spoiler (in progress): giro stage today

[Climb01742]

following the stage via updates on cyclingnews.com. so far, epic. gibo vs killer with a few km's to go.

[Avispa]

This Giro will be won THIS week... Not the last week!!!

Liquigas has the strongest team this year. ;)

GO Di Luca!!!

[Climb01742]

the killer seems strong. but one bad day in the mountains can, well, kill you. can a non-climber hang in for 10 more days? what a finale today. looks like a 3 rider race now...diluca, gibo and the little prince. but it will be neat to see how schleck hangs in...too young, i think, but he looks talented.

[Avispa]

the killer seems strong. but one bad day in the mountains can, well, kill you. can a non-climber hang in for 10 more days? what a finale today. looks like a 3 rider race now...diluca, gibo and the little prince. but it will be neat to see how schleck hangs in...too young, i think, but he looks talented.

Man, if Di Luca ani't a climber, I might as well stop riding my bike, bro!!! :D :D

Seriously, I think you have to be more than a climber to win this Giro. Di Luca is a good classics rider (LBL, etc.), which Simoni has never won. Also, Di Luca has the hunger now... very important to be hungry for victory!

[Climb01742]

true, very true, diluca looks like he really really wants it. both gibo and the killer have strong teams. i love the wide open racing.

i also take yesterday's stage as_some_evidence that more riders are ride clean. full gas every day = doping. "rest" days while still riding = clean(er), i think, i hope.

[Bill Bove]

my connection to cycling.tv sucked today, i couldn't get onfor a long time, then no picture, then only moving stills. audio eventually got going good enough to pretend i was listening on a radio. still beats waiting a month for results in velo-snooze.

[Ray]

my connection to cycling.tv sucked today, i couldn't get onfor a long time, then no picture, then only moving stills. audio eventually got going good enough to pretend i was listening on a radio. still beats waiting a month for results in velo-snooze.
Comes and goes - I've had some problems with cycling.tv, but today was about perfect for some reason. All at 800 kbps, which looks about as good as a tv set. Froze once or twice for a couple of seconds, but nothing bad. Some days I lose the signal often enough that I have to drop back to 256k, which is a real reduction in picture quality and worthless at full-screen.

Today's group seemed to be the class of the race. Gibo and DeLuca are strong and Cunego hung tough. Schleck is in really good position to finish on the podium - I was just getting used to the idea that his older bro was a potential grand tour champion and now the kid comes along. Talented family. Dunno what Mazzolini was doing up there - he always seems to have a few bad days though. When things get crazy steep next Wednesday I think the Killer and Schleck are gonna have to have a decent lead to hold off the little guys. Should be fun to watch.

-Ray

[dauwhe]

I'm pleased that we have a rider who can win big classics and contend in a grand tour.

[BdaGhisallo]

Here's what you need to do each morning:

go to this page http://www.cyclingfans.com/ and load the RAI video and then load the Eurosport Audio feed and you have got it. Watching it live with english commentary - and it's free.

You can also get to the RAI Giro feed on this page:

http://www.steephill.tv/2007/giro-d-italia/


Geoff

[coylifut]

the killer seems strong. but one bad day in the mountains can, well, kill you. can a non-climber hang in for 10 more days? what a finale today. looks like a 3 rider race now...diluca, gibo and the little prince. but it will be neat to see how schleck hangs in...too young, i think, but he looks talented.

Funny, I was just thinking the opposite. Seems like the traditional Italian hotel raid is in order.

[jhcakilmer]

DiLuca isn't a pure climber, that's why he's sucessful in LBL, and other classics. He seems to be climbing well, but if he has a bad day, especially on the Zoncalan, he could loose 5-10 minutes easily.

I just get tired looking at the profile!

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z311/jhcakilmer/Zoncolan.gif

[Tom]

That is just so wrong.

Still, I want to go ride it. That hill must deal one major butt kicking.

[Erik.Lazdins]

Di Luca has 2:34 over Gibo - one bad day or a couple drops and the Simoni could be in Pink but then so could Cunego.

Great racing - too bad on Versus for not showing this daily live. I signed up for OLN when I learned that the Giro would be covered live.

They coulda improved coverage with an embedded reporter for the annual hotel raids but no! No Giro on TV for you! :)

Is cycling.tv any good?

[jeffg]

this summer, then I'll think about trying the Zoncolan.

