Giro d’Italia Stage 1 Preview

46 thoughts on “Giro d’Italia Stage 1 Preview”

1. Its fairly short so could a sprinter with good solo ability go close if they tried. Sagan is who i have in mind as someone who may try to do well to set up the pink jersey later on stages 2 or 3.

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2. Ewan’s handy on a course like this too

   • Shorter and with more corners needed for someone like him.

3. Sorry but I find these short prologues to be a waste of time. All the hullabaloo of the start and we get 8kms or racing. Anti-climax. Roll on tomorrow.

   • A waste of time? We should get some insight into who of the GC candidates is ready and who is not: how much will Bardet, Landa, Nibali and Martin lose to Yates, Soler and Almeida, is Evenpoel really back to his best (if he is he’ll win the stage)… Tomorrow won’t tell us anything about GC but should confirm Ewan’s position as star Giro sprinter – an afternoon for a stroll along the Moselle before the fun starts later in the week.

   • I’d love a finish atop the Superga today too but it’s a grand tour, the longest of sports events, so worth waiting a few days to let things develop.

     Also imagine you’re Mauro Vegni. Some Australian, Colombian, Kazakh or Belgian is always going to win something, but an Italian? Your race needs home success that helps the coverage, it’s your real market. That’s not so obvious with Nibali waning but along comes Filippo Ganna and you’ll be tempted to start the Giro with a time trial for the next decade.

     • Maybe I expressed myself badly. TTs and prologues can be fascinating and revealing while mass bunch finishes often give little away. Anyone who enjoys tables, data, calculation, and cycling too will find interest in a TT result. As they say: no hiding place!

     • It’s way simpler than all that (nationalism, narratives, narrow differences…).

       For some unknown reason, ITTs, which normally produce awful TV results whenever they happen in a GT, on the contrary tend to grant – and that’s quite unexpected! – decent audience figures on weekend days. And, even more important, they are the *only* sort of stage which (normally) gets a decent number of people watching as the first or last stage of a GT. That is, people (especially in Italy and in Spain – but I specify that because those are the data sets which I know better) just hate to watch the final sprint of any GT – and that perhaps makes some sense? – but they also avoid to watch the very first one, even if it’s a slightly interesting road stage.

       I’d prefer a road stage to keep the fight for the leader jersey open in the following stages, or a very short prologue with the same objective in mind, but, hey, watching figures still matter a lot.

   • Having a short stage as an opener makes sense. The time gaps are likely to be small, unless something truly disastrous happens (hopefully the drain covers have been dealt with) no one is going to “lose the Giro” on this stage. I know this is a bit too long for a prologue but it serves the same purpose as in a novel or film of setting the stage for the narrative ahead.

     • There are tram rails to cross too, but they’re bound to have been filled in.

   • I wouldn’t call it a waste of time – because the time gaps are relevant – but for me it is anti-climactic. A classics-style stage (even just something like Stage 3 of this year’s Giro) would really wet the appetite, and this short TT could be stage 2 or 3. A flat sprint stage would probably be little more exciting. I’d have thought that an exciting first stage would really peak people’s interest, but inside Italy an Italian leader will probably matter more, such is the nonsense that is nationalism.

     • It is absolutely true that we cannot exclude purely nationalistic reasons – or perhaps more kindly put a desire to excite and please the home crowd – but prologues and short time trials are very much the tradition and classics style or sprint stages that open the race, though not exceptional in any way, are not something that organisers must especially deviate from.
       Giro has opened with a prologue even in years when there was no great Italian hope to favorise – or am I completely wrong?
       Besides, there is already enough excitement and interest, it’s difficult to peak something that has already peaked (and will probably not peak again until the last few days, if then).
       The whole purpose of the opening day is to find someone to wear the pink jersey – and I personally wouldn’t be a bit more excited and interested to find out who it will be if I knew it would quite definitely be most likely to turn out a sprinter or a classics rider.
       Last but not least, a time trial today means those of us who seldom watch them don’t have to skip it later in the race : D

     • Hardly nationalism.
       If you want to read about true nationalism and Turin, look up Fiat’s role in the rise of Mussolini between the wars, partly in response to the growth of left wing politics affecting northern Italian industry at that time.
       The Agnelli family have an interesting history, of which football’s proposed European Super League is another chapter.

       • It’s still nationalism.

4. For what will probably be a slightly boring day, this review is fantastic. Love the writing, importing Colombian goods, French pasta, just brilliant.

   • Agreed. Very strong, Maglia Rosa-grabbing, form from our host to start the race.
     And, as Larry says below, it’s funny because it’s true.

5. “Instead, like a Frenchman faced with pasta, he’s prone to overcooking things…”
   HA! That brought back some (bad) memories from my daze chasing LeTour. Our boss insisted on trying “Italian” eateries there instead of more local fare…somehow hoping they’d get it right. ONE time they did, at a place run by Italians who imported their own cheese, pasta, espresso, etc. via their trucking company based near the border with Italy. The rest of the time…yuck!

   • It was the coffee that got me. From my days working in the alps, I couldn’t work out why it was so good in courmayeur but terrible in chamonix
     Thanks inrng for the information on lavazza beans. It’s our go to back in the UK, miles in front of segafredo.

