One of only two summit finishes in this year’s race.
Scivolata + volata: a crash and a sprint. Josh Tarling tried to get into the early breakaway but this was closed down, presumably out of precaution as it was easier to get him back at the start rather than try later.
As the race head to Napoli there was a crash on a downhill section in Irpinia, a saponatta said RAI TV’s moto reporter Giada Borgato on the scene, the road as slippery as a bar of soap. To touch the brakes was to slide out. The headline was Jai Hindley’s exit but Juri Holman and Dion Smith were out and others were left sore. It’s a big blow for Red Bull’s Giro bid, a crucial rider out as they take on top-heavy UAE. Halted and waiting for the race to resume many riders were letting air out of their tires but it felt like the Giro was deflating too.
The race resumed but was neutralised on time, riders could contest the stage win but everyone would get the winner’s time, and no time bonuses either. With no need to stay in contact many sat up for the finish to let the sprinters tangle. An Alpecin rider took a flyer, Wout van Aert chased him down and went past and for a second victory seemed within reach. But he swamped and Kaden Groves was the fastest.
The Route: 168KM and 3,500m of vertical gain. It’s uphill for 7km at the start. Monte Urano is a steep climb but otherwise the climbs today are defined more their duration than the slope.
The Finish: a 12km climb, the first nine are a steady 4-5% although this twists a lot. Then comes 2km at 10%, and all on a small road.
The Contenders: Primož Roglič (Red Bull) is an obvious pick, we’ve seen his form in the time trials and he even sprinted to take a time bonus the other day, even if extrapolating from one intermediate sprint to a summit finish is risky. But does he want to win the stage, does he want to take the maglia rosa? There’s no need really so his team might be happy to see group go clear… all the more reason why UAE and others may try to control things.
Local Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Juan Ayuso (UAE) can finish fast from a group too. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) surely has his eyes on Sunday’s sterrato stage but today suits but he’s not far down enough on GC to be let in the breakaway.
The breakaway has a good chance today but who to pick. Ideally a rider down on GC who climbs well and isn’t required for team duties. This last criterion reduces the choice a lot because for now many teams have GC contenders, can Pello Bilbao go clear or is he more useful to help Bahrain colleagues Caruso and Tiberi? Filippo Zana (Jayco) fits the bill but is the form there, likewise Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana)
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Roglič, Ciccone |
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Ayuso, Scaroni, Zana, Fortunato, Pidcock, Storer, Bouwman |
Weather: cold, a lot of the race is above 1,000m and temperatures will fall in the day, down to 9°C as rain showers come in for the final hour.
TV: KM0 is at 12.55 and the finish is forecast for 17.15 CEST.
Postcard from Roccaraso
Enjoying the live coverage of the Giro with TV broadcasts from start to finish? Thanks to this you’ll be able to see the uphill start and the dash past Roccaraso. Sometimes the first hour of the stage can see the best sport of the day.
We should thank Daniel Bilalian for some of this, he has sadly died two days ago aged 78. Known to millions in France as an avuncular TV news anchor for decades he moved to become head of sports at France TV. It was here that he agreed to show Paris-Roubaix live from start to finish in 2016 and the the following year to show every minute of every Tour de France stage.
Any race organiser would love to have their race shown live but it’s expensive and until recently only a few stages were shown live from start to finish, a decade ago at the Tour de France the norm was to show the final three hours each day.
Only Bilalian (pictured on the right) saw the mid-afternoon slots on France TV schedules were padded with mediocre imported dramas on repeat that inevitably got poor ratings. Why not put cycling on instead? The first hour could be lively, and if not then at least something could happen so people will watch; plus many tune in for the scenery even if there’s no sport. Crucially live events attract live audiences, while dramas and other programs get streamed via catch-up and so viewers can skip ads. This raises the value of live sport relative to other content.
It meant twisting the arms of colleagues at FranceTV as the extra broadcast hours are not cheap, it’s been hard work for commentators and directors alike. Moto camera crews have even adopted new work patterns as it’s tiring sitting on the back of a bike and turning around to point a camera backwards for a couple of hours, it’s apparently shattering for six hours. It’s worked, the audiences have followed and this persuaded other events to do the same. The Giro now has this as well, there’s reduced production capacity for the stage start before deploying everything for the final hours.
