The Giro, my favourite tour of the year is only 2 weeks....

[BDF]

Do you think the Shark will have it in him to win this one? I would keep an eye on him as well.

[tombeej]

Today is the first of 3 very hard back-to-back mountain stages. We'll soon find out who the true contenders are. There will be no hiding in the coming days.

 

Today's stage is 170 km long and features 4 significant climbs.

 

On paper they don't look too tough, they're 'only' about 8 km long. But take another look at their profiles (below). The sustained, unrelenting 9 - 10% gradients that go on for km after km are what turns them into brutes. They are all going to hurt a lot.

 

[Click on image to enlarge]

[tombeej]

The first one is the Cat. 1 Montemaggiore that is 8.3 km long @ 9.3 % average gradient (max. 16 %).  

 

The gradient doesn’t drop below 10 % for the final 5.8 km.

 

Ouch.

 

[Click on image to enlarge]

[tombeej]

The next one is made up of 2 parts.

 

First, there’s a short uncategorized ascent of 3 km at an average gradient of 7.6 %.

 

And then it’s the Cat. 2 climb of Crai (8.8 km @ 6.4 %, max. 16%) which averages 9.7 % for the first 4 km before it gets significantly easier at 3.6 % for the second half. 

 

[Click on image to enlarge]

 

[tombeej]

The 3rd climb of the day is the Cat. 1 Porzus (8.8 km @ 8.2%, max. 16%).

 

Yet another unrelenting ramp that leaves no room anywhere for recovery. 

 

[Click on image to enlarge]

[tombeej]

The final one of the day is the Cat. 2 climb of Valle (6.2 km @ 7.8 %, max. 13 %) which is similarly regular.

 

The top comes with 13.9 km to go and is followed by a technical descent and a flat section.

 

The last 5 km are deceptively flat and actually run downhill all the way to Cividale del Friuli.

 

[Click on image to enlarge]

 

['Dale]

Phew!

That'll warm me up ????

[ScottCM]

Andy Schleck is on a cruise but gave Bob Jungles this advice: 'Stay calm, you can win the Giro'

 

Full article here:

 

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/andy-schleck-to-jungels-stay-calm-you-can-win-the-giro-ditalia/

['Dale]

Stage 13

 

Today we head to Cividale del Friuli with four categorised climbs on the menu. There's no summit finish but we should see a major shake up in the GC. None of the four climbs in the Friuli stage are over a thousand metres but it has been given four stars by the official race book, indicating its true difficulty.

['Dale]

Into just the first 1km of the race and we already have our first attack, with Tobias Ludvigsson looking to jump clear. The Swede actually manages to create a small gap but it comes to nothing in the end.

['Dale]

The pace is relentless this early on as more and more riders try and escape the clutches of the peloton. No move have managed to stick just yet. Etixx are on red alert though as they try and spot danger after danger. This is a huge test for the young Bob Jungels.

['Dale]

Interesting: A gaggle of around 20 riders have moved clear of the peloton. They have a very small gap but it's not going to work, surely?

['Dale]

They're still out there, plugging away, but the peloton are hot on their heels. Such a rapid start to the stage as riders and teams try and form the early break. They can't keep this up for much longer.

['Dale]

145km remaining from 170km

We've already covered 25km of racing.

['Dale]

More riders try their luck. This time we have a group of six forming, with Blel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Alessandro De Marchi and Manuel Quinziato (BMC), Matej Mohoric (Lampre-Merida), Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Matteo Busato (Wilier Triestina-Southeast).

['Dale]

 

The IAM duo of Matthias Brandle and Stefan Denifl are bridging across.