The Giro d'Italia. No superlatives are sufficient to describe the majesty, beauty and romance of this race, so since a picture tells a thousand words, I thought I'd give you 7000 words to feast your eyes upon. So yes, the world's greatest race returns for its 98th edition, starting on the Ligurian coast, wending its way first southwards and then back up northwards in a series of challenging hilly stages, before taking on the might of the Italian Alps, albeit in slightly condensed fashion this year, and finishing up in Milano.
Stage-by-stage
Week 1
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Stage 6
Stage 7
Stage 8
Stage 9
Week 2
Stage 10
Stage 11
Stage 12
Stage 13
Stage 14
Stage 15
Week 3
Stage 16
Stage 17
Stage 18
Stage 19
Stage 20
Stage 21
The Grande Partenza this year is in Liguria, where things kick off with a fairly short TTT, before a difficult first week, encompassing several well-designed hilly stages, sees us hit our first MTF on stage 5, the climb to Abetone. The long and fairly gradual drag is unlikely to be conducive to big attacks, particularly so early on in the race, but we should see who's on good form. Soon after on stage 8 we encounter another MTF, this time at Campitello Matese (which, incidentally, and somewhat tragically, is the hardest MTF of the race), which is a more difficult climb than the Abetone, and with these two climbs we should see a little bit of a climbing hierachy established, something similar to the two Apennine stages last year, although one hopes with slightly more meaningful gaps.
However in their travels through central Italy the riders must be on alert at all times, as a variety of tricky hilly stages, perhaps the most difficult coming on stage 9, follow in quick succession, culminating in stages 11 and 12, which should see some decent action, if perhaps more from the slight outsiders than the main favourites.
Stage 14 is the key ITT, the longest in a GT since the epic 2009 Sestri Levante TT, and we could see pretty large gaps here, and the pure climbers could be facing large deficits as we head into the mountains. The first mountain stage follows immediately afterwards, with the 1-2 punch of the steep and challenging Passo Daone followed by a more gradual climb up to Madonna di Campiglio, scene of a memorable stage win by Marco Pantani 16 years ago, the day before he was pulled for a ridiculous hematocrit. The riders may be spurred on by such history, and we as the audience certainly hope so: a theme of this parcours is that the climbers have to seize their opportunities, with the MTFs few and far between and a general formula of putting the hardest climb as the penultimate climb emerging, so the Passo Daone could prove an important battleground.
A far more likely battleground however, manifests itself in the first stage of the third week, the Mortirolo. Like Daone, it is the penultimate climb, but is followed by the climb of Aprica, a much easier climb than Madonna di Campiglio. Overall Stage 16 is quite a difficult stage, although probably easier than the sawtooth profile suggests - only one cat.1 climb on the stage, after all. This will be a key stage for those looking to win back time lost in the TT; the Mortirolo will hold the key to success.
Stage 18 presents an interesting opportunity: the tough climb of Monte Ologno before a descent, yes you read that right, finish into Verbania. With descent finishes sadly becoming increasingly rare - I think there are in total three mountain stages with descent finishes across all three GTs this year? If I am correct that is simply abominable - this adds a little variety to the route.
However, the race will most likely be decided on the last two proper stages, Stages 19 and 20. Stage 19 presents a good case for being the queen stage, with three 1st category climbs in the Valle d'Aosta, and should be more of a spectacle than 2012's insipid offering, and Stage 20 is a repeat of the same stage from four years ago, tackling the epic Finestre with its gravel roads before finishing at Sestriere. Once again attacking on the penultimate climb will be key here.
The race then finishes with its usual flat procession; we return to Milano this year after a two-year hiatus.
Thoughts:
I really quite like this route, although in my opinion it misses a classic Dolomite queen stage. A nice long time-trial gives the 'all-rounders' some encouragement, but while the race may lack truly difficult mountain stages there are certainly enough mountains to compensate, and well-designed stages as well. Another big plus about the route is the medium-mountain stages; some of them look excellent, such as stages 4 and 9, and others still quite interesting, such as 7, 11 and 12. For the mountains we seem to have gone with an 'avoid the high altitude mountains' approach after shambles of 2013 and last year's Stelvio-gate, with only three climbs topping out above 2000m (Cervinia, Finestre and Sestriere, although Sestriere isn't really much of a climb) and while yet again the Dolomites proper are inexplicably overlooked there are plenty of beautiful climbs along the route, and I quite like the importance placed on the penultimate climb in most of the mountain stages, encouraging attacks from far out.
