Due to Popular Demand: 2013 Giro Thread

[funk44]

Thread title should be 2013 Grand Tour Discussion (so i can talk about the Giro more)

meanwhile the Italians have got it right again

Lazy 20k ITT with a 10% ramp

Hope Contador rides the Giro, would be great to see him go head to head with Wiggo up some serious mountains. Also because Wiggins is riding the Giro will that mean that UK Postal will bring their 'A' team there?

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Which race their Colombians focus on will be fascinating. The Tour has the longer TTT, so that would point to Rogers and Porte targeting July, IMO. Some guys will probably double up, but it is a risk for them disappearing in the Tour.

 

[alfy!]

Thread title should be 2013 Grand Tour Discussion (so i can talk about the Giro more)

Make a separate Giro thread, I'd be keen.

 

[monty1104]

Thread title should be 2013 Grand Tour Discussion (so i can talk about the Giro more)

meanwhile the Italians have got it right again

Lazy 20k ITT with a 10% ramp

Hope Contador rides the Giro, would be great to see him go head to head with Wiggo up some serious mountains. Also because Wiggins is riding the Giro will that mean that UK Postal will bring their 'A' team there?

Gotta love mountain ITT's! Contador to win the day, assuming he rides.

 

[funk44]

Gotta love mountain ITT's! Contador to win the day, assuming he rides.

he might need another steak to be on par with the uk postal boys

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

I can't see Contador riding the Giro, the 100th Tour is for him. Out of the big names, Wiggins, Nibali and Hesjedal appear locks. Purito is an interesting one, the 50k ITT should wipe him out for GC, but surely he will be aiming for the Vuelta, so will probably ride the Giro anyway. Evans should ride the Giro but won't. I am also expecting a Vuelta-standard sprint line-up. There are plenty of Classics-type stages for guys like Gilbert and Sagan, but they may choose to rest or go to California following the Classics season.

 

[alfy!]

Is there any wrap up of the stages for the Giro (number of mountain top finishes, etc.)?

Also has the Vuelta route been announced?

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

All of the stage profiles are up on Steephill.

Vuelta is not out yet, and probably won't be until the start of next year.

 

[monty1104]

I can't see Contador riding the Giro, the 100th Tour is for him. Out of the big names, Wiggins, Nibali and Hesjedal appear locks. Purito is an interesting one, the 50k ITT should wipe him out for GC, but surely he will be aiming for the Vuelta, so will probably ride the Giro anyway. Evans should ride the Giro but won't. I am also expecting a Vuelta-standard sprint line-up. There are plenty of Classics-type stages for guys like Gilbert and Sagan, but they may choose to rest or go to California following the Classics season.

Will be interested to see who rides the Giro for Astana. They have basically said they will god for the wi in the Giro with Nibali because the Tour will be too hard. Giuseppe Martinelli then goes on to say that he expects both Brajkovic and Fuglsang to ride the Tour to give them "a one-two punch". That doesn't leave much of a team to back Nibali, assuming the other 2 guys wont back up. If I were Astana I'd be backing Nibali as much as possible for the Giro and then going for stage wins in the Tour instead of spreading their troops too thin, because TBH, they don't have much GC quality unless they sign someone new, especially after the departures of Vinokourov, Kiserlovski and Kreuziger.

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

I suspect that Fuglsang would have gone to Astana with a list of demands. IMO one of those guys will double up and ride both, plus Nibali brought a couple of Liquigas guys with him. Tiralongo is a good domestique, as he showed for Contador in the Vuelta, and they aren't even on the same team! Kessiakoff is there as well and will be good for the TTT.

But really, we all know that Vino will be instructing him on how to ride alone, as he did in his T-Mobile days.

 

[monty1104]

I suspect that Fuglsang would have gone to Astana with a list of demands. IMO one of those guys will double up and ride both, plus Nibali brought a couple of Liquigas guys with him. Tiralongo is a good domestique, as he showed for Contador in the Vuelta, and they aren't even on the same team! Kessiakoff is there as well and will be good for the TTT.

But really, we all know that Vino will be instructing him on how to ride alone, as he did in his T-Mobile days.

Yes, assuming one does double up, but which one will it be? I would say it would be Fuglsang, but will he want to play domestique to both Nibali and Brajkovic? Only reason I say Fuglsang is because Martinelli has identified Brajkovic as "team captain", and as such, in this stage of his career, would not take well to domestique duties. Nor would Martinelli relegate him to such duties after designating him as team captain.

I know captains are often domestiques (as in the case of Hincapie, O'Grady and Voigt), but I'd think at Brajkovic's age, he would not like being relegated to domestique. I guess time will tell.

