Giro d'Italia 2014 - no discussion of current day stage, see spoiler rules in Charter

MPFG

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

There is a doubt. Martin hasn't done that before.

But he is well able if he doesn't crash or have an allergy

RobFowl

MPFG wrote: »

But he is well able if he doesn't crash or have an allergy

Which he has done in every GT he's ridden to date......

MPFG

RobFowl wrote: »

Which he has done in every GT he's ridden to date......

Yeah it might be wishful thinking on my part however how is he at 2/5 for top 10 while Nico is 11/10 ...how does that work ???

paulieb2006

Anyone have any idea what hotels the teams are staying in? Got to meet some of the BMC and Garmin teams last year at Le Tour as we were staying in the same place!

MPFG

Extra trains and buses being put on for Giro

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-27185645

Buses to scenic points along the race route and even a bus from Dublin to Armagh to catch the start

Shedite27

What are Dublin-based people thinking of doing for vantage points? I'm thinking one of two 90 degree turns, either at the roundabout just south of Portmarnock or the left hand turn just coming onto the Clontarf road just south of Sutton Cross. Easy enough to get to by dart, shouldn't be crowds as big as the city, and they'll slow down a little bit going around the corners. Those spots are bout 15k from the finish I make it.

Otherwise, down by the o2 could be nice, although it gets very cold down there if it's not sunny.

midonogh

Ayone know where I might be able to pick up some Italian flags for my garden display?

Aln_S

If anyone has a spare pass for the opening presentation I would appreciate it. Thanks!

MPFG

Cycling Ireland still looking for Marshals for Giro.....you'd get a good view i'd say

http://www.cyclingireland.ie/cycling-news-item/marshal-training-venues/207

mathie

Are there more precise times for when they'll pass an area.

Road closes 1:30 and opens 4:30.
So would it be expected to be around 4 that they'd pass?

moonshadow

mathie wrote: »

Are there more precise times for when they'll pass an area.

Road closes 1:30 and opens 4:30.
So would it be expected to be around 4 that they'd pass?

Riders eta
Dundalk 13.40
Drogheda 14.45
Balbriggan 14.50
Malahide 15.45
Clontarf 16.05
Merrion 16.15

All info taken from discover Ireland / Dcc leaflet.

el tel

moonshadow wrote: »

Riders eta
Dundalk 13.40
Drogheda 14.45
Balbriggan 14.50
Malahide 15.45
Clontarf 16.05
Merrion 16.15

All info taken from discover Ireland / Dcc leaflet.

65 mins from Dundalk to Drogheda and 55 mins from Balbriggan to Malahide?

Are these sections neutralized or something?

moonshadow

el tel wrote: »

65 mins from Dundalk to Drogheda and 55 mins from Balbriggan to Malahide?

Are these sections neutralized or something?

No but I'd say the 5 mins for Drogheda / balbriggan bit is a bit tight even for these guys......

Gavb

mathie wrote: »

Are there more precise times for when they'll pass an area.

Road closes 1:30 and opens 4:30.
So would it be expected to be around 4 that they'd pass?

http://www.girostart2014.com/docs/Caravan-Closures_Web_Stage_3.pdf

Rogue-Trooper

Had an email from Bike To Work this morning with details of a competition run by NITB to win a trip to Belfast for the Giro - includes 2 nights accommodation, tickets for the team presentation and 2 race leaders jerseys. There is a 2nd prize of 4 race leaders jerseys.

Click on this link to enter or alternatively you can just 'like' the B2W Facebook page (if you're into that sort of thing :pac:).

Gavb

BBC NI will cover three stages live.:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/27252199

Wishbone Ash

Gavb wrote: »

BBC NI will cover three stages live.:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/27252199

That is music to my ears! Working Fri/Sat/Sun (13 hour shifts) and there's no Eurosport but there is BBC which, with a bit of discretion, I will hopefully see. I might also try to slip off for an hour on Sunday afternoon to watch them pass.

caol ila

There's a handy app on the iPhone, Cycling news tour tracker, lists a lot of info re the Giro, including the teams, routes etc

MPFG

I have a nexus and got eurosport app for £3.99 a month.....always take my break for last hour of race or use head phones and twitter for updates ....but I suppose can do that as have a desk job

MPFG

Here's useful piece by Shane Stokes in the Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/vantage-points-the-best-spots-to-catch-the-giro-d-italia-1.1781801

SHOVELLER

Anybody here planning to drive around following the race saturday and sunday? Willing to split petrol money.

Wishbone Ash

When men were men!

Spare a thought for those who, 100 years ago, contested the 1914 Giro, said to be the most difficult Grand Tour of all time.

