Spectating Tips For A Grand Tour

grand tour bike race spectating

It’s great to follow a stage race on TV and the web but the race belongs to the roadside crowds more than any remote audience. Watching the race from the side of the road is the best vantage point possible because if offers more than a visual spectacle, you can hear and smell the race too.

But it’s easy to make a few mistakes. Just as racers need info and plans on a mountain stage, spectators can gain from preparing too. Here are some tips for a day spent watching a grand tour, especially for a day out in the mountains.

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Giro Stage 19 Preview

A late change because of the weather sees less climbing and a small increase in distance but for all the alterations this is still a brutal mountain stage and the Giro cannot alter the weather.

The start and final summit remain but what if the biggest difficulty of the day was the bad weather?

  • Update: today’s stage is cancelled. As suggested below a change of route was one thing but the race can’t avoid the cold weather. Riders will be cheering the extra rest day but will still have to work and go for a ride. The forecast for tomorrow looks better but the stage is far from certain.

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Giro Stage 18 Preview

An uphill time trial but one that’s not strictly mountainous as it features wide roads with a regular gradient and fresh tarmac.

Indeed today’s course offers the kind of certainty and mild weather that Giro organisers RCS crave ahead of the big mountain stages on Friday and Saturday which are threatened by poor weather.

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Who Sets The Rules: MPCC vs UCI?

Who runs cycling? Ag2r La Mondiale will sit out the Critérium du Dauphiné in accordance with the MPCC rules which state a team must stop racing for eight days following two positive anti-doping controls in the past 12 months. But the UCI rules say a team has to ride every race on the World Tour calendar and a substantial six-figure fine could be liable.

But there’s no need for an oppositional tone, the MPCC has proposed ideas which the UCI has readily adopted. Perhaps it’s time to do the same?

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Giro Stage 17 Preview

Giro Stage 17 Vicenza

A day for the sprinters? Well the more you look, the less likely it seems. The profile shows a mischievous climb 16km from the finish but the secret lies in the narrow roads.

The race visits Vicenza to salute Tulio Campagnolo, the inventor of the quick-release lever and perfecter of the derailleur. Riders today will need to master more than their gear shifting to cope with the final climb.

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Book Review: Maglia Rosa

Maglia Rosa book by Herbie Sykes

Maglia Rosa, triumph and tragedy at the Giro d’Italia by Herbie Sykes

Another history book? No, this is much more. It’s a collection of stories from the Giro and Italy that goes beyond a sepia-tinged list of past race incidents, names and nostalgia. The second-edition version is also updated with commentary on the sport that looks at how the Giro is trying to find its place in the sport.

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Giro Stage 16 Preview

The final week of the Giro begins as it will finish: climbing in the Alps. But the stage is dominated by a long valley section before a tricky final spike that should be just enough to thwart the sprinters before a finish in Ivrea.

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Roy De La Montagne, Part II

FDJ

With the Giro rest day in the ski resort of Valloire, a report from Saint-Jean de Maurienne, a town just down in the valley below that was recently host to the FDJ team’s mountain training camp.

After a few days training with Thibaut Pinot and Alex Geniez, Jérémy Roy is joined by many more of his FDJ team mates for a bigger mountain training camp. As he explains it’s easy to avoid seeing many of your team mates during the year and this is a chance to meet up. But it’s not a social occasion, it’s a chance to recce more Tour de France stages, practice team time riding and more, all whilst trying to avoid the threat of rain in the high mountains.

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Sunday Shorts

Mauro Santambrogio

Bad weather – How Froome’s Knigh-mare scenario in July – McQuaid’s Swiss role – UCI deny Verbruggen’s “never, never, never” quote – Tour du Farce – Chamorro, another Colombian to remember – California Coverage

The 2013 Giro’s official song Mezza Estate (“midsummer”) is feeling like a cruel joke with snowploughs working overtime to keep the roads open. Why is it raining so much in the Giro? Is Mother Nature punishing RCS for moving the “Race of the Falling Leaves” to September, ruining Il Lombardia’s autumnal feel? Maybe it’s all in the name, the Giro’s boss is Michele Acqua-rone after all.

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Giro Stage 15 Preview

At 149km Stage 15 was always going to be a short stage. Now it will try to climb the Galibier but will stop short of the top of the pass because of the bad weather. Instead the finish will be near the Granges du Galibier, a collection of a couple of rough looking barns and also home to a small tribute to the late Marco Pantani.

Tectonic forces have combined with rain, snow and ice to make the Alps what they are today. These forces continue to sculpt the landscape. It’s what makes racing or riding in the Alps so attractive. Only nature is always bigger than a race, even the Giro. If snow and ice block the road, so be it. We can’t have these mountains without the forces of nature. Perhaps opting for the Galibier in mid-May was a gamble but it’s worth a try.

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