A time trial, today’s stage accounts for a third of the Giro’s kilometres against the clock so this in an important day for the GC contenders.
Monte Carlo simulation: Albania looked the part. Especially from the helicopter which make it harder to spot the holes in the road and to admire the landscapes instead.
The early breakaway went clear with a virtual finish line of the day’s main climb, to win here was to take the mountains jersey and Sylvain Moniquet was the fastest and craftiest. A banal crash for Juan Ayuso and if he was up and back in the bunch soon there’s always the abrasion, swelling, reduced sleep.
Several sprinters were dropped the first time up the climb outside Tirana. The second time up more were ejected, along with Thymen Arensman and Derek Gee such was the pace set by Lidl-Trek, at one point you might have been wondering if Pedersen is here for GC too such is his improvement in climbing since moving to Monaco and training in the Alps behind. Wout van Aert was going backwards but made it back on for the descent.
A scary crash just before the 5km arch saw several riders collide with the kerb and a lamppost and Mikel Landa came off worse, being carried away from the race in a stretcher, former mountains winner Geoffroy Bouchard is out too.
In the final kilometre and Lidl-Trek’s team work almost ran out of gas but Mads Pedersen was able to wait a few pedal strokes before launching his sprint and this was sufficient to make it to the line and hold off Wout van Aert and Orluis Aular. Next in fourth place was Francesco Busatto who collects the white jersey as the best young rider… and a yellow card for headbutting his way to the finish.
The Route: a 13.7km time trial in downtown Tirana, the capital city. It’s big bulevardi as they say in Albanian and the climb mid-stage is a bigger boulevard still. There are corners but they’re often wide.
The Contenders: Josh Tarling (Ineos) is the obvious pick, a time trial specialist and the course suits but he’s not yet at the invincible or certainty status at this level.
Edoardo Affini (Visma-LAB) is another specialist but an infrequent winner, while team mate Wout van Aert should be a pick but if his second place reassured yesterday, almost being dropped minutes before didn’t.
Ethan Hayter (Soudal-Quickstep) can win but would prefer a hillier course, team mate Matteo Cattaneo should do well but a win is big ask.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) should be up there, he’s won time trials before but not at this level.
Juan Ayuso (UAE) looks like a lean climber but has powered to many time trial wins. This is also his chance to get ahead of team mates, take time on Adam Yates and the rest and he’s effectively in the lead and has demonstrated his form. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain) needs to take time on rivals and can place, while Primož Roglič (Red Bull) probably needs a hillier course to win.
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Tarling |
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WvA, Roglič |
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Ayuso, Tiberi, Affini, McNulty |
Weather: warm and sunny, 25°C but with the chance of a rain shower which could supply a plot twist.
TV: the first rider is off and the last due in at 17.15 CEST.
Postcard from Tirana
Do sport and politics mix? Many enjoy sport to get a break from politics. But while you can just sit back and watch the time trial today, the Giro’s visit to Albania is political, geo-political even. Try to read the Albanian newspapers right now and the main story is tomorrow’s parliamentary elections so you can’t get much more political.
It’s also political because Albania’s history is intense, it’s had a series of upheavals in the 20th century from independence to Italian invasion to a hermit-like totalitarian state, the collapse of this and then the implosion of a vast pyramid scheme at the end of the century that took down the economy and more with it. For a small country it’s seen a lot.
Talk of the Albanian grande partenza grew at the same time as the Italian government agreed to fund a controversial facility in Albania to detain migrants rescued from the sea before they’d landed in Italy. Fortunately the Giro is not instrumentalising this. Imagine a stage start outside the facility to show off a political message? Only there would have been red faces all around as the scheme has stalled, it’s been ruled illegal and sits empty. Rome is now trying to find an alternative for what has become a “cathedral in the desert” to use an Italian idiom. Reuters says it has cost €600 million, which is a lot of money.
The Giro’s visit has had support from Rome but we should view it as a pet project by the incumbent Prime Minister Edi Rama (in the white shoes above), and just in time for tomorrow’s election, what coincidence. Rama winning a fourth term this weekend looks easier to predict than today’s stage, he’s nested in power.
There’s wider Italo-Albanian cooperation beyond migrant facilities and the Giro, for example Italy is a lead backer of Albania’s bid to join the European Union. As a candidate there is lot of work to do but things are moving in the right direction. In a country marked by emigration, the Giro is something coming to explore Albania and beam back positive images, and that’s rare. Notices warning of road closures ask them to comply as a matter of prestige and image, to make the country look good abroad.
Albania wants to show off here, it is now Europe’s fastest growing tourist destination. If Croatia and Greece up and down the coast have enjoyed tourism booms, Albania wants in on this and the Giro stages showcase places. Enjoy the views from tomorrow’s stage because stacks of construction permits have been granted and many of those wild hills along the coast will soon have hotels and villas.
As cyclists watch Albania, will Albanians see cycling? Hopefully but it is election weekend and sport rhymes with football. Using Tirana’s newspapers as a proxy, there’s been little coverage of the Giro’s visit, more “news you can use” articles explaining where your car can be recovered if you parked it on the race route and it got towed away. But it’s a first and if Albania keeps up its modernisation, there’s a good chance the Giro returns.
IR mentions Hayter yet he lost seventeen minutes yesterday on a route which would at one time have suited him. Maybe he was saving himself for today, or is he lacking form or morale? If so, a strange pick for the QS squad.