:crap: :crap: :crap: salite.ch ranks the toughest approach to the Grossglockner and the Zoncolan in the same ballpark (i.e. the Mt. Washington ballpark), but I was fitter last year and each time I climbed the GG it was savage. I don't think a 34x29 would be sufficient for me

In this year's Giro, I am picking Simoni for the Zoncolan

[Climb01742]

if it's in the MW ballpark, a 1:1 is very helpful. it will be cool to see how the pro's gear it next wednesday. remember when heras used a triple in spain? and apparently that was a triple with EPO, no less. :rolleyes:

[Ray]

Is cycling.tv any good?
Its ok if you have a good fast connection, but I think its also somewhat traffic dependent. I have a fiber optic connection which is way faster than anything cycling.tv can match, and its 800 kbps connection is a pretty good clear picture on my 19" monitor. Sit back 6-8 feet and I can't tell its not TV. But when there's a lot of demand, sometimes the image freezes or has to re-buffer and I've missed some key moments of races that way. If I drop down to the 256 k connection, its much more consistent but the picture is only good in the little window - full screen sucks.

if it's in the MW ballpark, a 1:1 is very helpful. it will be cool to see how the pro's gear it next wednesday.I heard or read somewhere that Cunego was using a 34 or 36x29 when he was training on it and planned to use the same thing in the race. I'm quite sure I'd go with lower than a 1:1. But I wouldn't ride it. That's what we pay these little pros all of that money and insist they fill themselves with all manner of illegal substances for - so they can climb it and we can watch from our easy-chairs :cool:

-Ray

[Keith A]

Great race today. Tomorrow's ITT will be interesting. "IF" DiLuca can maintain or even improve over Simoni, at least he will be in the position having to mark Simoni on the upcoming mountains rather than trying to make up time on him.

And how about that Andy Schleck? Did I read that he is only 21??? :eek:

Edit: BdaGhisallo -- Thanks for the tips on getting free Giro coverage! BTW, RAI also has the end of each of the stages available...so if you miss the live coverage, you can at least see the final couple of kilometers. Even though I don't understand Italian, it's kind of fun listening to the commentators. I love the way they say their names as they are getting close to the finish.

[saab2000]

The Giro is normally a better race than the Tour. Having watched both often live when I lived in Europe I liked the Giro better.

The Tour is a spectacle and has all the traditions and has great moments. But the Giro is usually a better race.

For that matter, so is the Vuelta.

But for my money, the Giro is one of the great races. More Italian flavor and "Character"! :banana:

[benb]

I guess I'd need to ride it to really see but my instinct is Mt. Washington is much harder then that. (I've done Mt. Washington twice)

The 14.9% looks impressive, and the 22% is nasty, but probably short enough to sprint over (just like the top of Mt. Washington).

However the profile looks like it has far more areas to catch your breath then Mt. Washington, and you've got 800ft less rise, about a mile less distance, and a slightly lower overall average grade. One of the things that really makes Mt. Washington nasty is that it's relentless, the grade is quite consistent.

I wish I could remember what Tyler Hamilton had on his bike when I saw it in 2005.. but I highly doubt the pros need anywhere near 1:1 on that climb.

To have a 7.1% section at the top it almost makes me wonder if the Italians designed the road so that the Giro riders have a place to catch their breath so they can sprint for the hilltop finish to put on a better show. :D

Makes me wish more of the Euro Pros would come race Mt. Washington and we could see it on TV.

Heck I wish I could catch more of this on TV. All I'm getting is the 2 hour summary on Sunday.

[don'TreadOnMe]

BDA - U rule.
I've been watching the reviews of the stages since your post, and they are awesome.
I'm really looking forward to watching the stages live beginning tomorrow.
In officeland, - alt-tab is my friend!

[rounder]

The Giro is normally a better race than the Tour. Having watched both often live when I lived in Europe I liked the Giro better.

The Tour is a spectacle and has all the traditions and has great moments. But the Giro is usually a better race.

For that matter, so is the Vuelta.

But for my money, the Giro is one of the great races. More Italian flavor and "Character"! :banana:

I agree from what i have seen during the last few years (mainly from OLN and velonews coverage). It looks like the tdf but without all the hype. It seems like there is more real racing going on in beautiful/challenging country (not that the TdF doesn't have some of that). I also like the fact that the Italians mainly win it (am not one myself) and that they are racing for god and country...as opposed to knocking themselves out for results for a major sponsorship effort. Well maybe that's not how the racers look at it...but it's how I look at it.

