A short sprint stage with few features, a virtual rest day.
The Route: a near-certain sprint finish but Bardiani-CSF should try something as today and tomorrow cross their home land. The course is flat as they stick to the plains, all day the riders will be able to see the hills on their left but the race avoids them to keep things simple.
The Finish: a city centre finish, it’s flat and with just one turn in the final 5km, there are some urban cobbles to traverse just before the flamme rouge.
The Contenders: Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) or Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quickstep)? The trio seem just ahead of Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) who is consistent and ahead of the second wave of Nizzolo, Moschetti, Mareczko, Beletti and Cimolai.
 |
Pascal Ackermann, Caleb Ewan |
 |
Elia Viviani, Arnaud Démare |
 |
Moschetti |
Weather: sunshine and clouds and a balmy 24°C with a light 10km/h headwind.
TV: the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST / Euro time and barring surprise this is probably a stage to check in on via a live ticker or Twitter before tuning in with 10km to go for the sprint.
It’s on RAI in Italy, Eurosport across most of Europe and Australia, L’Equipe TV in France and Flobikes and Fubo.tv in the US.
Would be nice to see Moschetti get a win for himself and for Italy. He caught my eye finishing just behind Ewan on the short steep finish at Hatta Dam in the UAE Tour earlier this year. However it’s a tough ask to beat Ackermann, Ewan etc…
He does seem very good but we’ve had a line of cannonball shaped riders from Italy like Guardini, Mareczko who struggle at the top level.
“cannonball shaped riders” WTF?
Note to Gabriele: RAI’s Processo alla Tappa is awful this year! Dunno if you’ve watched any of it but it’s horrible. I no longer bother watching. 🙁
It started well, they announced they had all this new means of analysis and Davide Cassani was working a giant tablet to replay video… but ever since it’s been dull, today’s long interview with Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc didn’t tell us much and both Matteo Cattaneo and Gianni Savio hardly had time to say anything, there was a replay of the sprint with a zoom on the crash that did tell us more about the incident but it was quick. Each time the Processo feels like it ends before it’s started, the credits roll just when you hope they’ll get around to the stage.
Yes, simply awful. Marco Franzelli must be Auro Bulbarelli’s cranky uncle or something. Nobody seems to have explained to him that it’s an INTERVIEW show, not one where he shares his (lack of) knowledge as to what is going on. Combine that with Fabio Genovese (who we have to listen to all during the stage as it is) and I can no longer watch it.
The racers as well as Cassani don’t seem to have much chance to talk at all. Really, really awful. I hope the TV ratings are reflecting this and RAI will shake things up for next year.
He was fairly seriously involved in the Ackermann crash. Lot consciousness, then taken to hospital. Hope he’s not badly injured.
There are going to be some sore bodies tomorrow.
Roll on Thursday
I really don’t understand why they opted for 2 of these stages after the rest day. Is that all down to the money towns pay to have the race start/finish there?
You wouldn’t have thought it’s that. As inrng says the hills are there, they just aren’t going over them! It does seem an excessively flat stage, it would take a miracle for it to be anything other than a sprint. FWIW I hope Viviani gets it.
The towns do pay but the going rate for the Tour de France is €50-80,000 for a stage finish and the Giro must be a fraction of this. Even if it was the same, you could still send the bunch into the Apeninnes today for some climbs, or you could just cut a deal on the cheap with a smaller town in the hills for a lively uphill finish that would be a ratings hit and therefore more earnings. Normally the Giro has these exciting finishes and it makes the first phase exciting. But there are other complications such as finding a town willing to host the Giro (not everywhere wants the Giro or Tour, for every mayor begging for the race to visit, others have shopkeepers associations worried about road closures) and this is set to be a record Giro for vertical metres (I haven’t seen the stats for other years) so today and tomorrow help keep the number down.
Clearly they must really want to showcase sprinters in the first half this year. What shame for this particular route though. It takes the pancake flat route between Ravenna and Modena, while the route passes near the climbs of the both 9 and 10 Colli gran fondos. Today could be a Amstel type route, narrow roads, great medium length climbs. But the run in into Modena will always be pancake flat. No other way to get there. I grew up riding and racing all these roads.