     • Lavazza was apparently the first to blend coffee but they blend different arabica beans and degrees of roasting. Segafredo often uses robusta beans in the mix and so has a more “French” taste (think burnt wood rather than vanilla and chocolate). It’s partly a story of taste shaped by colonialism with Italy invading Ethiopia and Eritrea, France trying to make coffee plantations work in Vietnam and Cambodia but that’s for another day.

       • Lazazza certainly use Robusta beans in many of their blends, at least 20%?
         Their espresso coffees particularly have that strong, bitter taste (in a good way, I should add) but worth checking on the packaging before you buy.

         • Thought modern day trends are to use more Robusta to create a stronger textured body. 20% probably wasn’t much.

         • I’m using lavazza black, 100% arabica.
           Instant? Are you guys having a laugh?

         • ‘Instant? Are you guys having a laugh?’
           I was. I know how seriously cycling types take their coffee ;o)

       • Probably shouldn’t be surprised, but our host’s knowledge in coffee is as deep and nuanced as his understanding of cycling.

     • Well, if you’re in the UK you can just stick with Sainsburys’ instant.

       • Well, now days there are independent roasters popping up here and there (shocking, even in the UK) which are usually very good. Though it is an art to produce good coffee at industrial scale. Not sure if anyone had ever truly succeeded.

         The Italians probably faired better than the likes of Nespresso which I particularly distaste because of their “fake recycling” of aluminium. I suppose Sainsbury’s are sufficient if your goal was to be waken up.

       • Eh? Reasonable coffee is available anywhere in Britain, even Sainsburys. Do you live in the nineteen fifties?

         • No, just spent enough time in Italy.

         • Well, Sainsbury’s supposed to be the better supermarket when food is concerned.

   • Yes you’re right, and often you can guess it at the name of the restaurant (dozens of “Pizzeria Venicia”, for instance). But, Larry – would you go in a french restaurant in Italia, called Le Bon Formage ?
     It’s fair to say, though, that usually italian restaurants are better than french ones ; a lot of them is just heating precooked meals, alas…

     • Back then we went with the boss as he was paying! On nights when we were on our own in France we’d often look for Chinese or Vietnamese…at least those folks knew how to cook noodles!
       Caffe was another sad situation – all those Cimballi or Faema machines but somehow what came out of them was just awful. I remember a few years we stayed in Briancon and rode over the border into Italy, where I’d race into the first bar I came to, hoping to be in-time to still get a cappuccino 🙂

6. I love a Prologue, though it should be noted this isn’t one. It’s stage 1. I can’t necessarily explain why, I just do.

   Rather than picking who will do well of the GC men, who do we think will ‘do a Lopez’ and chuck it into the pavement? There’s always at least a couple of GC men who are out of it after the first couple of days.

   • Prologue have a maximum length, iirc. It may be 8kms, or 7kms. Obviously less than 8.6kms, though!

     • Under 8km and it can be a prologue. You can have a 500m Stage 1 if you want, it’s down to the organiser. The second difference is you don’t have to finish the prologue, if you crash out and don’t cross the finish line, you can start the next day but with the same time as the last rider. If you don’t reach the finish on Stage 1 then you’re out for good.

       • That would be cool! 200 riders on a line, sprint out on 500 (or 50?) meters…

       • Has this ever happened? –

         ‘The second difference is you don’t have to finish the prologue, if you crash out and don’t cross the finish line, you can start the next day but with the same time as the last rider.’

         • Not in a WT race that I remember, but I do recall it happening in the Sun Tour the time that the race started in Melbourne with a 2km prologue along the Yarra River in the Southbank precinct.

           There was a rider from one of the Continental registered domestic teams who had the presence of mind to not finish rather than record a very slow time after crashing due to a puncture.

         • Thanks, DaveRides – and smart thinking.

         • I remember French commentators quoting this rule when Chris Boardman crashed at St Brieuc in 1995. That was before the extent of his injuries was known, and it was of course irrelevant seeing as his ankle was broken.

         • I have a vague memory that there was a recent WT race where someone took the start, but then abandoned in the neutral zone due to their injuries, but can’t recall any details.

7. This should be up Martinez street, not that he can beat Fillipo but top ten? He is a bit of a TT specialist before he arrived at INEOS has something changed?

   • Surely better for hilly days? One to watch as given some space he’s a GC contender but likely to be used as a helper here and also Ineos won’t want the maglia rosa that much until late in the race.

     • I agree for shorter distances hillier the better but in Itzulia 2019 he beat Allaphillipe and Kwia, then UAE this year just a few seconds slower that Almeida over 13km.

8. 3 weeks of Giro and TIR’s fantastic writing and analysis to look forward to, what a treat.

   And +1 for a coffee company centred world history in due course please.

   • +1
     I’m finding myself getting a little caught up in the Remco hype. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

9. The organizers should have made the first stage 3x as long–then Ganna could have taken enough time to win the whole race.
   I loved hearing Sean Kelly muttering “oh, oh, oh” in the background at one point he was so taken aback by Ganna’s aggressiveness.

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