A sprint stage? With some climbing mid-way this could resemble the race to Cosenza last week where Movistar got to work on cracking the sprinters only for Jhonatan Narvaez to profit but the pickings for the sprinters are running out so they really need a result today.
Stage 11 Review: a superb day at the Giro. Show someone footage from this stage on a damp day in late November and it ought to be identifiable as the Giro within three seconds.
The first attempt at a breakaway didn’t work, on days like this waves of riders might have to attack for the sake of it in order to soften the field so that an hour or two later their higher ranked colleagues can move.
Once the flat roads were done and the race climbed out of Tuscany Enric Mas and Jhonatan Narvaez made their moves. We can imagine the sinking feeling others in the lead must have experienced when Narvaez jumped across.
You can often break races down into phases, such as when riders fight to go clear, when the breakaway has established a lead and so on. Only such moments of stasis felt brief, riders in the 12 man breakaway kept making moves. With 40km to go there was a crash as well taking out Van Eeetvelt, Zana and Scaroni, all three contenders for the day.
Moments later Aleksandr Vlasov attacked with Jasper Stuyven and Narvaez. They were caught and things regrouped. On the last marked climb Mas accelerated and only Narvaez could follow leaving the likes of Chris Harper and Vlasov struggling in the heat.
Mas tried a final attack in the streets of Chiavari but this hardly an ambush, he stood up on the pedals and Narvaez responded while seated. In the finish the pair could sense the chasers closing in and Mas was able to put Narvaez on the front but that was as tactical as it got. The Ecuadorian’s sprint win felt inevitable and he delivered his third stage win.
If Mas got smoked in the sprint the consolation is that he is able to make the moves and once the climbs get longer in the coming days he ought to find terrain to suit even more.
Narvaez is now second and 19 points shorts of Magnier in the ciclamino points competition. The points scale is weighted to sprint stages so it’s advantage Magnier but another raid or two by Narvaez, and there are stages to suit, could see the UAE rider take both the intermediate point and the stage gains. “Could” as in this competition isn’t there yet… but Magnier can’t afford to miss out on days that suit. Talking of which…
The Route: a reverse Milan-Sanremo? Yes, but think of the 2020 August edition which avoided the coastal road so as not to block beachgoers, and instead went via the Colle di Nava. This picks up some of that route but uses tunnels to avoid climbing too much at the start, and all on a big road. A reverse Milan-Sanremo? Again yes, but think of the start of the century when they climbed the Bric Berton as an alternative to the Passo Turchino which was closed because of landslides and roadworks.
After 95km the race heads inland. The Colle Giovo and the Bric Berton are solid climbs, it’s here sprinters can be put under difficulty as they have long 6% sections some some 10% pats too. There’s 50km to the finish via the Gavi vineyards.
The Finish: the last three kilometres take a straight flat road out of town.
Postcards here have lamented the Giro finishing in humdrum industrial zones when there’s a beautiful town to promote, but there’s a special reason for the finish and today’s postcard below explains more.
The Contenders: the sprinters’ teams will want this stage as there’s only the Milan and Rome criterium stages left for them and today is just about within reach. Or Movistar can do a repeat of Stage 4’s elimination race and aim to set up Orluis Aular for the win. NSN have been hard to spot in this Giro but Corbin Strong could feature. Today’s stage has points to eliminate sprinters but also more chance to get back on.
Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) can handle some climbs so this gives him an advantage today but the long finish is open to plenty of they’re able to cope with the Bric Berton.
 |
Magnier, Aular |
 |
Milan |
 |
Strong, Lund, Turner, Vernon, Silva |
Weather: summer is here, 28°C.
TV: KM0 is at 1.15pm and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST. Tune in for climbing mid-way around 3.30pm.
Postcard from Novi Ligure
Today’s finish in Novi Ligure is famous in cycling for Fausto Coppi. The campionissimo started cycling as a delivery boy here. Is it possible that someone delivering takeaway meals for Glovo or Deliveroo wins the Giro in ten years’ time?
Back to the finish town and ask Italians what they associate with Novi and the answer probably begins with a C but it’s not Coppi. Instead Novi is a brand of chocolate found all over Italy and comes from here. Today’s finish is right outside the factory and that’s no coincidence: Novi is the “official chocolate” of the Giro d’Italia.
The race has a slew of official products. Lauretana is the “official water” of the Giro d’Italia and it markets itself with the strapline: l’acqua più leggera d’Europa, or “the lightest water in Europe” which could be good to know if you want to save weight in your bidons.
Hungarian meat company Kometa is the “official cured meats” supplier and Wonderful Pistachio is the “official pistachio” brand. Closer to home Rana is the “official pasta” brand, Altograno produces the official cereal products like biscuits and Bialetti is the “official coffee”.
If consuming all of these begins to overwhelm, or you’ve got indigestion from something unofficial, you can head to the toilet, drop your “official trousers” by Tramarossa and then clean up with Regina toilet paper which which is of course the official supplier of the Giro (yesterday’s stage start was outside their HQ).
There’s official insurance, official weather forecasting, official wine, official luggage, official shoes and more. Officially there’s much more. All these sponsorships are tiered, it’ll cost you a lot more to sponsor the maglia rosa than to bid for the “official trouser” ticket.
It’s possible to ignore the Giro in Italy if it’s not causing traffic mayhem in your town, if you don’t watch RAI’s daytime output, or you don’t reach the final pages of the Gazzetta Dello Sport newspaper too. But walk into a supermarket and you find pink all over the place. Chilled cabinets laden with Rana pasta, shelves stacked Regina’s paper rolls, Bialetti coffee with Giro logos and more, all with pink packaging this month, all this surreptitiously signals the race is on. If you visit a supermarket to see for yourself, make it a Conad because it is the “official supermarket”.