Blockhaus out of the Giro

micron

http://www.primadanoi.it/modules/bdnews ... ryid=20550

Apparently RAI have decided it's simply not logistically feasible. Fair enough but the week before the race is due to start?

It's looking less and less like a Classic and more and more like a Tour de Farce

teagar

That's such a shame!


That was the stage I was looking forward to the most!

Bronzie

I was looking to fireworks on that stage - 79km from sea-level to 2000m would have been one hell of an interesting stage. :x

micron

First they pull the teeth out of the Queen stage - then the Simeoni debacle - now this. Hope Zomegnan's BF is worth it. Between them they're making a mockery of what, on paper, looked an incredible race. One that will now come down to a single TT.

Yorkman

Are the Dolomite passes open also?

A look on the webcams at Val Gardena & Madonna di Campiglio shows there is tons of fresh snow, and whilst these are not on the route, nevertheless it shows a lot of snow still around.

cougie

Pah.

afx237vi

I'm probably reading it wrong, but doesn't it say that only the final 4km of the stage are being cut?

That's still a stonker of a climb!

donrhummy

Why are they continuing to shrink down the power of the stages?

Appears that RAI forced this change! :shock:
BTW, the google translation is hilarious:

http://translate.google.com/translate?p ... l=it&tl=en

CHIETI. After the last visit of the technical organization of the Giro d'Italia and the director of the Nazarene Balani Rai, happened a few days ago, today the decision of the Patron Angelo Zomegnan move anticipating the arrival of about 4 Km
Not therefore come to the Block Haus cyclists of the Tour of the Centenary, but halt a few meters after the Hotel breast implants, ...

Le Commentateur

The final turn-off to get the tour caravan and spectators off the mountain without having to go down the same way the race came up is in the final few km from the top. Maybe that's it.

DaveyL

micron wrote:

First they pull the teeth out of the Queen stage - then the Simeoni debacle - now this. Hope Zomegnan's BF is worth it. Between them they're making a mockery of what, on paper, looked an incredible race. One that will now come down to a single TT.

Maybe a bit premature in getting the tinfoil hat out?

And that watered down Queen stage is still 260 km with a decent amount of climbing.



Don't worry, the ITT up the side of the leaning tower of Pisa is still on for next year...

blazing_saddles

I've gone through every stage this morning and what have we got, or rather not got?
We have lost the Queen stage.
We don't have a climb worth spit, to hold the Cima Coppi prize.
This will now be at Sestrieres, FFFFFS! :x
Now, we have lost the only major climb, IMO, that was left in the race. it was all about the bit from Pass Lanciarno to the blockhaus. It was the closest thing to Plan de Corones, they could find down there.

We don't have a major Alp and none of the feared Dolomite climbs.

There's not a fierce ramp in the whole of the race.

What we have are two watery MTF's in the first week. Three "lumpy" stages in Central Italy. A Mountaincropped finish and a volcano.

The centanary Giro has been turned into a farce. A time trialists wet dream.
We have a 61kmITT and 100 kms of trialing overall.


Zomegnan's fecked up all along the line; on just about every important issue.

If he wanted to re-visit all the original stage towns, he should have started in Naples.
So obvious, even a child could see it.
Angelo Zomegnan, over the past couple of weeks, has become the Sylvio Berlusconi of the cycling world.

cswebbo

LA/Levi will be pleased with how the route is looking now.

I thought the route was only ammended to help Italians (Moser etc.) ?

LA must be attracting mega euros for the race organisers ?

However, don't underestimate the Vesuvius climb. This could now become the decider.

le_patron

I will lose interest rapidly if this becomes a Leipheimer/LA TT fest. Where's the Zoncolan when you need it ?

Roll on July to get AC involved.

DaveyL

I don't understand all this - wasn't Lance supposed to be a decent climber, as well as TTer, back in the day? And he only finished 3rd in his TT at the Tour of the Gila.

The 62 km TT is also not one which will suit the usual TT specialists, given the amount of climbing it has - or have they flattened that one out as well?

Seems to me like a ready made win-win situation for some folk - if Armstrong or Levi do well, we can all have a pop at the organisers for setting up the route for them. If they don't, we can all hoot at LA and LL cos they couldn't win even when it had been set up for them.

I still think neither of them will be able to match Basso.

Tom Butcher

Really steep mountains don't always make for exciting racing anyway so I'm not too concerned about losing them. The most exciting stages are where riders like (dare I say it) Di Luca can win by being aggressive and taking risks rather than just they all stay together and then the best climber puts several minutes into everyone else on the last climb as we see too often in recent years. Let's see riders having to make things happen rather than the severity of the final climb being the decisive factor. Having said that too much time trialling is another sure way to kill a race.

micron

Tom, I agree to a large extent, and thought we saw some of that in last year's race. But BS has a pretty astute analysis of what is left in this Giro and it's not anything like as beautiful a race as it was.

Obviously they haven't altered the route for Armstrong - silly me to even think it :roll:

DaveyL

Explain to me why the altered route (i.e. a "watered down" stage of 260 km with 3000 m of climbing and cutting out the last 4 km of a 23 km climb that goes from 500 m to 2060 m) should particularly suit Armstrong? From 1999-2005, he was a pretty decent climber as well as time-triallist, if I recall. He didn't get a lot of time put into him on the climbs by GC rivals. So what am I missing?

GroupOfOne MkII

I think quite a few of those lumpy stages in the centre of Italy could still prove entertaining, and decisive. Plenty of them look like perfect ambush country, where the likes of Di Luca or Cunego could really put some time into someone if they attack sensibly and with support of their teams.

Rather than there being one decisive stage, I still feel there are a lot where riders will have to be on guard at all times, where any decent move could suddenly change the complexion of the race.

Kléber

Ambushes like that are very rare these days, thanks to team organisation, doping and above all, race radios.

GeorgeShaw

Kléber wrote:

Ambushes like that are very rare these days, thanks to team organisation, doping and above all, race radios.

It's a shame, but so good when it happens. I particularly enjoyed it when the Rabos recently tore up the peloton (in Paris-Nice?), when leaving a forest and hitting a strong cross wind. Really well planned. There were bodies all over the place. :twisted:

Tom Butcher

Paris Nice was great this year wasn't it, Tour of Turkey was good too - more aggressive racing like that please. Whatever his indiscretions DiLuca is the man when it comes to aggressive racing - Cunego too in the past though I thought he rode very conservatively in the classics - much good it did him.

blazing_saddles

DaveyL wrote:

Explain to me why the altered route (i.e. a "watered down" stage of 260 km with 3000 m of climbing and cutting out the last 4 km of a 23 km climb that goes from 500 m to 2060 m) should particularly suit Armstrong? From 1999-2005, he was a pretty decent climber as well as time-triallist, if I recall. He didn't get a lot of time put into him on the climbs by GC rivals. So what am I missing?

Quite clearly the fact that it has (for me, at least) nothing to do with Armstrong, but the spectacle itself and the obsticles the riders face.

The Giro has a nasty habit of dropping climbs on the day of the stage.
The Cima Coppi prize was moved from the Agnello, to the...........Blockhaus.
Where's it being offered, now?

It is the cumalative effect, on the race overall, that is a major problem for me.

When the route was unveiled, I had my doubts as to how testing it would be, compared to the normal style Giro.

As an edition, it's pretty toothless.
Only 2 MTFs in the Alps and Dolomites and no stages with multiple climbs. Stage 4 is at an average of 5.5%. stage 5 is somewhat tougher, but dictates that a climber must try and take the pink, at this point and try to hold it: no option.
Next opportunity is stage 15.
As for the last 4kms of the race's hardest climb.
Well, surely it's all about what can happen at this point in a stage.

I agree with Group. The best stages of this edition will, by necessity, now, be the intermediate, Central Italy stages.

jimmythecuckoo

So is the assumption that they have taken them out to keep Lance happy :?:

The Prodigy

I can't help but think that Levi is loving every little change made, the more this becomes a TT contest the closer he gets to winning.

I only hope that we do ge some serious attacks from the likes of Di Luca, Cunego etc

frenchfighter

When the Italians start pandering to Lance then we have serious issues. Unbelievable that there is so much hype over an american riding the centenary version - the focus should be all on the Italian greats. i hope he doesn't make the time cut on the first mountain stage so that the limelight switches to the thoroughbread young and exciting guys.

teagar

Blazing's got it spot on. Every shortening of a stage all reduces the cumulative fatigue, which is inevtiably what GTs are really about. Big shame.

Everybody loves talking about the crazy stages; "remember that ridiculous stage when they had to do totally ridiculous stuff".

Shame.

DaveyL

This is such an over-reaction. The queen stage is still 260 km with what looks like about 3000 m of climbing. There will be maybe 300-400 m less ascent on the Blockhaus stage.

I look forward to bumping this thread up to the top once the carnage starts - we'll see whether the riders involved think it's been turned into a chipper.

frenchfighter

DaveyL wrote:

This is such an over-reaction. The queen stage is still 260 km with what looks like about 3000 m of climbing. There will be maybe 300-400 m less ascent on the Blockhaus stage.

I look forward to bumping this thread up to the top once the carnage starts - we'll see whether the riders involved think it's been turned into a chipper.

I agree. Having a 260k stage in a stage race even if it is just rolling, let alone mountainous is crazy - Paris Roubaix is pan flat and 260k (50k cobbles); MSR is 300k and has a couple of bumps.

moray_gub

DaveyL wrote:

This is such an over-reaction. The queen stage is still 260 km with what looks like about 3000 m of climbing. There will be maybe 300-400 m less ascent on the Blockhaus stage.

I look forward to bumping this thread up to the top once the carnage starts - we'll see whether the riders involved think it's been turned into a chipper.

I agree with you in recent grand tours there have been great hype about such climbs like Mortiolo last year and Col de la Bonette in the tour both turned out to be damp squibs with the big favs all marking each other so sometimes a huge climb can have a negative effect on the action. So we shall see how it pans out

blazing_saddles

DaveyL wrote:

This is such an over-reaction. The queen stage is still 260 km with what looks like about 3000 m of climbing. There will be maybe 300-400 m less ascent on the Blockhaus stage.

I don't disagree over the situation with stage 10.
To me, it's has adequate climbing, but is too long.
However, the race isn't just about this stage. You keep highlighting this stage. Why?
Because, there isn't another that fits the argument. Maybe stage 16, but that's it.
The Centanary Giro and what haven't we got?
No Stelvio or Gavia
No Mortirolo or Marmorlada
No Plan de Corones or Zoncolan (not that I favour these horrendously steep ramps, but the Tifosi do love them)
No Monte Bondone or any of the other Dolomite Passi, such as Pordoi.

The Blockhaus stage is a daft cavalry charge, but it was to be the end of race "special", along with Versuvius. Only one of these two can be climbed to the top! :shock:
Now it's not.

As for not doing the last 400 metres of climbing, we shall now never know whether it would have impacted upon the GC.

I will, however finish with this:
I wonder what Floyd Landis would have given not to have to have had to climb that last 400 metres of stage 16, in 2006?

blazing_saddles

Rumours in the Italian press that this is another stage finish that may well be for the chop.