The Giro's route is....

[Alpe d'Huez]

Not so much missing, as misinterpreting. What's insane is the lack of flat time trial kms. I don't think we've ever seen a GT like this since time trials were introduced.That's the insane part
.

Ahhh, good point. Now that I look back and think about it, I can't think of this either. I believe the 1976 Tour had one short ITT in the first week, then a long uphill ITT late in the race (on top of being one of the most mountainous Tours ever, with over 4,000km total distance). I believe the 2000 Vuelta had one short ITT and one uphill ITT. But never anything this devoid of flat TT distances.

 

[luckyboy]

Will "The Cobra's" team be invited - Italian team Ceramica Flaminia?

Seems the course may suit his strengths!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-reduces-riccos-suspension-back-to-20-months#

They reduced it again!? The UCI are so ****

 

[craig1985]

Cunego has already given up the ghost and has said he is only interested in stage wins.

 

[blaxland]

Dont think this is as tough as some have said...personally i think more itt kms are needed to even the race out....2010 GIRO...: suited only to climbers with a strong team time trial...sounds familiar to me..TDF:

 

[Anonymous]

Hands up those who think Cadel should still bypass the TdF for the Giro. TTT and low ITT kms definitely will be big factor in that decision.

I was actually going to start a thread along the lines of: who do we want to see ride the Giro (i.e. people who don't usually).

I still think Cadel should ride it (so should sastre, and maybe even frank schleck becoz he aint gonna win a tour any time soon, gesink, nibali, chris horner).

The reason I think he should ride it is mainly for preparation, but if he finds himself in a good position after 2 weeks, he can have a real dig. A bit like with the Vuelta this year, he said, i'll ride to prepare for worlds, but if i'm going well i'll have a crack (after donning the golden fleece, he decided he could have a good chance at it - unfortunately a puncture ruined that tho).

Anyway, i'm not sure he can win this (I think he can podium - seriously), but just a few points to throw out there about our man Cadel:
i) He is losing his TT a little bit (since 2007) and the Giro is droppign the TTkms
ii) He can ride a mountain TT (fastest split up the 4km climb in the ITT at the TDF - 5th fastest up the 7.5km hill in prologue TT at TDF)
iii) I'm starting to think, lots of climbs in one stage suit him (better than the one MTF they use in the TDF - the vuelta stages that were long and multiple climbs served him well)
iv) There is less pressure on him to win the Giro
v) As far as I know, Italians like him (or don't dislike him as much as others - maybe becoz of his smokin' hot italian wife)
vi) His body is more suited to really long hard stages (which we only saw a few of at the TDF, but he was sick and couldn't compete)
vii) If he rides the TDU, and as he said, he wants to peak earlier in the season, then a second peak later (this suggests to me a crack at the Giro/Vuelta in 2010 - as many of us suggested after his Vuelta/Worlds this year) he will be in form during May.
viii) Love him or hate him, it would be very dissapointing for this guy to not have a GT win once he retires
ix) He can't beat AC or AS at the TDF 2010
x) He has always shown that he can beat Menchov in stage races (except 2007 Vuelta - but that was a fresh Menchov vs a worn out Cadel) and if Menchov has the pressure on him, Cadel can take advantage of this

Sorry for the usual Cadel bias, but even though the course looks hard for a guy like Cadel, he is very very different to the rider we saw challenge AC in 2007, he is losing his TT specialism and climbed with the best at the Vuelta. Only downside is a TTT in the Giro, but even if that fuqs his chances, the Giro is still great preparation for the Tour, considering his formula of 3-4 week long stage races and the Ardennes classics hasn't yielded a GT win yet.

 

[Ferminal]

Looking forward to Stages 7, 15 and 20!

 

[craig1985]

I like the the fact that they have included some ghiaia bianca from Monte Paschi Erocia.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Hands up those who think Cadel should still bypass the TdF for the Giro. TTT and low ITT kms definitely will be big factor in that decision.

I was actually hoping for more tt km's which in the Giro and the tour but they have both let me down. A longer ttt at the giro is also dissapointing. Cadel should ride the tour. On the point of Cadel losing it in the tt, in 2008 i would agree with you on that point as he hasn't been that bad:

Dauphine prologue 1st
Dauphine 42km tt 2nd beaten by Grabsch
5th Tdf St 1
Vuelta 2nd tt 3rd

I think the Tour looks more exciting, closer race than the giro. The giro might be making the same mistake the tour organisers did this year with the Montpellier ttt

 

[Willow22]

Initially I was worried about TTT spoiling race too early, but I was just thinking, maybe teams, even if they send a few of their top riders, won't send all their best men to the giro, preferring to hold some of the domestiques back for the Tour, so maybe it won't get completely dominated by one super team. Fingers crossed cos some of the later stuff looks great.

