A long flat stage until the finish when everything changes. After 200km of procession across the plains of the Po valley the finish features a tough climb, a twisty descent and then plenty of ups and downs, just enough to spoil the day for the sprinters.
Stage 10 Review: a stage win for Bardiani-CSF’s Guilio Ciccone. He made the day’s breakaway and proved to be stronger than team mate Stefano Pirazzi who was reduced to marking Damiano Cunego. It was only months ago that Ciccone was riding for amateur team Colpack, one of the two teams that dominate the Italian U23 scene. He’s from the Abruzzo region and bizarrely was asked if he was related to the popstar Madonna, aka Louise Ciccone, in the post-stage press conference. Bardiani-CSF announced their sponsorship renewal for two more years and have a dream of an Italian team in the World Tour filled with young riders from central and southern Italy like Ciccone. Of course all teams seem compelled to announce ambitions for fear of looking stagnant as, like a bicycle, things start to fall down when momentum runs out.
Earlier in the day, a tale of contrast. The stage was marked by the surprise withdrawal of Mikel Landa, Team Sky’s leader and probably on a salary bigger than the Bardiani budget. Landa was telling the media on the start line he might attack but apparently inside his guts were sloshing around. If you’re feeling rough you have to fake confidence otherwise Astana and Movistar will ride the first climb at warp speed to ruin your day… only no sooner was Landa was spotted amid the column of team cars did Astana get to work. Sky are orphaned without Landa now and the race lost a genuine contender. Later Astana used the climb to the Pian del Falco to eliminate more riders, notably Gianluca Brambilla and it put Bob Jungels in the maglia rosa.
The Route: the profile looks like a table cloth that hasn’t quite been ironed in full and has a wrinkly edge. After a long and featureless start across the Adige and Po valleys, a long day past fields of wheat and corn that help to make all that pasta and polenta.
Just as the race reaches the town of Asolo, today’s finish, it heads east to the town of Maser – more about this town later today – it takes a hard climb, the Forcella Mostaccin.
It’s 2.9km at 9% and as the profile shows it has its steeper moments although good luck finding that 16% section, it’s probably on just there if you take the inside of a hairpin bend. What the profile doesn’t show is just how narrow the road is, two cars would have to check themselves to pass. It twists and turns on its way up.
Once at the top there’s 19km to go, normally fine for dropped sprinters to get back on but this is no normal finish. Instead the road drops down with a twistier, steeper road. Once the descent is done the obstacles continue with more lumpy roads and a long series of bending roads to render any chase difficult.
The Finish: with five kilometres to go the road rears up for a climb of over one kilometre at 7% before another twisty descent, this time on a wider road but that barely makes it any easier. Finally a flat road to the finish line.
The Contenders: can André Greipel hang on? I don’t think so, the finish here is too hilly and twisty and the bunch is likely to split apart. This means a lot of other sprinters are going to be in distress too but we never know, if the last climb is taken easily and especially if no team picks up the pace afterwards then Greipel still has a decent chance. The same for Arnaud Démare and Kristian Sbaragli who can manage a climb or two.
Sonny Colbrelli (pictured) is the safer pick for Bardiani-CSF to take a second stage win. Billed here before as a budget version of Peter Sagan that’s no slander but a compliment as he can scale sharp climbs and has a powerful finish, this would be a late birthday present.
The local pick is Enrico Battaglin who hails from just down the road. The ex-Bardiani rider has won in the Giro before, notably denying the serpentine Danilo Di Luca once, but seemed to have vanished within Lotto-Jumbo saying the team was fine but finding the Dutch language impenetrable. He emerged to take fifth place in the stage to Foligno last week, the hilly finish won by Greipel. Battaglin climbs well and probably knows every slope, bend and tree in the finish today.
Etixx-Quickstep are having a roaring Giro and Matteo Trentin could deliver a result. He’s almost a local as well. Ramūnas Navardauskas gets a chainring below as he can sprint well after a long day but this might not be hard enough for him.
Beyond these names there’s the big chance a breakaway sticks. The sprinters teams can bank on tomorrow’s flat route so few will chase today. Up to you to pick the random rider who can join a move and help power it clear and then have the energy for the hills and then the finish. Not an easy pick but there’s a long list of flat earth society members who have almost no chance when the mountains arrive soon, think Daniel Oss and Stefan Küng of BMC Racing, Ag2r’s Blel Kadri and IAM’s Vegard Stake Laengen as examples.