Also, of the riders that came from Liquigas, only Valerio Agnoli will provide Nibali any help. Still a line up of Nibali, Agnoli, Kessiakoff, Fuglsang/Brajkovic and Tiralongo looks pretty good, although there are a lot of egos to fit in there, i.e. they are all guys who would be looking for a stage win most of the time, rather than being domestiques.

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Contador is strongly considering having another crack at the Giro-Tour double. Would be epic if he were to hold all three GTs at once, an Alberto Slam!

Samu is also coming to Italy this year. Cyclingnews are speculating that Nieve will lead the orange in France and Anton in Spain.

 

[Vader]

Contador is strongly considering having another crack at the Giro-Tour double. Would be epic if he were to hold all three GTs at once, an Alberto Slam!

Samu is also coming to Italy this year. Cyclingnews are speculating that Nieve will lead the orange in France and Anton in Spain.

If so, then congratulations need to go to the Giro organisers. Apologies for not being able to name names - I'm sure someone will fill in the gaps for me.

The Giro organisers up until 2011 were focussed on making a name for the Giro. To this end, they made it more and more difficult every year, in an attempt to differentiate it from the Tour. In the process they made it more and more like the Vuelta (which has the same obsession), but that's neither here nor there, as neither the Giro and the Vuelta are concerned about each other - they're only concerned with how they measure up against Le Tour.

They succeeded in making a name for the Giro, but in doing so they lost the key riders. They made the Giro so damn difficult that it became impossible to complete (let alone be competitive in), while remaining physically competitive for the Tour. The riders were just so shattered from competing the Giro that they had nothing left in the tank when Le Tour came round two months later. As a result, all of the best riders abandoned the Giro, preferring to do the Tour alone, or (maybe) the Giro/Vuelta double.

This created a new problem for the Giro organisers. How is it possible to have a Grand Tour without the best riders? Back to the drawing board they went.

The decision was made to replace the Giro organisers with a new team, starting with the 2012 Giro.

The 2012 Giro was noticeably easier than the 2011 edition, which was downright dangerous in certain parts (or would have been if that particular section hadn't been excised from the route at the last minute). The best riders didn't turn up - but they were watching to see what would happen.

Doing the Giro/Tour double is always going to be tough - at the end of the day, both tours are 3000km (or so) of racing, over 3 weeks, with just 2 months to recover in between. 2013 could possibly see both Wiggins & Contador attempting the Giro/Tour double. For the Giro organisers, that would definitely represent "mission accomplished".

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Contador won't be riding the Giro. It is a shame, but it is not surprising.

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Cadel is in. Hesjedal, Wiggo, Nibali, Cadel and Samu looks like the big GC battle.

 

[Freakie]

not sure about Cadel this year, his current form isn't overly inspiring

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

He has been crap since Oman, needs a good Giro to demand the Tour leadership at BMC.

 

[dart]

good run down of all the stages, what an epic route (so much more so than this year's tour)



i'm not ashamed to admit i watched the whole thing

anyone know what SBS's coverage will be like this year?

 

[funk44]

looks a beauty after last years toned down route (compared to the insane 2011 course), le tour route pales in comparison

wouter weylandt rip

 

[chargers 09]

Nibali the early favourite?

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Nah, he will do well to be within 3 minutes of Wiggo after the stage 8 ITT and I think that will leave him with too much to do. Hesjedal finally showed some form in Liege-Bastogne-Liege as well, and Cadel will be up there.

 

[dart]

SBS Coverage:

Giro d'Italia live* stages
Stage 8 - 11:05 pm AEST Saturday, 11 May SBS 2
Stage 9 - 10:45 pm AEST Sunday, 12 May SBS 2
Stage 14 - 11:00 pm AEST Saturday, 18 May SBS 2
Stage 15 - 10:45 pm AEST Sunday, 19 May SBS 2
Stage 18 - 11:05 pm AEST Thursday, 23 May SBS 2
Stage 19 - 11:10 pm AEST Friday, 24 May SBS 2
Stage 20 - 11:00 pm AEST Saturday, 25 May SBS 2
Stage 21 - 10:50 pm AESTSunday, 26 May SBS 2

Daily highlights, 6pm SBS 2 from Sunday 5 May.


*denotes live to the eastern states, predict 2 hour delay for WA/SA where instead of live Giro d'Italia they will have 4 channels showing some documentary about how shoes were made in the middle ages.

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Sky have announced their line-up, and the Colombians along with Cataldo will be leading Wiggo through the Dolomites.

* me I hope Nibali goes beserk, can't handle back to back Sky GT wins.

 

[funk44]

cant wait

 

[alfy!]

So close, this is going to be great.

Stage 4, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20 and that ITT mentioned above all look absolutely epic. So many mountain top finishes, this is a brute of a race.