Rate the 2014 Giro d'Italia!

[del1962]

Must be a possibility of serious echelons on stages 2 & 3

 

[Inquitus]

10, it goes past my house

 

[Inquitus]

Must be a possibility of serious echelons on stages 2 & 3

Its possible, really depends on if the wind is up, and in the case of Stage 3 which is North to South along the coast if the wind is also from the right direction. Generally the wind direction will favour echelons on Stage 3, whether the wind is up enough or not is in the hands of fate.

 

[Red Rick]

Sucks because

Too backloaded
No descent finishes
No good hilly stages
Almost all medium mountain stages are weak uphill finishes
Montecampione stage blows
No roller coaster stage
No possibility to attack from far out
Seems like a route which is very controllable
Too many flat stages
Ireland sucks

Only good points are the ITT's

Gave it a 5, because i'm in a gentle mood

 

[Descender]

Is this route better than any of the nine previous routes (as they were planned )?

Could be an argument to give it a 1.

It isn't. Good point.

 

[RedheadDane]

It's a bit early to rate it before it's been raced.
As we've seen it's not only the profile that decides whether a race will be great or not...

 

[MatParker117]

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...ro-d-italia-for-2014.html#mb5Ot0Psm5am0sH0.99

"It's a modern and humane Grand Tour because it eliminates useless climbs and keeps the final, important ones," said Mauro Vegni, Giro technical director. "It has few transfers and after our request to the UCI, one more rest day for the transfer."

 

[Netserk]

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...ro-d-italia-for-2014.html#mb5Ot0Psm5am0sH0.99

"It's a modern and humane Grand Tour because it eliminates useless climbs and keeps the final, important ones," said Mauro Vegni, Giro technical director. "It has few transfers and after our request to the UCI, one more rest day for the transfer."

:facepalm:

 

[Afrank]

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...ro-d-italia-for-2014.html#mb5Ot0Psm5am0sH0.99

"It's a modern and humane Grand Tour because it eliminates useless climbs and keeps the final, important ones," said Mauro Vegni, Giro technical director. "It has few transfers and after our request to the UCI, one more rest day for the transfer."

Pfff, human grand tour. I don't want humane! I want a completely crazy, uncontrollable, every man for himself, only the strongest and best survive grand tour that makes riders question their life decisions!!!!

 

[The Hitch]

Looking through profiles now. From what I can see 16 simply last years abandoned stage. I like. Lets hope winter is shorter next year though.

1st week is horrible. Lack of hilly stages is horrible. And reliance on mtfs for mountain stages and often lone mtfs is bad.

On the + side Zoncolan as final stage will be good even if gc is decided.

The 5 mtfs or so will allow a good day to day gt if the race is close. Probably wont see any epic stages but in recent years, the stages with epic profiles end up being the most disapointing of the lot.

Val Martello could be very good though if there are some Colombians in the race, especially after the 40k tt the likes of Betancur may need to attack further out.

I always like stages that start on a mountian because if there is any dispute over the break the hard racing is done on the mountain and could expose some people. Even if it dies down later.

 

[Peccio89]

Savona stage was totally unexpected and is making me like the route. Martell and Oropa are very well designed stages, plus i really like the two TT.

Also, excluding the opening one, weekend stages will always be interesting so that is another positive aspect.

I would have liked a couple more descent finish and an hilly stage in Ireland, but overall i quite like the route.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Christ on a bike, that Vegni quote is stupid.

You can be more humane without having over a week of pointless sprint stages and one-climb mountain stages. Stick him in the Guillén file. It's almost like they WANT the races to be easier to control and strangle the life out of, making it more safe and predictable. Kind of, you know, the opposite of what makes races interesting.

 

[Marco Pantani]

I clicked through the profiles and the stages looked pretty nice to me. I only miss some Strade Bianche.

I opted for 9.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Val Martello could be very good though if there are some Colombians in the race, especially after the 40k tt the likes of Betancur may need to attack further out.

I always like stages that start on a mountian because if there is any dispute over the break the hard racing is done on the mountain and could expose some people. Even if it dies down later.

