Svam wrote:
I thought I saw the worst in 2011 but RCS continues to dig the hole of stupidity. This stage is rubbish. The Mortirolo programmed is a new way with 18% sections and a gravel section. With 25km of valley and the giant Stelvio behind, it's likely that nothing happens in it.
Just like nothing happened in the Izoard with the giant Galibier and the never ending false flats of the Lauteret behind, right? At the very least, the Mortirolo will burn the domestiques and isolate the leaders, and that's good enough.
roturn wrote:
Actually the new Giro director Michele Acquarone said that the 2012 Giro will have easier profiles and better transfers. With this stage already announced I am looking forward to the official presentation to see the "easier" profiles.
In general he said that the 2010 Giro was perfectly balanced while the 2011 Giro wasn`t.
The 2010 wasn't perfectly balanced. It severely lacked TT kms, and hadn't that breakaway to L'Aquila occured (that was possibly the best GT stage in the last few years), that would've been a quite average Giro. The worse of this year's route (lack of TT aside) was the abuse of the MTFs, every serious mountain stage (bar the Tonale-Aprica one) finished in the top of a mountain. When you do that, you risk a guy like Contador just smashes the 'opposition'.
The false flat is annoying, but it should still be a good stage
Basso to win this if it's true, and he rides. Plenty of kms to warm up the diesel!!
I wouldn't bet on it too early, it all depends on form. That said though it does seem like a good stage for someone like Basso or even Nibali, because it looks like a more stable gradient rather than changing every kilometre.
Svam wrote:
I thought I saw the worst in 2011 but RCS continues to dig the hole of stupidity. This stage is rubbish. The Mortirolo programmed is a new way with 18% sections and a gravel section. With 25km of valley and the giant Stelvio behind, it's likely that nothing happens in it.
Just like nothing happened in the Izoard with the giant Galibier and the never ending false flats of the Lauteret behind, right? At the very least, the Mortirolo will burn the domestiques and isolate the leaders, and that's good enough.
Galibier's stage is the exception who confirms the rule. The attack of Andy hasn't been seen since thirty years. On week earlier, the peak of wait-and-see tactic was reached on Beille. Andy's attack is a last chance attack, so it was impossible to predict in October 2010
Yes, Mortirolo will probably serve to burn domestiques but that will be it's only use (except last chance attacks). The race will probably be summed up at a one-climb race on Stelvio. Personnaly, I don't like that. Big passes must be a springboard not a finale. A finish in Solda or Bormio 2000 would be better. Edited by Svam on 29-09-2011 15:48
Just to be retarded, here's a video of a guy going down the Stelvio without braking or using his hands
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"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
If the leaders are isolated atop of the Mortirolo, it'll be more than enough to say the climb wasn't wasted. The amount of climbing in that stage is enough to assure that the group that'll arrive together to Bormio will be quite small, unless they totally softpedal, which is unfortunately a possibility given that it is the penultimate stage. Still can't see many riders surviving this beast:
The stage could be better? Sure. They could have climbed Gavia instead of Aprica+Mortirolo, for instance, eliminating the false flats. I personally don't mind to have some (great emphasis on some, please) great MTF, where, with the risk (or sometimes the certainty) that the stage becomes a one climb show, you get to see the unicness of a great climb filled out of tifosi with the heads of state battling for the stage (and the race?). The stage to Zoncolan where Basso won in 2010 was especially awesome for this reason.
Then again, you have to avoid to have the whole race filled with MTF which also happen to be the hardest climb in the stage. That has been the major cause of the crappy stupid joke of a race the 2011 Vuelta has been. More TT kilometers wouldn't hurt either, that way you wouldn't have the pure climbers speculating that much as we've seen (suffered) during the last years.
All in all, I do like the stage, I think it has potential to deliver good racing, and I'll wait to see the full route of the Giro to say whether this is rubbish or awesome.
kumazan wrote:
Well, there's life beyond the Giro.
Yes, there's also the Baby Giro
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"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
johnnyjur wrote:
May 23rd 2012, this stage will appear in the Giro:
The Giau always has stuff happening.
This reminds me of a little known story most of you probably don't know.
Back in the 2008 Giro, the queen stage had 5 major climbs. The 3rd was the Giau. All hell broke loose on the Giau, and Contador got dropped by about 10 riders and was going to lose the Giro right there......but the other guys got overconfident and slowed down and let him get back on, as they were convinced they could drop him again on the final climb of the day.
None of this was on any TV other than RAI. Most tv commentators had no idea this had happened when they started transmitting on the 4th climb of the day with everyone in the same group. Only people watching RAI saw this.
On the last climb of the day Contador was feeling much better and did fine. Contador could've lost 10 minutes that day, and the Giro.
The preceding post is ISSO 9001 certified
"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