Yesterday finished in Modena, the home of Panini one of the sponsors this year and stage 11 finishes in the home of Fausto Coppi, 100 years after his birth.
You might find that that’s what the justification is this year.
This Giro course design really gets worse with each passing day. Another two days of nothingness as Yates called it. And after that a stage from Cuneo to Pinerolo in an area full of great climbs and what do they do? Put in one single climb 30 km from the finish. I really cannot believe it that we will have to wait until Stage 13(!) to finally see some GC action on a non-TT stage.
Nobody:
Literally nobody:
Really, nobody whatsoever:
Giro: LET’S REALLY MIX IT UP WITH THE FLATTEST SPRINT STAGE IN THE HISTORY OF GRAND TOURS!
RCS have been promoting Abu Dhabi/Dubai/UAE tour for a few years now, maybe they hit the wrong create stage option on their route designer software
Least ever vertical gain for a GT road stage?
We’ve had stages in the Netherlands, Denmark etc before… and similar ones in the Giro too across the wider Po valley and plains.
What a terrible parcours. RCS seems to have substituted these featureless sprint stages, some excessively long, for post-stage bus transfers. Why? In response to team and rider complaints?
Roll the dice and attack Jumbo Visma someone, please.
Or give us a hailstorm and unpredictable crosswinds.
Is there a level crossing?
RCS have been a bit unfortunate with how things have turned out. If Tom Dumoulin and Egan Bernal (or Chris Froome or Geraint Thomas) were still in the race things would look very different. Even so the race has a long way to go and much can (and will) still happen. The time to judge the course is after the race not during it. There need to be stages for the sprinters, the race is not just about mountains and TTs. We could yet see an Italian triumph or someone completely unexpected win this race.
As has been pointed out before, GT racing has always featured long “boring” bits, it is part of what makes the races so hard to win. The long hours in the saddle are an integral part of the challenge. Just because most of the stages are now broadcast live that does not mean you have to watch, just tune in at the end of a sprint stage if you dont like to watch a tourist board video. Personally I am not convinced the trend in the Tour towards shorter stages (suspect the Vuelta always has tended to have shorter stages) is a good thing, more “excitement” does not necessarily make for a better overall race.
Reading comments on this blog and listening to various podcasts it seems that a lot of people think each successive Giro should be more exciting than the previous. Where this thinking comes from is a mystery to me and how they think this could also be achieved is equally as mysterious.
This race is tour of a country and the organisers need to take it through the different regions over the years. To show different attractions and landscapes. Each year has a different flavour and that is a result of the different terrain used. This year is a slow build in tension. Nothing wrong with that, in my view.
I’m 90% in agreement with you Sam – but these 2 stages seems a bit excessive… coming straight after a TT then a rest day I think they have really lost any sense of building momentum this time.
I found Yates comments about de-training interesting, and maybe MS have misjudged that, but I’m not quite sure how, as the parcours was there for everyone to see.
I was really interested with Yates’ comments too, because it is not like he has had to make efforts while sitting in the pelton protected by his team or any efforts like he would be in training and when it came to when he needed to dig deep in the TT he was quite clearly found wanting and struggled.
Fair point Noel that MS were aware of the parcours but I am guessing considering how he imploded last year there may have been some caution on his condition and when to peak. Shows there is still a lot to learn about the science of this sport and condition you arrive in.
+1
Enjoying the slow build and looking forward to a final week in which bulk time losses are a possibility almost daily
Sam – 100% agree. Every year people complain saying that it was always more exciting in the past – which is nuts. People always wear rose coloured glasses when looking at history.
+1
I’m not going to stick up for the stage per se, though I think that the narrative for the points jersey has somewhat been ruined by a lack of a dominant sprinter. If we had Cav of 2013 we might see someone wearing red to the mountains and desperately holding on against the climbers. Instead Viviani has launched like a damp squib, Ackerman has now crashed, Ewan has struggled and Gaviria has gone home.
However, the narratives of each GT are works in progress, and only when the race is run do we know if we enjoyed the story that unfolded. The drama is nicely poised to ramp up once we hit the mountains. Roglic has sat on the Rex pedestal and is there to be knocked off. We know nothing of how he, or the others will climb, nor if they will collude.