[jeffg]

I guess I'd need to ride it to really see but my instinct is Mt. Washington is much harder then that. (I've done Mt. Washington twice)

The 14.9% looks impressive, and the 22% is nasty, but probably short enough to sprint over (just like the top of Mt. Washington).

However the profile looks like it has far more areas to catch your breath then Mt. Washington, and you've got 800ft less rise, about a mile less distance, and a slightly lower overall average grade. One of the things that really makes Mt. Washington nasty is that it's relentless, the grade is quite consistent.

I wish I could remember what Tyler Hamilton had on his bike when I saw it in 2005.. but I highly doubt the pros need anywhere near 1:1 on that climb.

To have a 7.1% section at the top it almost makes me wonder if the Italians designed the road so that the Giro riders have a place to catch their breath so they can sprint for the hilltop finish to put on a better show. :D

Makes me wish more of the Euro Pros would come race Mt. Washington and we could see it on TV.

Heck I wish I could catch more of this on TV. All I'm getting is the 2 hour summary on Sunday.

I put quite a bit of stock in the salite.ch ratings since they correspond to my impression of difficuly in having done a number of the climbs -- (Grossglockner harder than Ventoux, for example).

It tries to go beyond average gradient to give weight to the fact that climbing a 500m at 20% and 500m flat is a bit harder than 1000m at 10%. Anyway, these are their ratings:

221.37 Kitzbüheler Horn, Austria 9.7 km 12.9 %

220.83 Monte Zoncolan, Italia 10.5 km 11.5 %

220.21 Mount Washington, Extraeuropa 12.4 km 11.5 %

216.82 Alpe Vaccaro, Italia 8.5 km 12 %

216.63 Lammersdorfer Berg, Austria 9.8 km 12 %

216.16 Grossglockner - Edelweissspitze, Austria 25.7 km 5.7 %

Ventoux is around 160, to give a reference.

Anyway, my point is that I am sure Mt. Washington is a beast, and a lot of that would have to do with factors such as wind (or heat on Ventoux, altitude on the Mt. Evans). On the other hand, if the Euros came to Mt. Washington the result would be the same as it in Europe -- Tommy D does not win the mountaintop finish. Let the man have a claim to fame, ok?

[Avispa]

The Giro is normally a better race than the Tour. Having watched both often live when I lived in Europe I liked the Giro better.

The Tour is a spectacle and has all the traditions and has great moments. But the Giro is usually a better race.

For that matter, so is the Vuelta.

But for my money, the Giro is one of the great races. More Italian flavor and "Character"!

Thanks Saabo.... Yeap! I have been saying this for years... especially when Indurain and Lance were around.

To me the Giro is fireworks, the Tour is a laser show.

[Elefantino]

it will be neat to see how schleck hangs in...too young, i think, but he looks talented.
The scuttle has always been that Andy got the bigger dose of the family gene pool. Not that his bro is a piker, just that Andy is going to be dominant.

My wife wants the Killer to win. I can't imagine why she likes DiLuca so much.

[stevep]

I wish I could remember what Tyler Hamilton had on his bike when I saw it in 2005.. but I highly doubt the pros need anywhere near 1:1 on that climb.


39-25

for those guys its a single climb of under an hour.
not so big a deal.
a hamilton story from his first tour de france.
they are going into the "circle of hell" stage in the pyrennes.
this is generally the toughest stage in the tour. in the alps they generally will do 2-3 climbs.
this is 4 or 5 major cliimbs in sequence. tourmalet, peyresourde, aspin, could be any of several others. all up and down. no flats.
always super hot down there.
hes looking at the elevation map.
goes to the mechanic and asks for a 11-25 cassette instead of the 11-23 that they have been using.
the mechanic points at him and laughs...
"if you need a 25 you should just go home now..."

that ended that.

also notable. there was an effort to bring pantani over for mt wash in 98 i thk.
he had a conflict w/ something and it went to nothing. the prize money was to be approx $25k. enough to bring him hunting. woulda been cool.
him and his blood woulda probably been around 45 minutes i bet.

[Ray]

Is cycling.tv any good?
Revised from above - today there's a 1200 kbps option, which they'd promised but not delivered previously. It looks phenominal. As good as TV in full screen mode even when you're sitting right in front of the computer. If it proves to be reliable, I don't see a downside.

-Ray

[Erik.Lazdins]

With a shortish uphill tt - who is favored?

Will the time spread between DiLuca and Gibo remain or will Gibo take some time back?