Agreed. It's one of the few stages I look forward to because something out of the ordinary could (but probably won't) happen there. I also like the fact that it's the day after a rest day. Always good for a surprise or two.

 

[icefire]

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...ro-d-italia-for-2014.html#mb5Ot0Psm5am0sH0.99

"It's a modern and humane Grand Tour because it eliminates useless climbs and keeps the final, important ones," said Mauro Vegni, Giro technical director. "It has few transfers and after our request to the UCI, one more rest day for the transfer."

They should have added the descent of Rif Panarotta. If riders can get to the finish without pedalling they'll feel less tired.

 

[Leonardus]

the first week is horrible but apart from that it looks pretty good. So a 7 for me after the first impression.

 

[hrotha]

Giro d'Unipublic. Rated a 4. Kinda wish I had rated it lower.

 

[Descender]

They should have added the descent of Rif Panarotta. If riders can get to the finish without pedalling they'll feel less tired.

I just had a seizure reading that quote.

Unipublic-worthy stupidity level right there.

 

[Descender]

It's a bit early to rate it before it's been raced.
As we've seen it's not only the profile that decides whether a race will be great or not...

Well thank God you told us!

I was under the impression we were rating the route.

 

[ElChingon]

Well I know its not the typical rock-um sock-um Giro type course but I have to admit it will at least bring out the sprint trains which I have missed in the last few years, as much as I like the MTF's its also good to have some sprinters at least be relevant in week one and let the leaders jersey be exchanged between different types of riders for a change of pace. Then again, there's a uphill ITT which will put some nice gaps to determine the GC, not that I like ITT's but its a factor.

Then again, it being a sprinters paradise in week one you know some GC contenders will fall victim to those crazy sprinters which have been lurking but haven't had a chance to well act crazy in so many sprints. Lets see who makes it through as well, more drama!

 

[42x16ss]

Could be much worse, sure it's backloaded and there are no good hilly stages but because it's relatively early the Gavia/Stelvio/Martello stage has the potential to be epic - if only it had an extra 50-60kms at the start

Would have liked to see a better Irish stage too. Anyhow, we all know that it'll be better than the tripe ASO will give us for July

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Would have liked to see a better Irish stage too. Anyhow, we all know that it'll be better than the tripe ASO will give us for July

The TDF route will almost certainly be better than this.

 

[42x16ss]

The TDF route will almost certainly be better than this.

Unless you love guaranteed sprints on the weekends or the same average climb twice I doubt it, Pescheaux still has final say.

He'd look at stages 16, 19 and 20 then go into convulsions...

Edit: The Tour is doing good Hilly stages lately though - the mini LBL for next year looks great, this route really needs something like that instead of one of the flat stages.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Unless you love guaranteed sprints on the weekends or the same average climb twice I doubt it, Pescheaux still has final say.

Guaranteed sprints on the weekends... the Giro has two of those. Would have been three if they started on Saturday. The Tour will have three on the weekends tops. Same thing.

I don't care about having the same climb twice or thrice. I care about good stage design. The Tour could have three stages with the Tourmalet in it for all I care. As long as the stages "work" it doesn't matter. The problem is that they usually don't, but that has nothing to do with "overusing" a climb. It's not an "average" climb regardless.

Also, it's not hard to top the Giro route. An overabundance of hard climbs doesn't = a good route. I only rated it a 6 because I really like the MTT and two of the mountain stages, but that's pretty much it.

EDIT: actually, the Giro has three guaranteed sprints on the weekends. My bad.

 

[guncha]

I gave it 2 because it looks like Vuelta at its worst - MTFs/uphill finishes once in two days, no GC stages with decent; too many MTFs = less action, hardly any big attacks in individual stages. Giro should not be like TDF but you cannot "balance" 46km of ITT with 7 MTF, brutal MTT, 2 uphill finishes. It is a huge step backwards in comparison to Giro 2013 route.

EDIT: the only good thing is stages for sprinters early in the race and no MTFs/Uphill finishes until stage 5.