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Enrico Battaglin, Sonny Colbrelli |
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Navardauskas, Trentin, Greipel |
Weather: sunshine and clouds with a top temperature of 21°C. Curiously the warmest weather in the Giro so far has been in the Netherlands.
TV: the finish is forecast for, you guessed it, 5.10pm Euro time. They reach Asolo and head out for the hilly loop at 4.20pm.
Eurosport is covering the race across most of Europe. beIN SPORT has the rights in the US and France while Italian host broadcaster RAI offers the best coverage with experienced commentators as well as roving reporters on motorbikes to add extra coverage. As ever cyclingfans.com, cyclinghub and steephill.tv are the go-to sites for schedules and pirata feeds.
Great display from Brambilla, containing the Amadour attack, keeping the jersey in the team. What a difference from the Vuelta a few years ago. Containing the attacks instead of throwing them.
Indeed. It was Movistar and not Astana who really blew Brambilla.
Having grown up in the ’80s, I immediately thought of Madonna, the pop singer, when I heard Giulio Ciccone’s name. It must not be a common name even in Italy if a reporter asked the question. Maybe not directly related, but there is a facial resemblance. Like a virgin, . . . as in first professional win! Ouch!
La Gazzetta’s headline is “Like a Virgin” (in English) and Guilio says he’d like to meet her.
Madonna references are really in vogue today.
What would be nice to see today is a really strong, committed breakaway, I’m thinking a Sky rider or two, Lotto Soudal, IAM, BMC, Trek, perhaps even an Etixx’er, together with the expected Italian contingent. Then a shootout, Spaghetti Western style.
GC – a few seconds here and there in the final mad dash?
“Beyond these name’s there’s the big chance a breakaway sticks”
No apostrophe needed for “names”?
Thanks for the blog, I’m loving reading the daily previews. Adds a lot to my enjoyment of the Giro!
Fixed, thanks.
Great win for Ciccone for his first win as a pro and also in his first grand tour.
Dumoulin lost 13 minutes on GC which ties in with his plan after Sunday’s TT to be allowed into the break to chase stage wins.
However seems he is struggling with saddle sores and looked to be riding out of the saddle on flat sections. Believe he is sleeping on whether to pull out or not
Was it necessary for Brambilla to chase? Seemed to be Astana’s job and perhaps he would still be in pink. Even if Astana were soft pedalling they wouldn’t want to give too much time to Amador
They’re/their sponsorship renewal for two more years
Fixed, thanks.
Can we now add Landa to the ” Oh, but if he didn’t have to work for the evil X, he’d be winning the race” list of pipe dreams (Porte, etc.) that we’ve heard time and time again? During last year’s Giro it seemed this forum and others were chock-full of these laments. Sky’s marginal gains formula seems to work only when they have talents like Wiggins or Froome. At least so far anyway…
I wasn’t so enthused about Brambilla’s unselfish act – since when does the Maglia Rosa just swing off the road like a gregario whose work is done? Yes, he handed it over to a member of his team but I think he showed a lack of respect to the jersey.
Otherwise, the racing’s been great so far – starting to make plans to get my fat a__ out there to see it live.
At first I though Brambilla was trying an homage to Eddie Mercxx. And fair play, he did a strong pull on the front, but it did feel wrong to see the Maglia Rosa dissappear backwards like that.
“I wasn’t so enthused about Brambilla’s unselfish act – since when does the Maglia Rosa just swing off the road like a gregario whose work is done? Yes, he handed it over to a member of his team but I think he showed a lack of respect to the jersey.”
Meh – I’ve seen yellow jersey wearers at the Tour keep tempo on the front of the peloton and drop back to get bidons from the team car before, knowing that their time will soon be up. Brambilla knows that having the jersey is a great thing but he’s also a pro with a job to do. “Respecting the jersey” came up when Sagan wasn’t shaving his legs, and I said back then that he doesn’t “owe” the jersey anything – he earned it and does what he does, however he likes. Same with Brambilla.
‘Can we now add Landa to the ” Oh, but if he didn’t have to work for the evil X, he’d be winning the race” list of pipe dreams…’ – not yet, I’d say. Landa looked like the second best rider in least year’s Giro, his TT was a massive improvement this year and he’s still young. If you’ve got gastric problems then what can you do? He didn’t show that he could or couldn’t do it this year.
I thought Brambilla’s teamwork was fantastic. He clearly thought that he couldn’t keep pink himself so he worked for Jungels. Without his work would Amador have been pulled back? We and he will never know.
“not yet, I’d say. Landa looked like the second best rider in least year’s Giro, his TT was a massive improvement this year and he’s still young. If you’ve got gastric problems then what can you do? He didn’t show that he could or couldn’t do it this year.”
Nailed it.
Agreed. What I’m worried about is that Landa might have become physically more fragile, as it tends to happen to several riders within Sky.
However, there’s no pattern, here, besides a spring of mixed health woes and this single episode. Better said, any pattern would be team-related, can not be rider-related in such a short period, hence to decide if he really was affected or not, we should wait for more occurences.
Probably, I’m more negatively impressed by the accident than what I should be because I’m a big Landa fan, while not being among Sky’s greates fans 😉 … I had sort of a foreboding when I saw a thinned-down Mikel in Trentino, and the fact that, if I remember well, he never had quit a GT before (he’s raced some six of them, Giros and Vueltas), not even when he was really young, also affects my judgement – rationally, I guess he’d have to withdraw from one, sooner or later!
I disagree with the disrespect to the jersey comment. To me he showed great respect to it by realising he’d lose it but but being determined to keep it in the team. That showed how valued it was to him.
But you’re right, the racing has been great and I’m jealous that I won’t be seeing any actually there.
I thought it was a great move by Brambilla. He couldn’t hang on on the Piano di Falco climb so it wasn’t that weird to assume he would lose the jersey anyway. Better to make sure you lose it to a team mate than to see Amador ride away with it. He also did a smart pay-it-forward, and assured himself of team support for his next big goal, whatever that is.
Brambilla said that he felt that there was no option for him to fight for the jersey, he’d lose it anyway on the last climb. Hence he decided to make it easier for his teammate to keep the maglia rosa within the team. No desrespect here, IMHO. When you’re a pro, you tend to know where your limits are, more or less, and when you’re sure that you’re finished, no grit will help you to stay with the best.
I’d add that Brambilla showed how much he cared about the jersey during the ITT, he threw in a huge effort and took great risks just for the sake of that *really* feeble chance of keeping the maglia rosa. And taking risks on wet descents means you might hurt yourself quite badly.
My point wasn’t whether handing the jersey to a teammate was better than to a rival, it was the WAY he did it – the “swinging off like a gregario whose work is done” that bothered me. Respect for the jersey means fighting your way to the finish (even if you used some energy helping your teammate end up in a position to take it once you’ve lost it) trying to keep it – rather than just giving it away with that hard right turn out of the group and more-or-less throwing-in-the-towel.
I partly agree, still you should take into account the fact that such *swinging* isn’t done just for the TVs, but also for the fellow riders, like in… “guys, I’m out, I won’t stay in the middle, and I can’t help anymore whoever needs help plus, well, if you want to have a chance, just don’t take my wheel”.
Precisely the fact of being in pink might foster that kind of misunderstanding among other colleagues – not necessarily teammates – who are on their limit and could perhaps think that you’re a good wheel to create a little second-line group, while you’re really exhausted and you’d simply “fare il buco” (leaving a gap which forces those who follow to jump… which isn’t feasible when you’re already on your limit).
There’s an implied component of peloton-etiquette, here (besides, as I said, the obvious TV showing, that goes like “look, I really sacrificed myself, I’m an unselfish hero etc.”).
Yet Brambilla made it to the top within 70 seconds of the group he’d been towing. That’s hardly giving up.
Why does that bother you so much?
He obviously didn’t throw in the towel. He worked damn hard to ‘respect the jersey’ and the race and his team. And you know that and acknowledge it.
So why write that he threw in the towel?
Why does what it looked like to you matter more than what it was?
You’ve got to love the Giro, there never seems to be just a simple stage and a lot involve some sort of dicey descent near the finish. That rarely happens at the tour, apart from the occasional finish into Gap, and never at the ’21 uphill finishes’ Vuelta. It makes for exciting racing every day.
Today I’d like to see a shoot out between Colbrelli, Ulissi, Trentin and Battaglin! They all have a fair chance but a breakaway might steal it.
I too wasn’t keen on Brambilla doing the chasing and then peeling off. That’s not a job for pink. They should have left it to Astana.
