Zomegnan?
Show and vanity his problems.
A 2000% climb doesn't make a good Giro, it's stages like this year to Gardeccia, not the Zoncolan, and certainly not the Plan de Corones.
For sure he wasn't/isn't a failure but not a 100% either.
-The transfers have been mentioned.
- 06, 10, 12 start in Belgium/Holland/Denmark. Too often.
- show, show, not feasability. happened way to often that he had change the route after the announcement, that can happen, but as often as with Zomegnan?
06, tried to get 2 stages on the last day, knowing that it's not allowed per UCI rules. had to back down. Plan de Corones failure not his fault though.
08, had a stage that was longer than 260, had to back down again
09 embarrassing. Milano with dangerous course, the classic stage to Pinerolo cancelled, ok, was worth a try, it was known that the Maddalena might not be rideable, that one ok, but to top it off, the great sterrato to Blockhaus.
11 Crostis, yes, should have been ridden, was a good stage, probably the safest downhill in the world as well after all the talk, but got beaten by the DS hiding behind UCI rules. Zomegnans fault, he has to get their agreement way earlier. Then Milano ITT.
That's just too often.
His routes?
He's an innovator for sure. Some stuff will work, some not, no problem. But it becomes a problem when vanity doesn't allow any criticism, as we saw this year when Zomegnan said that it wasn't too hard, since Macugnaga and Finestre couldn't count as mountain stages because the bigs where to scared to try something, too chicken to try or something in this vein. Or when he keeps proposing his innovations, over other stages that would deserve being included as well, see Zoncolan, which we saw too often in the last years, while we had to wait 6 years for Finestre, which was a Castellano-discovery.
Then mostly he goes for the big headline, there has to be one thing to talk about every year, at least one thing.
06 Plan de Corones... an unbelievable idiocy.. then ok, couldn't be ridden.
07 Zoncolan, not a big fan actually, but have come to accept it.
08 Plan de Corones as an ITT
09 The long hilly ITT, excellent I think, Blockhaus, the embarrasment of the century, and the whole concept, which was a failure.
10 Zoncolan again, Plan de Corones again, and as a new feature strade bianche, a success
11 strade bianche, Zoncolan, Finestre and new, Crostis before the Zoncolan, which actually was a good idea.
So, he wants his headliner catcher every year, and keeps in other special stuff, some of his other innovations. Vanity I say, strade bianche shouldn't have been ridden this year, was great in 10, let's have it every 2-3 years. Zoncolan the same. Keep the 'monster' climbs and the 'headline' stuff at 1/2 a year.
Especially since the greatest stages often are not those, but.. the classical dolomite stage, like Gardeccia this year, Fedaia in 08. Or 'lesser' Zomegnan innovations, meaning less publicized. Back to 3 Cime, fantastic, Monte Grappa good, the Trivigno before the Mortirolo, excellent. Monte Petrano stage, pure genius that one IMO. Get us that one back in 2012, as an early first weekend very hard multi-climb stage. But no, we have to go to Denmark. So lots of the stuff Zomegnan has introduced, re-introduced is good, the problem IMO that again, he goes for the headline, Monte Petrano is just not a headline, a classic stage to Pordoi (with Fedaia before) isn't either. So he looks for his old 'crazy' stuff, Zoncolan, Plan de Corones and looks for new 'crazy' stuff. Instead of going for a nice mix.
Plus... he now seems to have developped his pattern, and doesn't seem ready to go away from it.
TTT. every year. Why not a year off. (I actually expected him to go for the retro 80km TTT sooner or later, which would have been kind of fun too)
ITT at the end. Ok on this one.
Mountain ITT. Same as TTT, do we really need that every year?
Lots of mountain top arrivals, lots of them 'naked'... meaning nothing before, or nothing that counts anyway. 09 the biggest weakness of the route was that. And in the end of 2011 as well. Wasted mountain top arrivals... Montevergine, what for? Grossglockner, wasted completely before the 2 hardest days. Macugnaga, yes, Mottarone before, but way too far. Even Finestre, why not add the Moncenisio climb that he introduced in 09 before the Finestre, would fit perfectly. And it wasn't only this year that there are just too many single climbs... even the Zoncolan is actually ridden like a lone climb, due to it's difficulty nobody tries anything before on the climbs.. maybe with Crostis would have been different, since that is a monster climb itself too.
Again, the good stages are usually the multi-climb stages, or the ones like Mortirolo, where the hard climb isn't the finish, but there is another climb, even an easy one like Aprica coming. So rather have 2 mountain top arrivals less, Macugnaga and Montevergine 11 the obvious candidates, add another harder mountainstage. But then less mediatic... 29 Mountain top arrivals in 21 days sounds better than actually having harder, more interesting stages.
Last criticism, too often it's the second weekend. In 08 (by castrating the Mortirolo and going all the way to Tirano), in 09, Monte Petrano the real queen stage, and clearly in 11. Again, cut that Macugnaga crap, add a Fauniera stage, have 2 real hard mountain stages, forget Mercogliano or maybe even the Grossglockner, nice but wasted.
So no, don't see Zomegnan as some sort of messiah... he introduced some good stuff... but in the end he always seems to put show, headlines, over substance. Continuing like that, he has to go sooner or later. If it's now... ok I probably would have waited to see what he proposes for 12+13 before letting him go, but rather let him go now, than keep him until 2020 if he continues in the same direction. which is more show, more headlines mostly.
As for fears that without Zomegnan the Giro will go back to boring stages, please... that was in the 80es, Moser and Saronni, Saronni and Moser. Flat stages for Cipo/Petacchi, my god, the ignorance here.. Petacchi needs flat stages for a win, are you serious, whoever wrote that? Anyway, how dumb do you guys think Vegni and co are, or whoever takes over? They saw the success of some of the stuff, they see the crowds at Zoncolan. it will stay. Maybe just not as often, which is good. Strade Bianche, will come back, but maybe not 2 years in a row, which is good. The Mortirolo stays anyway, the dolomite stages too, but we might get less of the 'we go to America' headlines, we might get Fauniera back, we might get some more variety with the moutain ITT etc.
If Zomegnan goes, a bit early, but finally good.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram