37.4 km per hour

Unknown · May 2007

is my calculation of the Giro's average speed this year- slower than Basso's win of 38.5km per hour in 06, slightly slower than Savoldelli's 05 Giro of at 37.8km. My hunch is we are seeing the shortest and slowest Giro in 15 years

2005 Savoldelli- 37.8km per hr

2000 37.54 km per hour

1997 Gotti-38.04 km per hour

1991 37.03km per hr

1988- Hampsten 36.788 km per hour

________Our behaviour is a function of our experience.

sylvanus · May 2007

That would be very interesting and very encouraging if it is the case. I have to say my doubts about Di Luca become less solid after reading his and Simoni's recent comments on the race. Plainly Simoni knew there was something weird happening last year and said so. This year he's quiet. Even so there is still no test for transfusions or HGH so riders would need to be very, very strong-minded not to use them when desperate. Do we really believe mass honesty has broken out?

Max Weber · May 2007

I'm sure I heard some discussion about this year's Giro being hillier than some in the past, principally to suit the Italian climbers. Could this be a reason for the slower speeds?

Unknown · May 2007

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by sylvanus

That would be very interesting and very encouraging if it is the case. I have to say my doubts about Di Luca become less solid after reading his and Simoni's recent comments on the race. Plainly Simoni knew there was something weird happening last year and said so. This year he's quiet. Even so there is still no test for transfusions or HGH so riders would need to be very, very strong-minded not to use them when desperate. Do we really believe mass honesty has broken out?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

The Giro has yet to finish but I am willing to bet it wll drop below 37km per hour average if the Zoncolan stage goes ahead and the final stage goes as in other years. Is there a clear trend in the average speeds since 1988? Along the lines of EPO use increasing by 97, then the decline of that and blood transfusions coming back into fashion the years up to 2006 around the time Fuentes was helping?

________Our behaviour is a function of our experience.

sylvanus · May 2007

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The average speed of the stage was 33.940 km/h. In total, it makes an average of 37.075 km/h for the Giro thus far<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

According to cyclingnews:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... /may30news

So your almost spot on Dave_1 - Well done!

Unknown · May 2007

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by sylvanus

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The average speed of the stage was 33.940 km/h. In total, it makes an average of 37.075 km/h for the Giro thus far<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

According to cyclingnews:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... /may30news

So your almost spot on Dave_1 - Well done!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I excluded yetreday's stage because there was a go slow by the looks of it, weather related,

________Our behaviour is a function of our experience.

Unknown · May 2007

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Max Weber

I'm sure I heard some discussion about this year's Giro being hillier than some in the past, principally to suit the Italian climbers. Could this be a reason for the slower speeds?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I think this year's route is fairly balanced, especially when compared to last years route and the insanely hard final week.

The Giro generally has more mountain stages and less time trial kilometes, i.e. they are shorter, than the Tour so it usually favours riders who can climb and defend a lead in a time trial.

Max Weber · May 2007

I think it was Sean Kelly who mentioned it being fairly hilly... Harmon was asking him whether he wished he'd been able to ride the Giro more often - Kelly said that obviously he had to ride the Vuelta for the sponsors, but that he would've liked a crack at the Giro in the 80s because then it seemed to be more suited to guys like Moser (and himself) than it has been in the last few years.

vermootencp · May 2007

According to the Procycling supplement - which I haven't go there - there were times in the early-mid 80s when the average speed was what it is now. Of course that was before cyclists took performance-enhancing drugs....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'll do what I can to help y'all. But the game's out there, and it's play or get played. That simple."

DaveyL · May 2007

I don't know if you can take one year as an indication - we'd need give it a couple of years and look for a trend as, after all, it is the trend in the 90s that shows something is going on. E.g. this year's race seems to be about the same average speed as 2000, but no-one will claim the 200 Giro as a clean race, will they?

I'd be interested to see how the GC contenders' VAMs on mountain top finishes (speed of climbing in vertical metres per hour) has varied - that might also give an indication.

37.4 km per hour

Comments

Categories