Don’t look at tomorrow’s stage profile, Richard.
Ha, you can excuse the odd one!
“Heavy rains might take care of that, eh eh eh eh” (evil snigger by the sadic fans).
Jokes apart (well, it’s true that it may rain a lot tomorrow), I think that the odd easy stage is useful for the general balance of the race: GC guys might become a little more brave in the previous stage(s) knowing that they’ve got a chance to recover afterwards, and weaker riders with the potential to be attackers can try something in the following stage(s) since they aren’t completely worn out.
What I really don’t like is an excess of easy stages during the first week, but in the second and third week one well-place easy stage can really add a pinch of spice to the rest.
“they should have left it to Astana” with all due respect, but…
With Brambilla beeing dropped on the second last hill and Jungels feeling strong Team Etixx had two options:
a) possibly putting another rider in rosa (for a couple of days),
b) likely risk loosing the jersey (as nobody was really pulling except Jungles and Brambilla)
What would your decision as a team captain be?
Astana? They did not look too keen on getting the jersey, its just a burden for the next few days for them.
Agreed it might have looked strange, when the maglia rosa dropped to the side like a used up domestique, but as mentioned already in my opinion nobody “owes” the jersey anything,. Not at that stage of the race, when there is more to gain for the team as a whole and the risk/reward ratio is as outlined above.
And certainly this has been seen lot’s of times before. (as in Rohan Denis “sacrificing” the yellow jersey last year in the tour).
Interesting to see INRNG’s take on this as for sure he is able to come up with a lot more examples of: The “honour and respect of the jersey” versus “unselfish-sacrifice for a bigger goal”
ps: Trentin with one ring…? I dont see him doing anything as long as his team has rosa.
Is it just me or has there been a lower number of bunch crashes this year? A very welcome development if so
I noticed it too but think the weather has been much kinder, only really chucked it down on the TT whereas 14/15 races had really wet first weeks as I recall.
I think, since Landa is out, Sky is gonna make a move today.. Maybe Roche? A hilly tricky final suits him well?
I was thinking the same but they’ll probably save Roche for a harder stage in the mountains.
Philip Deignan is a possibility.
Sky will win a stage. They always come back strongly when they lose their leader in the Giro – of which they have too much experience. It’s the meeting of two opposites, the most unpredictable of Grand Tours versus the team that tries most to make everything predictable. Perhaps they need to change their game plan and aim at NOT winning the Giro next time round. They will then keep their leader until Stage 22 when he will be in pink.
🙂
A Liège-like move!… indeed it paid great dividends there!
A real pity that Landa’s out. He was potentially an interesting rider to look at in the mountains and he made a good ITT, leaving him in good position overall.
In general terms, I find this Giro a not so interesting as last year’s.
On the whole, last year’s Giro was probably one of the two or three best GTs of the last decade, and beyond any doubt the best Giro since 2010. Quite hard to match.
That said, I’m rather happy with the fight being on in all the hilly stages so far (something which didn’t happen in 2014, for example), and with the action getting going some 20-30 kms before the finish line. Final GC men showing up often on the front during the first week isn’t that common, either.
And the ITT was very good, I enjoyed the whole last hour and half – something which you can’t take for granted in many races.
All in all, we’ve got a 50% of pretty exciting stages, with at least 40′-50′ of adrenaline each. Personally, I considered really dull just the two Dutch sprint stages (both Greipel’s victories were quite good, and the first stage at least created some difference in GC).
I know it might be a bit early with
that saddle sore, but maybe Dumoulin will feel the urge to get on the pedals and attack that steep penultimate climb?
Well, that’s answered my question pretty conclusively!
Re Etixx and Pink yesterday: Better to see a team really laying it on the line, racing to keep the jersey than to see another outfit that is indifferent about having the jersey for now. And better to see a bit of improvisation from a man not hidebound by being in pink than to watch nothing more than formation riding.
It would have been interesting to see Mikel Landa approached the next part of the race, heading into the weekend and next week in the mountains. On program or racing his own way, if he thought he needed to. Hopefully the Irio-Basque fellas will get to together and just roll their sleeves up and ride with a Banshee on the shoulder, Nico, Phil D and Nieve are all capable of ripping it up, on the Cima Coppi stage
Some have suggested that Landa’s inestinal problems were due to the barbecue Sky tweeted about on the rest day. Doesn’t seem like a far-fetched explanation, bbq’s are a notorious cause of food poisoning.
