A team time trial to immediately create a chronological hierarchy. It’s probably not going to be good TV but it will resonate for weeks to come.
This course is fast and flat with teams expected to exceed 50km/h. It’s one for the powerful squads with heavyset riders and we should see Cadel Evans and Nairo Quintana pull out a lead on their rivals… but the obvious pick for today is Orica-Greenedge.
The Route: flat and with few corners this is a course for the powerhouse riders who cruise above 50km/h. To elaborate more the course has some tight turns but once on the Newtownards Roads it’s a long open section to the grand Stormont estate. Here there’s a small hill but we’re talking a gear change, and a few pedal strokes out of the saddle but it’s mainly done in the aero tuck…and basta, time for the reciprocal descent. As you can see from the profile above it takes 7.9km to go from four metres above sea level to 60 metres. Back into the city centre and the corners are wide. Overall this is a course with few visible traps.
The Contenders: Orica-Greenedge are the prime pick. They have no pretensions for the overall by the end of the race and if Michael Matthews is a sprint possibility, today offers a higher degree of certainty. The backbone of the team comes from the Australian team pursuit squad with today’s birthday boy Svein Tuft a bonus. The squad was second in the Giro last year and won the Tour de France stage. Sure the rosters vary but this is a team that is very well-drilled.
Invariably there’s a “but” and in their wisdom RCS have decided to send the team off in second place. This could kill off the TV suspense as team after team falls short but at the time of writing the weather won’t suit them (see “weather” below).
After green and gold, it’s red and black. BMC Racing are the second pick. There a strong team and I’ve even wondered if they’ve picked too many big units because time gained today is great for Cadel Evans but he could lack support in the mountains. They won the team time trial in the Giro del Trentino, relegating a Wiggins-powered Team Sky. Evans is the engine of this team but the rest of the squad all bring something.
Team Sky won last year but the Giro was a priority that saw several of their strongest riders in action. Now the story’s different. They do still have some strong riders. I can’t see them winning but at pixel time they’re 33-1 to win with some bookmakers, that’s too long. A top-3 would be a big ask but just possible.
But there are four teams each with valid credentials for a top-3 too. Belkin have a homogeneous team with some solid and under-rated riders. A win would be a big surprise but they could make the top-three. Astana have a very strong team for the whole race but they’re more orientated to the mountains. Garmin-Sharp used to make this event their speciality and they have some good riders. Movistar also also in with a chance with the twin-engines of Jonathan Castroviejo and Adriano Malori and they rode a creditable fourth place in Trentino, although with some different names.
Now for some others. Omega Pharma-Quick Step are the world champions in this discipline but not one of the winners in Firenze last autumn is present today, in fact the team look light so I think they’ll be content with a top-5 place. Cannondale were fifth in Trentino so can’t be ignored but I don’t see them challenging for the win. If the course was much shorter Giant-Shimano could treat this as a sprint only it is probably too long for them to shine. But they can’t hang around, they need to ensure Kittel’s set up to take the pink jersey via time bonuses in the days to come.
Katusha get a mention because of Joaquim Rodriguez as a GC contender but they’ve got more mountain goats than racehorses; they were second in the 2012 Giro TTT but they had more Russian TT power.
Finally watch for all the others. Today sees a few teams going for the win but a majority secretly just want to limit their losses. The likes of Androni Giocattoli, Europcar, Ag2r La Mondiale, Colombia will be content to get round in one piece and avoid giving away more than a minute to Cadel Evans and Nairo Quintana.
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Orica-Greenedge |
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BMC Racing |
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– |
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Belkin |
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Movistar, Sky, OPQS, Katusha, Giant-Shimano |
Weather: cool and cloudy with a top temperature of 15°C. There will be a breeze from the west reaching 25km/h but fading in the evening. Scouring the windsurfing and air traffic data so you don’t have to, this change looks marginal but the early starters have a minor disadvantage.
Rules + Start times: nine riders set off together and the the time is taken in the firth rider to cross the line. The start times below are local BST so add +1 hour for CET Euro time:
17:50 Colombia
17:55 Orica-GreenEdge
18:00 Tinkoff-Saxo
18:05 FDJ.fr
18:10 Team Katusha
18:15 Movistar Team
18:20 Lotto-Belisol
18:25 Trek Factory Racing
18:30 Belkin Pro Cycling Team
18:35 Team Europcar
18:40 Lampre-Merida
18:45 Team Sky
18:50 Cannondale
18:55 Team Giant-Shimano
19:00 AG2R La Mondiale
19:05 Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela
19:10 Garmin-Sharp
19:15 Bardiani-CSF
19:20 BMC Racing Team
19:25 Omega Pharma-Quick Step
19:30 Astana Pro Team
19:35 Neri Sottoli
TV: there will be live TV for the whole event. Frankly you might be all excited by the race but there’s not much to see in a team time trial, just nine men in aero formation, the result matters more than the way it was obtained.