 

[python]

fantastic parcourse. love the mt tt. 5 mtf should provide plenty of spice. only if the tour dolts couldof taken the hint. then again the italians have always been great designers

 

[kease7]

Anyone think that Brad Wiggins has a chance on this Giro?

 

[Mellow Velo]

Menchov to dump the Tour?

Menchov finished third in the 2008 Tour de France and he may return to win it next year. He will decide in the next month if he will race both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, or the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.

Leaving Bobby Gesink to challenge at the Tour.
Dennis has realised his potential limitations. Now, if only Cuddles could do the same.....

 

[craig1985]

I'm thinking it could be a good bet for Petacchi to win the Maglia Ciclamino. Columbia will make Cavendish ride California, which Garmin do the same with Farrar (and TBF both would drop out come the half way point). McEwen, if fit, will ride the Giro, but drop out, Napolitano will get dropped on the first hill in the Giro, and it depends if Griepel will ride the Tour next year, and if so, will ride the Giro as training and again, pull out around stage 12.

I guess Retirement Shack could use Steegmans, since the Hog does not take sprinters to the Tour.

 

[balkou]

2010 Giro will be very difficult indeed. I think that the organizers went the "hard" way for two reasons:
1) Maintain the label of the hardest GT. 2010 Tour is harder so they increased stage Kms and climbs
2) Time for an Italian to win it again, after 2 foreigners wins.

With the harder route many racers that will hunt the Tour don't have any alternatives than to skip the Giro. And maybe some pure climbers will go for the Giro given that the Tour will have bigger competition.
I disagree that the race will be boring till the final week.
The 1st stage is a ITT and always interesting
Stage 3 with the wind "menace" is interesting too. And it will be a preview for the same stage of the Tour that will follow 2 months later.
Stage 4 as a TTT it's interesting as well, although I don't see big splits. It's short, not technical at all. A climb with something like 3 % almost in a big straight.
Stage 6 has a climb only 8Km from the finish and the finish itself is uphill. Seems to me like some stages that usually were placed in the Giro's first week and where there were battles between the various Cunegos, Dilucas, Garzellis and Bettinis. Not bad at all.
Stage 7 with the "sterrati" sections of "Eroica" in the late Kms, with 215 Kms length, with climbs in the end, seems like the previous stage a little more difficult though.
We're ending the second weekend with Terminillo.
I think that's a lot of stuff for the first week, nothing to do with waiting 14 days to see some racing.

 

[Nastyy]

No way Cavendish is going to skip the Giro in favour of California. He is likely to win most of the flat stages and abandon before the last week.

I think this is Pellizotti's to lose.

 

[Cogombre]

Fantastic route! The only thing which is worrying me about it is the TTT. It isn't too long, but still I'll cross my fingers praying to avoid large splits there. The last week will be extremely exciting with the Zoncolan's return, the TT up the Plan de Corones, the stage of Aprica and the stage of the Gavia (very very dangerous descent). Also, it suprised me a lot the very few ITT kms. Even counting the Plan de Corones stage, there are only around 30 kms of ITT. I don't know if this has happened before in a GT, but it's for sure a good thing for Pellizotti.

Other than that, I don't see a boring first week as others have pointed out. Beyond the TTs, we have the "sterrati" of the 7th stage, the not-that-flat stage of Carrara, and the MTF in Terminillo. Definitely not a boring first week for me. Can't wait for the Giro

 

[Bala Verde]

Menchov to dump the Tour?

Menchov finished third in the 2008 Tour de France and he may return to win it next year. He will decide in the next month if he will race both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, or the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.

Leaving Bobby Gesink to challenge at the Tour.
Dennis has realised his potential limitations. Now, if only Cuddles could do the same.....

And if Mosquera joins them for real upcoming year...

 

[Mellow Velo]

Anyhow Giro fans. Gazetta now have Angelo Zomegnan presenting ALL the stages, in detail and in full screen mode, here:-
http://www.gazzetta.it/Speciali/Giroditalia/2010/it/

 

[rghysens]

Pretty great route, just hope that the TTT doesn't ruin things. The profile looks all uphill though, but how steep?

about 0.7% average
(over the whole 32.5km, probably some steeper sections, but no real climbs)

 

[aarnold517]

route looks very promising for next year...im sure one of those early stages will have a hill that is actually harder than it looks which could see an attack, seems to happen every year

also i could see garzelli going for the KOM again...he should be way back after the TTT and if i were him id go for the KOM and a top 10 on GC

 

[Bala Verde]

I wonder if the tram tracks are going to become an obstacle during the prologue. Second issue is the construction of the 'noord-zuid' lijn... Have they already gotten past the Vijzelstraat?

It could well look like a big construction pit - not a very appetizing sight of the city...

 

[pmcg76]

I was wondering what is going on with all 3 Grand Tours starting in the Netherlands within a year, is it suddenly the 'hot place' to be seen starting races. Great if you live there I guess but they must be shelling out a lot of money to attract races. I personally dont like races starting in a country very far from the home nation.

