STAGE 18 Preview, 2013 Giro d'Italia

 Wednesday May 22 6pm EDT

Giovanni Visconti amazed us all again winning his second stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia in Vicenza on Wednesday. He put on a show defending a slim lead of little more than 20 seconds that he built going over the short climb that topped out with 16 kilometers to go to the finish. His win is the third consecutive for his Movistar team. It is also Visconti’s second win of the year, the first coming just three days earlier on the Col du Galibier.

The peloton was blessed with good weather again for stage 17

[You can read my full race recap in the “Pages” menu to the right.]

The news came on Wednesday morning that a cold front is moving over northern Italy, bringing more snow, rain, and cold temperatures to the region. Giro d’Italia race organizers, Michele Acquarone and RCS Sport are scrambling to plan alternate routes for the upcoming two stages in the Dolomites after Thursday’s climbing time trial stage to Polsa.

Location of stage 18

Stages 19 and 20 were supposed to be the dual Queen stages; resplendent, powerhouse high-mountain stages, with eight big categorized climbs between them, including the 2618-meter high Passo Gavia, the 2758-meter high Stelvio Pass (the cima coppi of the race), and the 2059-meter Val Martello finish on Friday, and the Passos Costalunga (1745 m), San Pellegrino (1918 m), Giau (2236 m), Tre Croci (1805 m), and the Tre Cime di Lavaredo finish on Saturday at 2304 meters. 

Everything above 1500 meters is expected to get snow, so unfortunately it is unlikely that we will see many of those high peaks. They are monitoring the weather and updates are expected.

The stage 18 uphill time trial profile

Thursday brings the 20.6-kilometer climbing time trial from Mori to Polsa. The route overall rises with an average gradient of about 5.4%, so it’s no Alpe d’Huez. You can see from the profile that it starts with a relatively flat kilometer and a half, then climbs for about 7kms on a 6.6% average grade. The course then eases up for almost 5k before rising again to the top for another 7k stretch at the same average gradient as the first section of the climb. Those last kilometers provide the steepest gradients of the route, up to about 10%, with some of the steeper sections close to the top. This means that the riders will have to gauge their efforts very carefully, and leave enough gas in the tank for the big finish.

The final 3 kilometers to the finish

Based on the profile, I think several riders can excel on this stage. The time gaps among the top contenders may not be very big due to the gradients, but a poorly gauged effort could result in a significant time loss to the unprepared. Some of the strong time trialers could perform as well as the powerful climbers on a course like this. I’m thinking of guys like Stef Clement, Wilco Kelderman, Manuele Boaro, and Svein Tuft (although Tuft hasn’t really looked like he’s on his best form).

It still favors guys like Nibali, Evans, Kangert, Scarponi, half of Team Sky, etc. but we may see a surprise name or two in the mix at the top. I'll just throw one more name out there: Juan Manuel Garate of Team Blanco. If he's feeling good and not saving his energy for helping Gesink in the Dolomites, I could see him tearing up this course.

STAGE 17 Race Recap; 2013 Giro d'Italia

Wednesday May 21, 2013

214k from Caravaggio to Vicenza; mostly flat;

Partly cloudy, 21 c (70 f)

Happy 37^th birthday to Garmin’s Christian Vande Velde.

Two days ahead of the second anniversary of the tragic off-road death of Xavier Tondo, his friend and teammate, Beñat Intxausti remembered Team Movistar’s talented climber, by crossing his fingers in an “X” as he crossed the finish line for the win in yesterday’s stage 16. Intxausti had been with Tondo when he lost his life in a freak, tragic accident. Tondo had just recently won the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon before his death.

Snow on the Stelvio Pass

The news came today that a cold front is moving over northern Italy...

STAGE 17 Preview 2013 Giro d'Italia

 

 

Beñat Intxausti gave Movistar their third stage win of the tour today

Today the GC contenders forced each other to race. After the large break was caught, the top contenders attacked each other relentlessly on the final lap into Ivrea. Sammy Sanchez, Michele Scarponi and others did their best trying to get some time back from the seemingly invincible Vincenzo Nibali. 

As the finish drew nearer, some saw the opportunity for a stage win. In the end, the trio of Beñat Intxausti (Movistar), Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre) had a gap, and sprinted for the finish. Movistar’s young all-arounder timed his sprint perfectly after Niemiec jumped early.