The Contenders
★★★★★
Alberto Contador
The undoubted favourite for the 2015 Giro title, Alberto Contador was in imperious form last year and looked as good as ever to challenge for another Tour title. However, like his rival Chris Froome, he had to abandon before the Tour really got going with an injury sustained from a crash. Nevertheless he bounced back incredibly from this setback, going onto win the Vuelta in a fairly dominant fashion ahead of Froome. This year his form has been less impressive, but that can be attributed to the fact that he is going for the Giro-Tour double, and so has been building up to a tough mid-season period. However, his ability at the highest level is unquestionable, and one thinks that it would take a crash or some other unforeseen disaster/miracle on the road to prevent him from taking his third Giro title.
★★★★
Rigoberto Urán
Second behind Nairo Quintana last year, and second behind Vincenzo Nibali the year before, Rigoberto Urán must be wondering whether an elusive Giro title will finally come this way, and he out of all the contenders would have been the most pleased during the route announcement, with a long, undulating time-trial that should play to his strengths, and an absence of big mountain stages where he could crack and lose time like Val Martello last year. However, the question remains whether he can climb with the very best like, say, Alberto Contador in top form.
Richie Porte
Despite having never excelled in a Grand Tour before, Richie Porte must make the list of favourites simply on account of his outstanding form so far this year, winning Paris-Nice, Catalunya and Trentino, and accumulating five wins on hilltop/mountaintop stages along the way. Similarly to Uran, the long time-trial should benefit Porte greatly, and he has shown flashes of unbelievable climbing skill; the question remains as to whether he is able to sustain his 2015 level over three intense weeks of Giro racing.
Fabio Aru
With a mysterious 'stomach illness' and being publicly called out on Twitter by Greg Henderson, the past few days have been uncertain ones for Fabio Aru. However, his class, very much present last year where impressive displays of climbing, particularly up to Montecampione, saw him leap up to a surprising third place overall. 2015 sees an older and wiser Aru, and although he has not had many racedays this year, he will likely be prepared and motivated for what could be an exciting Giro for him.
★★★
Domenico Pozzovivo Beñat Intxausti Jurgen van den Broeck
★★
Damiano Cunego Roman Kreuziger Leopold König Przemyslaw Niemiec Ryder Hesjedal Darwin Atapuma Esteban Chaves Franco Pellizotti Ion Izagirre Yuri Trofimov/Ilnur Zakarin Damiano Caruso Mikel Landa
Thought it was time to create a Giro preview thread as it is now 10 days away and we all like a nice bit of hype to the world greatest bike race* don't we? The star ratings are very much an approximation, I really have no clue who's going to do well and haven't trawled through every rider's results this season to see who's looking on decent form etc. Feel free to post your thoughts/feelings/predictions/statements of Betancur superiority etc.
Contador, Porte and Uran fighting so hard for the title that they end with massive crash 50 m before the line of some mountain stage and König as the Sky's No. 2 for the victory!
Nice preview.
What do you think about the sprinters battle ? It will be one ? Only Greipel, Viviani, Matthews and Mizzolo / Felini seem to be world-class sprinters with train here.
Actually quite curious at what Van Den Broeck can do here. Seeing how everyone has given him up almost completely, this is pretty much his final chance to "salvage" his career, according to most. Hope he does well for him.
trekbmc wrote:
What's going on with Nibali then? I thought he was racing both the Giro and Tour? (I probably missed some large piece of information somewhere )
Yeah, twice (i think, but definitely once) in the last week, he's publicly stated no Giro
Anyway fantastic preview Stromeon, kudos for the time and effort!
And I'm firmly aboard the hype train, the route is actually very nice in a strange way, for me there is just something that will make this very watchable, despite not being 100% what I wanted, which is physically impossible
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Very nice preview there, allthough I dont quite agree on the route (and the thing about this being the greatest race..) I like the hilly stages and the long ITT, but it could potentially turn out to be extremely boring mountain stages if none show courage to go from out far. On the other hand, it could turn out the other way around, but I doubt it given the tendencies the last 7-8 years. The Cervinia-stage is nicely designed, but the last climb is just too easy.
Anyways, looking forward to this race as always, especially since Movistar is sending an interesting squad. Hope Contador will take it all and not waste too much energy. Should be possible since only the last week really is hard.
Edit: Antón actually isnt riding which is like. Movistars team in the mountains in TdF would be rather weak. That probably leaves (I could imagine) Nairo, Valverde, Malori, Castroviejo, Rojas, Gorka Iza, Jose Herrada, Antón aaaand... maybe one for the Giro-squad? Maybe Erviti would be the better answer. Anyways, looking good. Also worth noticing is Dayer is racing. It doesnt seem like a Andy-Frank case, but still looking forward to how he climbs in the last week.
