Rate the 2016 Giro route!

[Eshnar]

http://www.cyclingpro.net/spaziociclismo/worldtour/giro-d-italia-2015-svelato-il-percorso-ufficiale

Will post my rating later...

 

[fauniera]

You mean the planned route or the one they will actually race, like Pinerolo-Montgenevre-Risoul or Guillestre-Maddalena-Sant'Anna di Vinadio?

 

[barmaher]

I gave it a six.

The four mountain stages suffer from either being:

- right before the MTT, or
- not being particularly good (stages 19 & 20)

So even though there are some great stages, I give it just a moderate ranking.

 

[veji11]

Gave it a 9, probably too enthusiastic and will rate it 8 later, but it is really a solid route : variety, ITTs, demanding hilly stages (Sestola is top notch, Cividade delle Friulio, Arrezo, etc...) and some very nice mountain stages particularly the one very Alta Badia. The last mountain stage in the sprint format is good too for that type of format.

Overall very very solid effort once more, some sprinting, somme hilly, lots of tricky and great passes as well (Passo Giau, Agnel, Bonette, etc..). Really well done.

 

[Valv.Piti]

7.

I like stage 16 very much and I think stage 13-15 are great (especially 14, that looks scary, but it has the risk of being ridden cowardly..), but somewhat poorly placed. Im fine with 60 of ITT and I like the prologue, but there isnt anything good apart from that in NL. The sterrato looks great and the Sestola-stage seems a good, good intermediate MTF imo. Not too fond of stage 19, but stage 20 should be a spectacle. I have a soft spot for Pramartino, but the stage looks grim apart from that climb.

 

[Velolover2]

9 because stage 14 is one of the most gorgeous stage I've seen. Like a swan ballet of climbs for attackers and brave GC souls and no ugly MTF.

 

[Velolover2]

I'm looking foward to see the gradients of the climbs.

 

[veji11]

Re:

9 because stage 14 is one of the most gorgeous stage I've seen. Like a swan ballet of climbs for attackers and brave GC souls and no ugly MTF.

agreed, these are the stages I dream of when I go to sleep, no overwhelming Alpe d'Huez, just 130 kms of rollercoaster around the 2000M altitude mark, with a magnificent pass like the Passo Giau in the middle. Just this stage probably tipped me to give it a 9.

Now of course the fear is that the weather could play havoc with a Giro with quite a few high altitude stages next year !

 

[May0maniac]

A 7, if the MTT wasn't right after stage 14 it would be 8.

 

[jsem94]

6

 

[veji11]

Re:

A 7, if the MTT wasn't right after stage 14 it would be 8.

true, that's a bit of a bummer, stage 14 should have been properly nested like the crown jewel it is.

 

[barmaher]

Re:

9 because stage 14 is one of the most gorgeous stage I've seen. Like a swan ballet of climbs for attackers and brave GC souls and no ugly MTF.

I think this stage would be optimised if it weren't right before the MTT.

 

[Tonton]

First impression: I like the course. 8. Balanced, not overkill. Very much agree with Valv.Piti's post.

 

[SafeBet]

Gave it a 7, balanced, but a few things could've been better.

 

[OlavEH]

5.

+ There are some good medium mountain stages to Sestola, Arezzo and Cividale del Friuli.
+ The stage to Corvara looks good.

- The stage to Corvara is places just before the MTT.
- The MTT to Siusi seems unneceessary
- The two last mountain stages are really not very good. A big chance for cancellations here.

If they placed the rest day after the Corvara stage, had an extra mountain stage instead of the MTT and did something completely else than go into France using 2700m passes on the last days, I would have been satiesfied. So, the profile is quite far from being good in my opinion.

 

[52520Andrew]

Yeah not a fan of the MTT being right after stage 14 but overall I like the route.

 

[Gigs_98]

Not sure about my rating yet, but I actually think its quite good. The last two mountain stages are not that good, and the MTT also harms the route but besides that there are such awesome stages. Btw, can please someone explain why the hell the andalo stage only has 3 stars? Thats a proper mountain stage with probably two 1st category climbs

 

[Red Rick]

6, it's ok but nothing really excites me.