Just as historians debate whether a “great man” shaped events, or if they are attributable to underlying structural factors, the story of live TV is probably a mix of both. The broadcasting landscape was changing, live TV’s value was on the rise and at some point bound to displace dull, dubbed dramas. So it wasn’t all down to Bilalian, far from it. But he was the one who decided, who made it happen first in cycling and so he’s worthy of a brief tribute today. Merci.
A sincere thank you indeed to Monsier Bilalian, and to IR for the insightful information.
An enjoyable take on Daniel Bilalian (who I only knew as a newsreader) and daytime television. It can’t be easy trying to make a forlorn breakaway of no-hopers seem interesting while a relaxed peloton potters along chatting minutes behind but FR2 does it well with cultural references, prepared clips on passing châteaux, and a smiling glance at the roadside crowds and farmer’s hay bales arranged into artistic or topical form.
In my part of the world free to air TV has become a bit of a wasteland so I am happy to watch a couple of hours of cycling before bed and record the rest for the next day … and it helps that there are a handful of Australians in the peleton. It gets me through the winter!
I have road no one mention what made the road slippery. It is not a mere fact of life that mere rain makes a road’s surface too slippery to be ridden. There must be some special explanation, or else something is the matter.
First rain (particularly drizzle) is the worst because it mixes with the dust to form a grease. The Adelaide Grand Prix was the victim of this a couple of times
Mostly when it’s so very slippery like it was that it’s from a diesel spill that has been dispersed by the rain.
The tyres on road bikes are optimised to reduce rolling resistence. This will mean they have very little grip in the rain. A normal person cycling will have much more grip, even in the Neapolitan rain.
I am not sure that TV-broadcasting whole races is something to be celebrated much. I do not see any special value in it.
The first hour was notable and probably the only part worth watching, last minute or two apart. But I get your point. However, in TV terms it is often working *relatively* better than the traditional format, which is losing some traction in Italy.
Excellent insight into how cycling coverage has changed.
I could spend many hours explaining the complicated and expensive methods I’ve used to watch bike racing over the last 30+ years. And I’m sure many others reading this have their own stories on such matters. My history dates back to receiving VHS tapes sent from friends all over Europe (the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, France) and watching the Tour and the Classics months after the events.
Now..? So much, and I’m shocked how many people find the time to watch as much as there is on offer, even if – in 2025 – what’s on offer has changed considerably to only a short time ago.
Live, start to finish? It has its good points but also some negative ones. Is it good that an idea became a reality? Absolutely! Thanks again for pointing out Daniel Bilalian’s contributions to the evolution of media coverage of a sport created by the media.
5 hours in drizzly conditions so the guys earned their money yesterday and that’s without trying to stay upright. Shame for Hindley and the other guys going home early (was n’t it Dion Smith who also got attacked by a goat? A short but eventful Giro for him).
As for “all race TV coverage”, it’s a good thing that nothing is missed for viewers (live or later) and on certain days (like stage 11 at the 2022 Tour) it’s just a joy to follow.
Strange comments BTL today or is that just me? Bots?
Thoughts on Bernal pushing high in GC or even the podium? He won the Columbian nationals and finished top 10 Catalunya, and they didn’t even have the big mountain day. Probably a very long shot but I’d love to see him do a Lemond and come back from his horror injury.
PS – Hard to see past Roglic for today’s stage if it stays together, although Ciccone has a decent kick as well and maybe Roglic doesn’t want to be in pink yet (can’t see that stopping him though).
These days I suspect many of us work from home for two or three days a week, and what a joy it is to have a whole day’s bike racing on in the background, providing beautiful landscapes and occasionally some interesting racing. Yes, it’s “ambient sport” for much of the time, but as Inrng points out, if it wasn’t on the TV would be off altogether (at least mine would be). Viewers lost.
And it’s these passages of the race that provide other inspiration – we saw the Giro race through a beautiful hilltop town in Sicily one year (2018, Ragusa?), and a few years later we were there on holiday.
Egan Bernal is from Colombia (not Columbia).