Edit x2: Oooh, so Kreuziger is actually going to the Giro? At least he is scheduled to. Seems in some nice shape. That means Astana, Sky and Saxo are relatively loaded in the mountains - on Astana, Aru, Cataldo, Landa, Kangert and LLS - on Saxo, Basso, Kreuziger and Rogers and on Sky, Kiryienka, Nieve and König. Should encourage teams to attack out far given some of their domestiques and the route.
Edited by Riis123 on 30-04-2015 12:46
Aru coming off of Dysentery which cause him to lose 5kgs of weight in like 2 weeks.... yeah i don't see this race going well for him without some Astana assistance if you know what i mean.
Contador should walk this but he must have one-eye on July. If Uran and Richie push it hard could Alberto ease to a podium looking forwards? I doubt it but three weeks of hard racing bodes well for the others come Utrecht. Uran is my pick for 2nd over Richie because i still doubt his ability to ride consistenty well for three weeks. Or perhaps Pozzovivo poping onto the podium, he's looking in good shape.
Sprints could be very open! Viviani, Matthews, Mezgec and Greipel can all win stages. Nizzolo not so much for me. Should be fun to watch those final bursts though Lotto and Alpecin should have the best/most dedicated trains.
This will probably be the only GT i actually get to watch any of live so i'm all-in for viewing, just hope it can deliver
If Contador wins this then he has no chance in Le Tour so it will be interesting to see how they try and manage him. Porte has gone mutant this season so even with a bad day he is the favourite to me, Aru will win a stage or two but won't win, Uran can podium but won't win and how VDB is even mentioned outside of a very remote chance of a stage win is beyond me.
Zakarin will be top 10 for sure then get popped later in the race or later in the year just like Santamborgio did.
Oh and I think Chavez will take a stage
Edited by Strydz on 30-04-2015 15:16
Hells 500 Crew and 6 x Everester
Don Rd Launching Place
Melbourne Hill Rd Warrandyte
Colby Drive Belgrave South
William Rd The Patch
David Hill Rd Monbulk
Lakeside Drive Emerald https://www.everesting.cc/hall-of-fame/
I like the route this time round. I hope that Uran has another great giro this year but overall I think El Pistolero will win this comfortably. I would say either Matthews or Greipel will get the points jersey. This will also be a great chance for Nizzolo to get a grand tour stage win after being very close on a ton of occasions.
Should be a great race
Edited by Roextro on 30-04-2015 18:55
Putting van den Broeck at 3 stars is indeed rather optimistic; I just have a hunch that he might be this year's Rolland - looking back at last year's predictions I don't think a single person put him in their top 10! But equally he could fail miserably
Riis123 wrote:
Very nice preview there, allthough I dont quite agree on the route (and the thing about this being the greatest race..) I like the hilly stages and the long ITT, but it could potentially turn out to be extremely boring mountain stages if none show courage to go from out far. On the other hand, it could turn out the other way around, but I doubt it given the tendencies the last 7-8 years. The Cervinia-stage is nicely designed, but the last climb is just too easy.
It is quite a risky route - it has slight echoes of the 2012 Tour where many thought that the large amount of ITTkms plus the relatively easy mountains would lead to lots of attacks, but in this case the mountains are actually well designed unlike the trash of the 2012 Tour; if none of the favourites attack on the Mortirolo or Finestre then I will go and cry in a corner for twelve months (until the next Giro comes round ) Of course the route needs a bit of this though:
Spoiler
A lot depends on Contador; if he crashes out before the mountains start then it could potentially be a rather dull affair: Porte and Urán are not the kind of guys to attack on the penultimate climb
Finally just another thought having reviewed the route once more: the KoMs are the most f'ed up thing I have ever seen. Having read a detailed analysis of the route, in the hilly stages there are climbs that are even like 5km at 5%, and in one instance, 9km at 5%, which don't even merit classification. Added to that Sestriere downgraded to cat 3 for some mysterious reason, the Colle Molella from stage 9 upgraded to cat.1 (remember this stage?) Apparently 17.3km at 5.4% on a summit finish (Abetone) is easier than 9.5km at 6.3% about 90km from the finish? Also makes the difficult stage 11, effectively 5 cat.3 climbs followed by 4 cat.4 climbs, look a lot easier than it is. Bah, even after they've actually managed to create a decent route for once, race organisers find a way to piss me off
The classification of the climbs is most likely done to balance the KoM competition. With all climbs categorised correctly, with the way the route is designed, the KoM competition would almost be equal to the TV competition.