I suspect that as Jumbo Visma are not a big strong team he will need to fight off all comers, and someone will get close to him if he doesn’t implode (though at this time there is no sign that this is a possibility). What is fair to say is that the next week and a half will be a right old ding dong.
The Lion King type of stage.
So Rafiki picks the winner? A herd of stampeding wildebeests run over Roglic four km from the finish? A singing/dancing warthog along the route will provide a little extra entertainment?
So many complaints about the stage today… fans are nuts, expect riders to race all out (and cleanly of course) for 3 weeks in a row. Not possible. Today will provide really nice scenery and then likely will show who has the strongest pure sprint.
Oh, and it’s “only” 145 km… which they’ll probably cover in 3 hours… do any of these expert fans want to cover 145km in 3 hours?!? Oh, and before doing that you have to ride 2,000km at race pace in the 2 weeks prior… And because they peloton will take the first hour nice and easy, and the second at 40kph, then the final hour will be at 50-55kph… Only 50kph, just nice and easy no pressure.
If you find this sport boring why are you fans? If you think this stage doesn’t belong in the tour, go watch an exciting hard sport like golf or football or tiddly-winks.
Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with all of the pessimism, you’re argument against those that do seems a little flawed.
People are allowed an opinion (a negative one even) on cycling without having to prove they’re world class cyclists.
Likewise, I’m sure the same people don’t find cycling boring on the whole, it’s just they’re finding the start of this particular Giro boring – that’s ok too.
Nobody expects 3 weeks of full on, amazing riding but I think also, nobody expects to have 13 stages with so little action in a grand tour. I believe the blame/bad luck for this can be shared between the RCS route planners and just way things have unfolded (e.g. form (good/bad) in certain moments, abandonments, commissionaires decisions etc. and there’s plenty there to be debated with lots of different viewpoints to respect).
I just hope we’re all allowed to debate it on this great site without having to prove to The Inner Ring what average speed we’re capable of when cycling around Italy before we’re allowed.
Are we following the same tour? There’s been great racing. Battles for all the jerseys, already had a lot of GC movement, solid sprints, but a handful of the “sprint” stages have included some epic climbs so there’s been uncertainty if the break would make it (and it has)…
Sorry, people are entitled to their opinions of course but I can flat out disagree and am allowed to state that.
Personally, I don’t think it’s been quite that exciting but equally I don’t think it’s been as bad as many make out.
My main point was that bringing up people’s (in)ability to ride at the same speed as the pro’s when they’re saying it’s boring doesn’t make their opinion any less valid.
+1. The Giro has spoiled us of late but RCS haven’t helped themselves this time around. There has been action as well as talking points. Just not up to the usual quota. But I think our patience will be rewarded in the final week.
CA doth protest too much, methinks. There has been some racing but nothing great. Some jerseys have changed hands but without any battles. The GC movement has been through two ITTs, a crash and an obvious breakaway day that was not contested by the GC teams. There have been absolutely no epic climbs whatsoever.
I think this Giro is lacking a little variety, if the route always makes a trip south around the Italian peninsula before heading to the Alps then it can have flat stages, mountain stages and things in between, that’s the beauty of Italy’s geography. Here we’ve had two time trials and a procession of flat stages; except to L’Aquila and that’s been by far the best stage. Normally the first 10 days have one or two more uphill finishes for a Sagan-Valverde style rider, or think Battaglin, Wellens last year and perhaps only one of these finishes to replace one sprint stage would help to break up things up although it makes life easy for previews as there’s no mountain road to go and recon or technical parts to write up. Still we’re one stage away from things changing.
+1. Well out Ring!
I think they are trying out the Giro as a Two Week Race….!!!
I think that 36 plus posts and responses makes for interesting dialogue.
We all may need to look deeper, as far as riders chosen, team tactic going forward for teams that find themselves with significant withdrawal and injuries.
I did find it interesting that Yates mentioned his down time riding the flats protected in the peloton. Why does not just rally his team to go to front were he leads out the peloton on one of the flat stages for training. Say 15k at his max 50k to the finish to keep himself and his team in “race shape”
That would get us all postulating as to what is up with that!