A big loser today was Vini Fantini’s Mauro Santambrogio, who got caught out on the climb to Andrate and lost over two minutes to the Pink Jersey holder, Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali.  Santambrogio, whose name has been buzzing in the media for fine performances in the mountains, drops from 4^th to 6^th place on the General Classification.

Team Lampre’s leader, Michele Scarponi moves up to 4^th, and has a 1:07 deficit to the 3^rd podium spot, currently occupied by Team Sky’s Rigoberto Uran. Uran might breathe a small sigh of relief as Santambrogio had been trailing his 3^rd place spot by only one second before giving up 2:10 to the leader today. Still in first and second places are Nibali and BMC’s top man, Cadel Evans.

Stage 17 Profile

You can see from the profile that Wednesday’s 17^th stage from Caravaggio to Vicenza has a bump at the end similar to stage 16. This hill however is only half as high.

The Cosara climb begins near km 193. Unlike yesterday, it does not come after quite as many kilometers, nor does the stage begin with a big climb into the snowy Alps. The first 192 kms are virtually flat.

The Crosara climb summits at 16 kms to the finish

The Crosara climb is a category 4. What does that mean? Well, not much. Although Wednesday’s climb to Crosara is half as high as Tuesday’s climb to Andrato, the very stingy Giro d’Italia categorizations for climbs don’t always tell the whole story.

Crosara is 5,3 km long and the first half averages around 9%.  It hits parts of 12% and has a 363-meter drop on some narrow roads. So, this little cat. 4 will serve as another fine launch pad for hungry stage hunters. 

I was wrong today, so I won't presume that the GC guys will not race for this one. Though I still think with Nibali riding as strong as he is, it doesn’t seem likely that he will let anyone get away here to chew away at his lead. And with the uphill time trial coming the next day, many will want to save some energy.

STAGE 16 Report and Results: 2013 Giro d'Italia

 

STAGE 16 Report/Recap

238 kms from Valloire to Ivrea

Weather: Partly cloudy early, becoming sunny; 15 c at the finish, warmer by late afternoon;

DNS: Wijnants (BLA)

Happy 28^th birthday to Mark Cavendish who is still wearing the Red points jersey.

Stage 16 Profile

Several unsuccessful break attempts early on. Peloton still together after 30 kilometers.

Kelderman breaks off the front, but is reeled in.

He escapes again with 15 others.

-193 kms: At Km 45 the breakaway group is ahead by :46.

-184 k: The 16-man break has a 2:00 lead.

STAGE 16 Preview - 2013 Giro d'Italia

A united peloton on Mont Cenis

30-year-old Giovanni Visconti climbed to his first Giro d’Italia stage win through cold, fog and snow on the Giro d’Italia’s 15^th stage today. The top contenders put in a number of attacks at the top of the Galibier climb, but Visconti had gotten too big a lead after his attack on the middle of the Telegraph.

Visconti takes the Galibier

A good battle for the Young Rider’s Jersey has been raging between Carlos Betancur of Ag2R and Saxo-Tinkoff’s Rafal Majka. They both attacked several times on the final climb, but Betancur’s 2^nd place finish netted him a :12 bonus that was enough to take the white jersey from Majka, who had been wearing it since stage 11.

Stefano Pirazzi was active on the peaks, and increased his lead in the Mountains Jersey competition. Visconti’s intrepid work netted him more mountain points as well, only losing two more points to Pirazzi in the end, but also distancing himself from those behind.

Monday brings the riders a much needed rest day.

Stage 16 Profile

Stage 16 heads east

Tuesday’s stage 16 retraces some of stage 15’s steps. It begins with a 15k run back down the Telegraphe, then back up the Col du Mont Cenis, and down the long descent back to Susa. From there the peloton has about a 120k lightly rolling trek up to and over a 6k, category 3 climb to Andrate, before dropping back down for an 8km flat run-in to the finish in Ivrea. Judging by the profile, the cat. 3 looks like it averages around 8% and has a 509-meter elevation gain. It’s a perfect place for a stage hunter to launch a late attack.






Here is a look at the late, category-3 Andrate climb profile, and the final 8 kilometers to the finish in Ivrea:

The cat. 3 climb before the finish

The last few kms to the finish