It’s Grand Tour Season! Giro d’Italia thread

The are some spikes in the elevations. Don’t get excited, they’re bridges

When I lived in Shoeburyness it was an utterly flat ride below sea level to work on Foulness with the exception of one bridge. On some days I could be crawling up the bridge in a 26,28 gear or I could be flying up it at 25 without trying. If there was a day without wind it felt very very strange. Sometimes you had a head wind or a tail wind both ways. Best days were when you could pick up a lift behind one of the big tractors and sit right on it and barely pedal.

Is there any news of whether the full Stelvio climb will be used?

I’d heard there were concerns about avalanches and they were considering shortening the stage

Is there any news of whether the full Stelvio climb will be used?

Inrng has updated their website with the stage to be used tomorrow. They’re not using Stelvio at all. Originally the plan was to go over it from Bormio, they then changed the plan to climb about 3/4 of Stelvio and then turn left, pass into Switzerland and descend the Umbrail Pass but that’s now changed again to omit Stelvio altogether.

I climbed Umbrail a few years ago. KOM on it was 45 mins, done at the end of a monster Giro stage of 220km with about 5000m climbing. My time up it was 90 mins and I needed to stop 3 times for gels and to dunk my base layer in a mountain stream cos it was absolutely baking hot.

They are doing the Mortirolo though but from the easier side. I remember hearing an Aussie ride leader in Bormio briefing his Aussie group on their ride that day (imagine this in an Aussie accent…)

“OK guys, today we’re gonna ride the Morti-rollo. It’s **** hard. Morti is Italian for death – cos you could **** DIE on this one! OK, we all good? Let’s roll!”

As rider briefings went, I felt it left a bit to be desired…

Rouleur magazine have a preview of tomorrow’s stage too. They’ve got the date wrong (showing as 15th but they mean 19th, maybe they’ve got it confused with the actual stage number (15) )

https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/giro-ditalia-2024-stage-15-preview

Inrng have the day’s preview up:

Giro Stage 15 Preview

Looks like the weather might be quite changeable at times…

220km+ distance

5000m+ climbing

I can’t even fathom those numbers on a bike. 🤯

I can’t even fathom those numbers on a bike. 🤯

I can fathom the numbers, it’s the fact that it only takes them about 6hrs that is absolutely mind-blowing.
That’d be an all-day ride for me, like 7am start to finish before dark. And I’d need a lot of cafe stops.

I’ll be honest, apart from the scenery, today hasn’t been up to much. And now with 15km to go, Pogacar has done his predictable launch and buggered off up the mountain.

It’s kind of like having a Premier League footballer turn up to the pub 5-a-side or having a PhD student take an 11+ exam. They’re just so much better than everyone else, it kind of ruins the whole thing.

Boom!

Arensman, got out of the saddle and went **** that!

I’ve ridden these roads. Not at this speed but it’s a cracking descent into Livigno. There’s a bike park up there as well. Had loads of e-MTBers cruising past me on the climb as they headed up there. 😂

Catchy catchy or no?

catch  

caught

Boom!

that was a brute of a climb!

I really, really, really want to believe but….

I really, really, really want to believe but….

I know – even Armstrong had the decency to look thoroughly **** on stages like that!

On the other hand, Pogacar is beatable. By Vingegaard at the Tour for one. I think the “problem” at the moment is there’s maybe 6 guys in men’s WorldTour who are head and shoulders above everybody else. MvdP, WvA, Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel…

And when only one of them is there, it’s kind of like the Premier League football analogy I made earlier.

So, what do we think? Is this Pogačar fella in with a shot here or what?

I don’t know how he does it. I’m sure he is passing all the anti doping test but to be that much better makes me suspicious. A sad state of affairs

Someone flagged his ride on Strava!

It got quickly reinstated but I can just imagine the former KOM holders on dozens of segments getting the uh-oh email and finding themselves out of the top 50 and with a completely unattainable new KOM time! 😂

A sad state of affairs

I agree. Part of me thinks that this generation aren’t like the riders of decades past, but part of me also understands that if teams think they can get an advantage, they’ll use it, and for all the clean riders there’s still exemption certificates and “vitamin injections”

 I think the “problem” at the moment is there’s maybe 6 guys in men’s WorldTour who are head and shoulders above everybody else. MvdP, WvA, Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel…

The difficulty is in explaining the size of the gap.

It’s not something I worry about too much, I’m enjoying the spectacle, but I’m not sure if I’m witnessing some of the greatest athletes of all time, or one of the biggest doping scandals…

When Sagan was in his prime, he was considered one of a kind, a once in a generation talent. He was still famed for coming second in most races because he was a marked man and winning is hard.

These guys are riding everyone off their wheel with ease. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like what Pogacar is doing in the modern era. Maybe my memory is hazy but even the likes of Armstrong and Pantani don’t come close. There’s been a complete change in the past couple of years and I think there’s some good healthy discussion to be had as to why.