He’s been absent from the hilly sprint results, but up there in time trials or at least 4th in the Basque TT stage. In the past he would have been a contender for the maglia rosa yesterday given he can climb and sprint.
He named stomach issues, I think, but his form has been a question mark for two seasons now. Dunno if there’s some more specific question, but his stunningly promising result at 23 and before not only didn’t turn into an upward prime, they actually declined to few and sparse glimpses mainly limited to Basque countries or Switzerland. Can’t say if his brother’s story perhaps affected him (Vollering commenting on mental issues of some close person after Lagunas de Neila was pretty moving).
Maybe Mathias Vacek as an outsider?
Inconsistent maybe? but surely capable of a podium here? especially as he was one of the guys who finished in the front group yesterday.
Yes, a contender, but would be surprised if he won outright.
Not only he finished in the front group but Ciccone and him were the only two athletes facing a lot of wind on the front while they were shredding the peloton into thin pieces. Maybe some extra toxin in the muscles for today, but the form is surely there!
Its the Giro and stuff happens, though was surprised various riders came in 17 minutes down, lot of folk going for stages already.
Not been to or seen Albania before, was struck by how “Italian” it looked. Not just the landscape (not surprising as southern Italy is not far away with a very similar climate) but the road signs, roads and general feel. It didnt seem like a foreign Grande Partenza in the way say Ireland or Hungary were.
Have to wonder if all the injuries have added up for Wout van Aert and if there is a way back to the very top. Not so long ago that sprint would have been his.
I’m not that sure the sprint would have been WVA’s even in his best seasons, as Pedersen could beat him in a sprint even when Wout was his best self. But I’m pretty sure that with the best Wout in, we’d have had no sprint at all, he’d arrive alone.
Apart from what you say (once you’re 3 mins back, make ’em 15 so you’re allowed in breaks), the big time gap is also due to the tremendous forcing being made full gas already on the first time up the hill. Imagine you’re 2 mins back 30 kms from the line with a speeding group flying away, who’s just willing to pull and what for? So the 2nd time teams are even more reduced and worn out, making it again harder and harder to get a proper chase.
Even at his absolute peak Van Aert has rarely, if ever, won the first stage of a GT. Even if it suits him to a tee. Like Cavendish did, he seems to take 2 or 3 stages to find his bearings!
Also, if this stage was stage 16 or 17 he’d be much more likely to win it.
I’m surprised at how many are downbeat about Van Aert’s form (including INRNG in yesterday’s preview, although as usual they got the predictions spot on!). For over a month of spring classics, Van Aert’s worst position has been 4th, with a run of 2, 4, 4, 2, 4, 2 from Dwars to the Giro yesterday. That’s *remarkable* form that’s seemingly clouded by a couple of surprise sprint defeats. Hope he continues that run today, although I agree that Tarling will expect to beat him today.
Of course he’s being measured against his previous peak standard, and it’s not that much about sheer results, rather the way he finds his way to those results, like struggling along and getting through thanks to class, grit and some huge fondo.
Van Aert may not have won the first stage of a GT but he’s certainly hit the ground running before. Second to Groves in first stage of the Vuelta last year, won bunch sprint ahead of Pedersen and others at the Tour, second only to Jakobsen (and ahead of Pedersen) in a Sprint Royale in the first stage of the 2022 Tour.
Just out of interest, does anyone know why international Eurosport uses different English-speaking commentators from the British and Irish commentators who are on Discovery+?
This has long baffled me. They’ve done this for over a decade on Eurosport. Why have two separate commentaries? Why pay two separate commentary teams?
Only happens in big races.
And it seems to be arbitrary who they choose.
E.g. D+ have Hatch and co. for the Giro, while those of us getting the international feed get Kirby (FFS). For Paris-Roubaix, int’l got Cox and Hutch (and others), and D+ got Hatch and Kirby.
No idea, but maybe they’re asked to keep two different “profiles” or editorial lines (whomever is commenting), i.e., they should focus a bit more on local athletes and teams for the nationally specific stream and stay more neutral for the International version. Just wild guessing. I’d have thought some internal contract issues with all the merging and buying but it’s strange it goes on since more than a decade.
They’re as nationalistic on either.
And if they didn’t want a British bias, they wouldn’t use Kirby.
They’re as nationalistic on either, and the same commentators are used for both/either.
And if they didn’t want a British bias, they wouldn’t use Kirby.
Any commentary not involving Kirby is ok with me ! I guess there’s perhaps a technical reason for the two separate comms.
I’m watching it on Vkontakte. The Russian commentary actually put me to sleep.
How do you get the international feed? Obviously I don’t want to watch the agiro on it if thats where CK is, but it might be useful to know for the future!
I’m absolutely fed up with these “nervous” (that is, crash-prone) first stages. ITT prologues should be mandatory!
That might limit who could wear the leaders jersey in the first few days of a Grand Tour.
So what?
With results the way they are and a fairly difficult climb tomorrow, we’re going to have quite a sort-out before we even get to Italy.
Lots of reason of tactical and strategic interest tomorrow. Stage, provisional maglia rosa, GC perspectives…
Good start for the Giro, I liked today’s ITT with a changing wind conditions, positive and negative surprises, specialists vs. GC men etc.
The course was actually much more technical than it looked at first sight, i.e., maybe easier than one could think in climbing terms but requiring more cornering and sharper accelerations than I’d expect.
It was “bombs away” after the turnaround!
Man, was I ever wrong! There is a little more clarity though. UAE still in a very strong position.