Italy’s most famous finale in Sanremo is the starting point for the Giro with a 17.6km team time trial. As well as the race to win the stage and take the race lead there’s also the battle not to surrender too much time to rivals.
The Route: The race starts at the foot of the Cipressa but forget the famous climb, instead the race rides along the coast. Only it’s not the Via Aurelia but a separate bike path built along an old railway line, complete with a 1600m long tunnel early on. It’s normally the preserve of rollerskaters and families out for a ride rather than a race. The locals did ask about Milan-Sanremo finishing here but RCS said no as it’s too narrow. You can fit a TTT here but the width makes it awkward for riders swinging off once they’ve done their turn, there’s not much space. See for yourself with the GCN video.
It’s flat, fast and sheltered and teams can cruise at 60km/h for a lot of the way with one odd section in Arma di Taggia that has some sharp 90 degree bends, the kind normally used to slow shoppers pedalling home from the market rather than opening a grand tour.
The Contenders: Orica-Greenedge won last year and were only a few milliseconds off in the Tour de Romandie the other day. They have the engines in Luke Durbridge and Michael Hepburn and the team pursuit DNA runs through others. Just like the Tour de Romandie Team Sky will be close and if the course was twice as long they’d be the stronger pick. If the bookies have Orica-Greenedge as the prime pick by a long way I don’t Sky will so far off.
Astana look like a very complete team for the race and bring many of the same riders who almost won the TTT in the Giro di Trentino. Katusha could be the surprise. They have Zakarin of course but also the chunky TT specialist Vorobyev and a block of homogenous workhorses like Pavel Kochetkov and Maxim Belkov. Tinkoff-Saxo‘s strong squad will want to propel Alberto Contador and if anything the squad is lacking in mountain support so here’s their chance to take time already. Movistar have a strong team but it lacks the engines they normally rely on for TTT success like Castroviejo or Dowsett. Etixx-Quickstep‘s squad isn’t their best and perhaps they’d sign for a top-5 now? The same for reigning “world champions” BMC Racing who have Silvan Dillier but not all the other winners from last year’s TTT worlds.
Also watch for the teams likely to struggle because losing can have repercussions that will last for three weeks. Ag2r La Mondiale had a disaster in Romandie but come with a stronger team but Domenico Pozzovivo’s podium pursuit could be thwarted by a bad day here. If anything this is a rest day for some teams, time lost here means more room for manoeuvre in a breakaway in the coming days.
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Orica-Greenedge |
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Team Sky |
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Astana, Katusha, Tinkoff-Saxo, Etixx-Quickstep |
Weather: sunny and mild with a 15-20km/h south-east breeze meaning a slight headwind.
TV: the first team is off at 3.10pm Euro time with the finish for 5.15pm. It’s live on Eurosport, BeIn Sports, SBS and more. If not cyclingfans and steephill.tv both have links to pirate feeds with the latter also listing where you can view the race properly too.
Start Order: if it looks random, it is, they pick it out of a hat. Teams go every five mintues:
3.10pm Lampre – Merida
Ag2r La Mondiale
Androni-Sidermec
Astana
Nippo – Vini Fantini
Trek Factory Racing
Bardiani CSF
BMC Racing Team
Team Sky
Etixx – Quick-Step
Team Giant – Alpecin
IAM Cycling
Movistar
Southeast
CCC Sprandi Polkowice
Orica Greenedge
Team Lotto NL – Jumbo
Lotto Soudal
Team Katusha
Tinkoff Saxo
Team Cannondale – Garmin
4.55pm FDJ
The Giro is: green. You might think of pink because of the maglia rosa leader’s jersey but green is better for the Giro. It happens when spring has arrived and Italy is covered with fresh, verdant and bright green vegetation lending a fresher tone to the race than summery Tour de France and the scorched Vuelta. Green is also historical as The Gazzetta Dello Sport was born in 1896 from the merger of La Tripletta and Il Ciclista. It was printed on green paper but in 1899 the paper switched to pink paper.
Today’s TTT on a bike path is green in the ecological sense too as it promotes the pista ciclabile too but how much the sight of nine men in skinsuits and visors rumbling along with disc wheels encourages locals to take up cycling for transport remains to be seen.
Michael Matthews to take the pink jersey and keep it until stage five.
I don’t particularly enjoy watching more than a few minutes of a TTT.
It says a lot that they’re more entertaining when teams get it wrong.
Given the narrowness of the route, having cameras on m/bikes doesn’t look to be an option. Pity, as that gives a better sensation of speed than from a copter. Should still be spectaculari. OGE to win.
It’s “spettacolare”, actually. 😉
Giving AG2R had a mare at Romandie, if it goes a bit awry today, would that give Pozzavivo a chance to spring a suprise later in the mountains?
Love watching a good TTT team go about their business. Beautiful coastline too – some good TV pics. Looking forward to this.
For sure the Giro is green, and so was always the mountains jersey. I wonder why they changed it and why they can’t bring back the forest-green jersey (and the maglia ciclamino).
Your last paragraph… is very good. Does it mean that, in order to be better able to encourage non-competitive bicycle use, bike races should use material closer to what people use on their pleasure or transport rides?
Banca Mediolanum signing a multi-year contract to sponsor the jersey included the colour switch (the Berlusconi loved blue). A management decision by Acquarone which could prompt a little debate about economics, image and so. You get more money, but you’re sacrificing the long term value of “identity heritage”. On the other hand, well, you get the money. Cycling fans were simply fuming, I don’t know if it was a great move from Banca Mediolanum, either.
I think that the idea about the “ciclabile” is promoting it as a destination in its own right for cycling tourism of a more familiar type, like the one you see along the Adige and so, more than prompting commuters, who probably already know about that (well, you never know). Even if it’s a little short for that purpose, all the same on a regional level it could very well: a couple of hours of slow-pedalling with the kids in a very nice context.
I wonder if they’re planning to extend it.
As it usually happens in the Giro it’s sort of a (incredibly effective) *this exists* promotion instead of a *look how this can be used*, I’d say a Plan de Corones vs. Zoncolan, if you get my meaning.
In Bergamo they’d need a stage like this (ITT in that case) to foster the use of a very good ciclabile they built on the old railway course in the Valle Brembana, home of Gimondi and other old pros.
In that sense, it’s not very relevant what the “Girini” are riding today…
Though, sporting cyclists may be interested, too, but just as a starter to warm up or a final cooler in another kind of course, since the presence of slower users advises against high speed riding.
It’s a nice ride, we’ve done it a few times. I too hope they’ll work on making it longer. Next project for RCS, etc. should be the restoration of the famous, one-lane tunnel at Passo Turchino. We arrived there last year to find access to it almost impossible and the bust of Girardengo languishing almost in the weeds! While the new, two-lane tunnel is certainly better for motorists, someone should pony up some euros to open access to the famous old tunnel with a bike trail, otherwise this famous spot fades from memory.
How much will the loss of Svein Tuft affect O-G? Enough to not win the stage?
apparently, not too much