+ Holleweg is in
+ Nijmegen finish

- Arnhem finish
- Local circuit in Nijmegen

For the rest, nothing, except for the Corvara stage really feels like the Giro to me. Medium mountains somewhat tame, just as the high mountains

 

[OlavEH]

What can we really expect from the Corvara stage? It's not just that there is a MTT on the next day, but the stage is also fairly early in the race. Have there really been attacks 40-50 km from the finish on a Grand Tour stage with a week to go and several high mountain stages later in the race? Most of the long range attacks I can remember in Grand Tours have been on the last or second last mountain stage when there is no other alternative than attacking. Like Landis in 2006, the Tour in 2011 and the Vuelta this year.

 

[Miburo]

Without stage 14 this is a 4, i give it a 6.5. Not really that good and i count only 1 really really hard stage mountain stage.

Stage 14 is one of the best stage designs i've ever seen , holy ***.

 

[Gigs_98]

stage 1: 7/10, opening ITT of 10 kilometers is decent
stage 2: 5/10 WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DO 3 LAPS IN NIJMEGEN? however a flat stage after the opening TT still is okay
stage 3: 2/10 A second one definitely isnt
stage 4: 8/10 Thats what an early giro stage is supposed to look like
stage 5: 4/10 Another flat stage? At least the first half is hilly
stage 6: 7/10 Why not the normal Rionero Sannitico ascent? That would make it way harder
stage 7: 4/10 like stage 5
stage 8: 8/10 If it rains it will be carnage, but even without a very good stage
stage 9: 6/10 Meh
stage 10: 9/10 Absolutely awesome, especially because there should already be gaps after 50 TT km's, sterrato and Roccaraso
stage 11: 7/10 At least the finish is brutal and should prevent a bunch sprint
stage 12: 1/10 I don't want to give a stage 1/10 but this one just deserves it
stage 13: 9/10 Steep climbs, narrow descents, only the flat part at the end is a little bit too long
stage 14: 10/10 Its definitely the best stage of the race so I had to give it one more point than the stage before
stage 15: 5/10 At least it isnt too long
stage 16: 8/10 I'm really surprised by this stage because it has only three stars, but thats a proper mountain stage
stage 17: 5/10 I'm kind to this stage because a hard one would have been a mistake.
stage 18: 8/10 probably deserves less but I love the eastern Pramartino side
stage 19: 6/10 Very good climbs but it just doesnt fit in that well
stage 20: 7/10 I'm still not sure if I like this stage so I gave it an average score
stage 21: 3/10 I don't complain about sprint stages at the end of a gt, but you can still do more than the giro organizers did here.

that means a score of 6.14/10

Without considering every stage I'd say 7/10

 

[damian13ster]

Don't like the MTT. The stage itself, and its placement.
Because of that I give it a 7. Would be strong 8 otherwise

 

[barmaher]

I agree with most of what Gigs writes, but I would give a bit more love to Stage 7. I have an issue with the length of Stage 16. Short stages should be reserved for very tough, potentially pivotal stages on epic climbs, or pan flat stages.

 

[Eshnar]

Not sure about my rating yet, but I actually think its quite good. The last two mountain stages are not that good, and the MTT also harms the route but besides that there are such awesome stages. Btw, can please someone explain why the hell the andalo stage only has 3 stars? Thats a proper mountain stage with probably two 1st category climbs

Those are the kind of climbs that RCS usually categorize as GPM3

I would give it a 6.5/10. considering the routes I have given 6/10 to, I have to give this one a 7.
I don't agree with those who underrate stage 20 though. If it was in the Tour we'd be ****ing in our pants.

Just swap the ITT with the Andalo stage (logistically possible) and this would be a solid 8.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

9 because stage 14 is one of the most gorgeous stage I've seen. Like a swan ballet of climbs for attackers and brave GC souls and no ugly MTF.

I don't quite agree.

I gave it a 4.

Slightly worse than average route.

I agree 14 and 15 are great, though 14 will see a break away get a lot of minutes early, up that looooong first climb, and no big riders will go until the second to last climb.... and it ends in a decent and some flat, where a good team can gain a lot....

Other than that, I see only 4 or 5 other stages that will be exiting, in terms of the overall GC.

Coming off a season, where all 3 great tours had very good routes, this is disappointing.

But hey, we may see Dumoulin get his first GT win, which would be cool