Sorry, see below.
Linda probably picked a virus up from the peloton.
Sky, eggs, basket. And before anyone mentions G’s chances in the tour I think he’s at least a year away from being a genuine contender.
It makes good reading, but most food-borne organisms have a longer incubation period than that.
It all depends upon how much is ingested. It’s quite common to be sick within 6 hours after receiving food poisoning. Either way, Landa’s attacks in week 3 will be missed.
It depends on the virulency of the organism.
Landa’s salary bigger than an entire Pro-Conti budget? Really? Say he’s on 1.5m a year. They have a smaller budget?
Landa is reportedly on €1.2 million. Since writing the piece a good source has been on to say Bardiani-CSF’s budget is just over €2 million. So it’s more Landa + Roche or Nieve would equal the whole green team.
sorry to be a terrible pendant, but polenta is not made from wheat…. (hides)
The word “corn” seemed to vanish above 😉
Don’t worry, very soon it would have been impossible for me to further resist the pedantemptation and I’d have written right the same 😛
Sky ride for the Tour and nothing else. I always get the impression the classics, Giro and Vuelta squads are simply formed of left over riders.
Add to that a lack of coherent plan as a result of being the left over races and you get a consistently poor showing, with the GC men consistently failing. Especially in the Giro.
Sour grapes.
They tried and tried as hard as they could in the Classics, same for the Vuelta.
And it’s happening more and more for the Giro, too.
If one looks at the efforts they made in very lesser stage races, too, the fact that they “only care about the Tour” makes little sense.
What’s true is that they’re ready to spoil options for the Classics if they see a little chance towards the Tour, there (I’m thinking of Thomas). But this doesn’t mean that they generally don’t try hard in the other races (if we’re speaking of this Giro’s roster, I could suggest a comparison between, dunno, BMC’s Giro’s team and Sky’s 😉 … but even Astana didn’t send its more stellar line-up).
The problem with cycling – and it’s beauty – is that it’s highly complex and diverse. Being able to triumph in different contexts is a skill in itself. No doubt that Sky’s wagons of money will bring them nearer to obtaining such a skill, yet for now they’re really struggling to get the point.
The comparison with BMC is a valid one. But my issue is with the way Shy hoover up talent e.g. Porte, Uran, Landa, Konig, Henao (senior), Roche, Intxausti, ect and fail to give them the same support in the Vuelta and Giro as Froome and previously Wiggins in the tour.
I agree about the fact that they’re failing to provide due support, but I suspect that’s because we’re speaking of a different kind of race, which means that you also need different strategies and a different kind of protection for your leader (we had a perfect example of failing in doing that with Porte last year).
Moreover, you shouldn’t mix up leaders and gregari. The likes of Urán, Roche, König, Henao happened to be starting the Giro as gregari, not as leaders… which mean that they were supergregari who were thought to be assuring a great support for that year’s leader. You name them as talents, and they are, indeed, but they were in the race to support someone else! Which implies that Sky wasn’t exactly sending in Italy any leftover. The fact that, once the captain was out, the team wasn’t able to perform according to the talent they had on the road, also depends on the fact that Sky (but this is more general and probably partly unavoidable) manages a different preparation and race style for the leader and for the domestiques.
If we give a look to the 2013 Giro’s line-up for Wiggins, we can observe that he had top riders like Sergio Henao, Urán and Cataldo (who’d been the captain the following year!!!) to support him, far from being leftovers, along with riders who had already been part of the 2012 Tour line-up like Knees or Siutsou – don’t think they became leftovers in nine months. Pate and Zandio are very affordable men for the flat stages, the only “weak” rider was the young Puccio.
And I could go on…
And even then, Puccio helped Sky win the TTT and held the Maglia Rosa for a stage.
errr… I have to agree with Gabriele here… so just this year they have won 5 stage races already, and quite a few 1 dayers including a monument. Even at the Vuelta they’ve had quite a few podiums at recent years. Their team this year could have included Inxausti, Konig, Henao but for injury/illness/suspension. Landa got signed for big bucks to have a crack at leading in the Giro… Lopez/Nieve/Knees/Roche hardly represent an average B team…
Sky prioritise the Tour, like every team does, but nothing else?
Sky showed absolutely nothing in this Giro so far. They ride in the peloton like a B-team, sorry.