The race will be on a variety of TV channels according to where you are in the world. Eurosport is covering the race across most of Europe. beIN SPORT has the rights in the US and France.
I understand it’s free to air on Gazzetta TV but we’ll wait to confirm. There’s cyclingfans.com and steephill.tv for TV schedules and pirate feeds and more.
History: Northern Ireland hasn’t produced many champion pro cyclists. Instead today’s race is a a chance to show off Belfast’s history and heritage, from the docks where the Titanic was built to the Stormont parliamentary buildings where a peace process has turned violence into more humdrum municipal matters. The past is still very present and today’s course twice passes a grim mural of a masked terrorist clutching a machine gun (pictured). Recently the local press has been dominated by the arrest of a prominent politician. The Giro provides a welcome distraction that seems to have engaged both sides of the divide and of course everyone else.
That is the most bizarre race order imagineable. Neri Sottoli last? OGE 2nd? Weird. Surely the aim should be to build suspense, as you say. Was the selection random?
That final picture is quite powerful and tells so much – beyond the mural daubed on the side of a council estate house, see the old shipyard cranes in the background, with the young family walking through the middle of what still looks a rather unwelcoming little courtyard. My father is from Northern Ireland and grew up through the worst of it, with many family members affected. It was wonderful to see the really uplifting pictures of the impact that the Giro is having on Belfast and how some truly terrific people are really getting “in the mood”. Kudos for the Giro organisers for taking it there.
Sorry, that comment was from me, I really must get the hang of this internet lark.
I spoke to Matt White yesterday – the race order was decided by picking names out of a hat.
Ivan Santaromita for Pink tonight. It’ll build OGEs profile amongst the tifosi.
As per uci rules if the TTT is 1st stage, it is a random draw for start times.
I don’t think there’s a rule, instead it’s the Giro/RCS that opted to draw lots to determine the order in the team briefing yesterday.
It is wonderfully uplifting to see that the territorial colours of red, white, blue, purple, green, white and orange seem to have miraculously changed into pink this weekend. Everything in Belfast and around the Antrim coast road has been covered in pink.
In the 24hrs I’ve been here I can’t recall seeing a single union flag or tri colour… just pink bikes, pinks buses, pink shop displays, pink cranes, pink buildings, pink whiskey!… even pink orangemen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu4AfRBK-M4&feature=youtu.be
Worth noting that the local politicians have agreed to remove all election posters from the route so as not to distract from the appearance of the Northern Ireland scenery
Good for them.
Very excitedly looking forward to the Giro – the one-day races are fascinating enough but, for me, this always feels like the proper start of the season.
This is obviously going to be guess work, but in a TTT of this length, what do we think the gaps are likely to be among the better teams?
I think Movistar will be in the top 2. It’s almost become a cliché to describe them as dark horses as they’re pretty consistent in this event and have some good engines. The only issue will be how Quintana hangs on at the tail of the line.
As a guide, Tirreno-Adriatico kicked off with a TTT of similar length (18.5km) this year. The winners (OPQS) were 1:31 faster than the slowest team (Europcar).
Interestingly, given Inner Ring’s prediction, BMC came in 47 seconds down with a team that featured 5 of the Giro team. Not sure how much Sammy Sanchez, Bookwalter and Elijssen can improve them to make them a contender. I think too much is made above of their win in Trentino against a pretty weak field – the “Wiggins-powered Team Sky” in question only had 6 riders after all.
The start order does not help with TV viewing.
I would prefer the teams to be ordered based on World Ranking or maybe finishing position in the World TT Championships. At least this would move the stronger teams to the back end of the start list and generally see the times get quicker through the evening.
Bad planning by RCS.
I think Orica-Greenedge are up for this and will be looking for a win, shame they are off so early.
Fwiw there is a rule re start times and a TTT starting a race http://velorooms.com/index.php?topic=5499.msg154135#msg154135
poor dan martin 🙁
I know everyone says bad luck and I truly feel sorry for Dan Martin .. but how much does the bike / rider contribute to crashes like this ? Straight road , every other team gets over it okay .. I watched the replay and it looks like two of those steel plates comes quickly one after the other , he appears to wobble over the first and bins it on the second. I know aero is the be all and end all but if you have trouble controlling the bike on the flat .. sometime it seems some of these setups are just too tricky if conditions aren’t perfect. If I missed anything with Dan eg touching wheels I’d appreciate an update.