

14 kilometres at 10% will sort the pack out and I can't really see a large group being there at the top to contest the descent, of course; when they do they'll head back to Ovaro and take on Italy's survival climb par excellence, the mighty Zoncolan.

I shouldn't really have to introduce the Zoncolan; we all know about its brutality now. 10km, 12%, fans packing its natural amphitheatre, total chaos. The climb's lustre may have been impacted in 2014 by being won from the break due to being the supposed race-climactic mountaintop but the best climber already having a comfortable lead (a bit like Ventoux 2009 in fact), but here, preceding most of the major mountain stages, and with a significant ITT yet to come, things could be different. And anyway: the 100th Giro needs to be a spectacle, and even on a weekday, lord knows the Zonc will be one.

 

[Gigs_98]

100th GIRO D'ITALIA stage 13: Siena - Pisa (170 km)

First of all, this is a very unconventional stage. Although I haven talked about it yet, I also tried to make a tribute to the 4 Italian main classics (Roma Maxima, Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, Il Lombardia). I originally wanted to finish the sterrato stage in Siena but Montalcino simply is the better finish for a giro stage, so I decided to put the start of the next stage to the place were the strade bianche finishes. Moreover this stage will contain sterrato as well, so I think its tribute enough. And now lets talk about the gravel and please I know that this is a very strange way to use sterrato but I will try to explain my intention. This stage should basically be a sprint stage, but as you already might have found out, I am not the biggest fan of panflat sprint stages with no highlights. I don't know if the gravel will have any impact on the race but I thought, that if it rains the peloton might split into two pieces and we could have a echelon like situation with two big groups chasing each other. Moreover this very difficult start doesnt change the fact that a sprinter will win, it just means that some will loose there chances early on so sprinters like Sagan and Degenkolb get a better chance. Whatever the most likely scenario is that nothing happens and the riders just go on, ride over the 3rd categorized climb in Panzano and arrive in Firenze after some more little bumps. The decision to not make a stage finish in Firenze was pretty hard because of several reasons. 1.) There was a stage finish in Firenze, in the first giro too, so I had to include the city in my route, and a finish definitely would have been the best way. 2.) Its an important city for cycling history (f.e. WC 2013). 3.) Its just a very famous and beautiful city so a finish would have been an obvious choice. Nevertheless I only put a TV there because otherwise it just wouldnt have fit into the whole route. I had a very good route for stage 14 and I would have had to drop it if I had made the finish in Firenze. And because for me the route is more important than the cultural aspect I decided to let the riders go on for 90 more kilometers and let them finish in Pisa. On the way there we drive along the Arno, a short river, and pass two more intermediate sprints in Empoli and and Pontedera. Then the riders finally arrive in Pisa, and lets be honest that city is more than condign to host a stage in this giro too.

Pisa was a little republic until 1409 when it was conquered by Firenze. The little country even had its own language, which still is spoken by some people. Of course the city is mainly known for the worst construction ever. The Torre pendente di Pisa, an inclined tower...seriously why the hell does a bad construction get famous while nobody knows all the other beautiful buildings there. I mean, I understand why it is famous but its a little bit unfair to get famous for a faulty design. If everyone likes to see the Torre di Pisa, this car also should be popular but it isnt (and for damn good reasons).

Siena:

Firenze:

 

[Eshnar]

I just edited the post with the votes to include the GC. Still no internet Tomorrow they should fix it.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Barmaher... The munch for the bunch section every single time makes my mouth water violently.

Also, I am going to have to post my stage tomorrow, as I have no time today at all, apart from these 5 minutes, which is nowhere near enough to do a good overview. Apparently schools and teachers find it appropriate to give students buckets of homework as they are now in GCSE years, so blame them, not me.
I hope this is OK

Wait wut. You put homeworks BEFORE my challenge?