The difficulty is in explaining the size of the gap.

in G’s case he said he was on a “bad” day before the attack and didn’t even consider following when Pog went. And it got cagey behind.

At this point, I’m almost looking forward to the doping scandal, just to find out what sort of Super-Soldier Serum they’re feeding these guys. In the meantime, the possibility isn’t detracting from the spectacle for me, although it’s much better in races where there’s another competitor on Pog’s level.

220km+ distance

5000m+ climbing

That’d be an all-day ride for me

That’s about a month’s worth for me

On a side note…

Saw last week’s stage up to Prati di Tivo live.

The GF was wondering why lots of people were talking about focaccia.

The GF was wondering why lots of people were talking about focaccia.

Pop her in front of Eurosport commentary and she’ll soon find the Kelly pronunciation: POGger-charr

Plenty of speculation over at The Clinic. Pog can only beat who turns up, and the most pertinent comment is probably that the Giro attracts a second-rate field compared with the Tour and there is therefore no real competition.

Or he could just have an e-bike 😀

Is anyone else playing the “What shoes is Orla wearing today game?”. It’s all be a bit restrained so far with yesterday’s fringed boots being the most out-there fashion so far.

The difficulty is in explaining the size of the gap.

As mentioned above – no-one was able to go with that attack (bearing in mind it’s at altitude, at the end of a brutal day and Pog is already minute up the standings so realistically it doesn’t matter if he’s 5 minutes up or 10 minutes, up, he’s pretty much got this won already).

Going after him risks blowing instantly, dying a death and watching all your rivals gain minutes on you. GC 2-5 were in that group and it’s all really close between them. Everyone is on “preserve current position” mode now. The fight is no longer with Pog; G is fighting Dani Martinez and Ben O’Connor for 2/3/4, there’s a further battle for 5/6/7 who are all really close (plus Arensman and Tiberi are in their own little fight for the White Jersey, only a few seconds in that one)

So everyone got really cagey, everyone was already on the limit anyway and meanwhile Pogacar could just ride away and do his own thing – that’s why the gap opened so quickly and by so much.

even Rafal Majka got back on the group of chasers at one stage as they were fannying about and only lost  ~45s on G by the finish.

That’d be an all-day ride for me

That’s about a month’s worth for me

I’ll join in your grupetto.

Pog can only beat who turns up, and the most pertinent comment is probably that the Giro attracts a second-rate field compared with the Tour.

A bit of an unfair comment on the other riders but by that logic there are probably only 2 or 3 “first rate” riders.

I was wondering whether G has one eye on the Tour, Jonas may not be fully fit, Pog maybe cooked, Primoz will crash, Remco has a habit of going bang in the high mountains, so if he’s there or there about he can steal it on the final ITT stage into Nice

The difficulty is in explaining the size of the gap.

As mentioned above – no-one was able to go with that attack

I was referring to the perfomance gap between the top few riders (Pogacar, Vingegaard, MVdP, etc) and everybody else. Pogacar has done this consistently in every race he’s ridden recently, attacking from any obscene distance he chooses and with success each time.

It’s just as questionable how Vingegaard was able to win the Tour by 7 mins.

Prior to these guys, these kinds of performances weren’t considered to be possible. In fact they were considered less possible over time as training, nutrition and technology became more finely tuned and aligned. Yet there’s been a massive shift towards superhuman performances at the front of the race. However you explain it, the question why fascinates me.

Looks like the local were having fun at Livigno – I don’t recall seeing this on the video feed

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7L16OEsp6_/?ig_rid=1ead1d2b-aae7-4a6a-aa34-986171c7e2f8

Edit – you can see the kicker as he passes under the flamme rouge at 06:55:37, but the skiiers must have jumped after the camera bike passed – no bad thing if anything had gone wrong!

there are probably only 2 or 3 “first rate” riders

A few more (and discipline dependent; e.g., Ganna). But not a lot. G is not one of them. Second place yesterday won the Giro ten years ago.

“ Is anyone else playing the “What shoes is Orla wearing today game?”.”

Just no.

She is so awful we don’t turn on until they switch to the live commentary and turn off immediately when they hand back to her cackling in the studio.

I’ll take Orla over Sean Kelly and / or Carlton  Kirby any day. I like her

It’s just as questionable how Vingegaard was able to win the Tour by 7 mins.

Prior to these guys, these kinds of performances weren’t considered to be possible

Mercx won the Tour by over quarter of an hour once and destroyed other riders in tts, single day classics and tours. Anquetil won the Tour by quarter of an hour also. If anything Pog is less spectacular as Mercx raced a lot more.

Luckily Carlton is not on the Giro!!

On the other hand, Pogacar is beatable. By Vingegaard at the Tour for one.

Vingegaard can only beat Pogacar in very specific scenarios IMO. I don’t see him as generally being on the same level.