 

[The fridge in the blue trees]

I think it's unbelievable that cyclingnews isn't able to post the profiles... everybody else can do it... why are we still here??

The course?

Saved by the last 3 days, the rest is somewhere between bad and horrible.

Starting in Holland, horrible, early rest day. Horrible.

4-5 TTT and flat, ok, 6+7 hilly, strade bianche on 7, all irrelevant for the GC but 2 interesting stages.
8 Terminillo, good, it's not an easy climb, there could be time differences. there will be differences. Problem is that it's a bit later than usual, but small problem, and the increased difficulty of that early climb makes up for it.

First 8 days ok, not perfect but ok.

Then until the Zoncolan it's just horrible. Nothing. Not a traditional or typical Giro course, no clue where cyclingnews got the idea a course like the Tour 08 just with tougher mountains at the end was a traditional Giro course. Anyway, horrible course between Terminillo and Zoncolan. Nothing. Monte Grappa? Wasted. Hell of a climb, wasted for 2 reasons. 1 to far from the finish. 2 next day the Zoncolan. Change on of these 2 and you get a potentially great stage, like this.. no. And of course the gravel sections don't exist either, another instance of great cyclingnews reporting. Yes yes, it will be paved gravel sections. Like Evans won his World championship under the rain, dry rain, but rain nonetheless, otherwise it wouldn't be epic enough. Get stuff like that right. Ok, horrible middle section of the Giro.

The end of course makes up for a lot, most difficult Mortirolo stage of all times, no GAvia, yes, no 700 Km downhill to Mazzo either. It's Trivigno, down, right back up the Mortirolo. For the first time in history the Mortirolo will come right after another climb. Tougher than ever.

Other problems.

7 flat stages. Ok, but to get Cavendish for sure Zomegnan made them way to easy... When Petacchi dominated the following years he put in anti-sprinter hills in almost every stage, hell Petacchi wasn't going to skip the Giro... make it too difficult for Cavendish and he will, so 7 clear sprint stages. Something in between might have been a good idea? Some tougher hills along the way? 5 like we have and 2 more hilly, difficult ones?

And 2 more non GC stages between Corones and Aprica would have been ok, would have helped prevent the absolute boredom that the stages between Terminillo and Zoncolan will turn out to be (ok, except the "gravel" sections on Monte Grappa) Probably a try by Zomegnan to get Schleck/Contador to the Giro, no need to already be in topform early... won't work anyway...

Ok, Giro, excellent last 3 days, not really all that great before. Plus nobody needs the freakshow up Plan de Corones.

 

[issoisso]

4-5 TTT and flat, ok, 6+7 hilly, strade bianche on 7, all irrelevant for the GC but 2 interesting stages.

The wind in holland will shake it up more than it's being given credit for.

8 Terminillo, good, it's not an easy climb, there could be time differences. there will be differences.

Problem is that it's a bit later than usual, but small problem, and the increased difficulty of that early climb makes up for it.

First 8 days ok, not perfect but ok.

Then until the Zoncolan it's just horrible. Nothing. Not a traditional or typical Giro course, no clue where cyclingnews got the idea a course like the Tour 08 just with tougher mountains at the end was a traditional Giro course.

Perfectly typical for the Giro. Most giros start just like this. Flat stages, some harder ones to give breaks a chance, etc. Quite typical.

Then at the end of the first week, a flat stage with one not-so-hard mountain at the end, followed by the flattest stages of the entire Giro. Extremely typical, happens almost every year.

Anyway, horrible course between Terminillo and Zoncolan. Nothing. Monte Grappa? Wasted. Hell of a climb, wasted for 2 reasons. 1 to far from the finish. 2 next day the Zoncolan. Change on of these 2 and you get a potentially great stage, like this.. no. And of course the gravel sections don't exist either, another instance of great cyclingnews reporting. Yes yes, it will be paved gravel sections. Like Evans won his World championship under the rain, dry rain, but rain nonetheless, otherwise it wouldn't be epic enough. Get stuff like that right. Ok, horrible middle section of the Giro.

Don't know where you got that idea from, I can assure you the Monte Grappa does have sections of sterrato

The end of course makes up for a lot, most difficult Mortirolo stage of all times

1997. 238kms. 3 Climbs just before the Mortirolo and the finish just after the descent.

, no GAvia, yes, no 700 Km downhill to Mazzo either. It's Trivigno, down, right back up the Mortirolo. For the first time in history the Mortirolo will come right after another climb. Tougher than ever.

Have to agree with this. The Mortirolo is too often wasted by long flats after it and before it. it's not the first time ever, though. 1997 was.

Cyclingnews tends to screw up facts often in unbelievable ways, yes, but I don't see anything wrong this time

 

[The_Z_man]

This has nothing to do with the Giro itself, but what was that uniform that Tatiana Guderzo was wearing?