Eighty-one riders left Milan for Cuneo at midnight, May 24. They faced 420 kilometers of racing in abominable conditions. For the second time in Giro history the race would go over the Sestriere Pass. By the time they reached Susa, west of Turin, they had been riding for 200 kilometers in the rain, and hence on muddy, difficult roads. Actually, it was more than rain. When they went through Turin the racers ran into a gale. The organizers allowed a brief neutralization of the race so the riders could change into dry and warmer clothes. As they climbed to Sestriere the rain turned to snow with a biting, cold wind that made this stage a race of almost endless suffering. Most of the riders were forced to walk their bikes at least part of the climb and by the time the leaders crested the pass they had been on the road for about twelve hours.
To make their torment complete, partisans of various riders scattered nails on the road.

Angelo Gremo was the first man into Cuneo. The next two riders, Carlos Durando and Alfonso Calzolari arrived nearly fourteen minutes later. Girardengo was next at over 44 minutes. The 37 finishers out of the 81 starters straggled in for hours. The final finisher, Mario Marangoni, took 7 hours more than Gremo’s already stupefying 17 hours and 14 minutes. Petit-Breton was among the majority of the riders who abandoned that apocalyptic day.

The second stage, a comparatively short 340 kilometers from Cuneo to Lucca, was won in a commanding fashion by Alfonso Calzolari. Second place Giuseppe Azzini arrived almost 24 minutes later and Girardengo and Pierino Albini didn’t show up at the finish line until 30 minutes 45 seconds had ticked by after Calzolari had taken the stage.

After two stages Calzolari was in charge. The General Classification stood thus:
1. Alfonso Calzolari
2. Costante Girardengo @ 1 hour 4 minutes 7 seconds
3. Enrico Sala @ 1 hour 20 minutes 1 second

For a rider with such extraordinary strength and endurance, the 27-year-old Calzolari’s footprint on professional cycling is surprisingly small. Previous to this stage win, I can find only one other major victory, the 1913 Tour of Emilia.
The year’s monster stages were perfect for record setting. Bianchi rider Lauro Bordin set the mark for the Giro’s longest ever solo break, 350 kilometers of that giant Lucca–Rome stage. Girardengo was among those who eventually caught and passed Bordin.

The fifth stage was ridden over the primitive (even by the standards of the era) roads of Basilicata and Puglia. It was so difficult that even though the judges stayed at the finish until 12:45 AM, Pavesi, Gerbi, Girardengo and three others still racing hadn’t finished the stage. Azzini won by an hour over Calzolari, becoming the leader with only 89 seconds separating him from Calzolari.

Making the riders’ misery complete, throughout the race they were constantly tormented by pouring rain. Nearly every stage at some point was ridden under a torrent.

The riders were also victims of the poor state of the era’s exercise physiology. Many of them suffered from knee and tendon problems caused by the seemingly endless stages ridden in the cold, and in those days soigneurs didn’t have a clue about how to handle these troubles.

Of the untimed finishers from stage five, only Pavesi got his courage to the sticking point and showed up at the start line when the Giro resumed two days later. The sixth stage has the distinction of taking longer than any other Giro stage in history. Luigi Lucotti needed 19 hours 20 minutes 47 seconds to go from Bari to L’Aquila. Umberto Ripamonti, the twelfth and last finisher on that day took 22 hours 43 minutes 26 seconds to complete his personal calvary.
Azzini had to abandon. He mysteriously vanished during the stage and only after officials spent the night searching for him did they find him lying in a barn, feverish and suffering from a bad lung infection, no doubt caused by day upon day of racing in the cold rain.

Even without Azzini’s disappearance, the sixth stage would still be a strange one. Calzolari, Durando and Canepari received tows, presumably from cars, and were each penalized three hours. Calzolari’s time advantage over the others after Azzini’s withdrawal was so great that despite the penalty he was still the General Classification leader.

The final two stages of the 1914 death-ride didn’t significantly change the standings except to further reduce the peloton to just eight riders.

Among the other records, the time difference of nearly two hours between first and second is the greatest of any Giro. With an average speed of only 23.371 kilometers per hour it was also the slowest-ever Giro and had the smallest finishing field, at eight. Like the 1912 team competition, this super-long stage experiment would never again be repeated. Desgrange had wanted his Tour de France to be so difficult that it would be almost impossible to finish. In 1914 the Giro came far closer to old Henri’s ideal than his Tour ever did.

This sixth Giro is considered by cycle historians to have been the most difficult ever and several make a reasonable case, with which I can find no fault, that it was the hardest Grand Tour of all time. It also cemented the regional nature of the era’s Giri as no foreigner had yet managed to even finish a Giro d’Italia.

Complete Final 1914 Giro d’Italia General Classification:
1. Alfonso Calzolari (Stucchi) 135 hours 17 minutes 56 seconds
2. Pierino Albini (Globo) @ 1 hour 57 minutes 26 seconds
3. Luigi Lucotti (Maino) @ 2 hours 4 minutes 23 seconds
4. Clemente Canepari (Stucchi) @ 3 hours 1 minute 12 seconds
5. Enrico Sala (independent) @ 3 hours 59 minutes 45 seconds
6. Carlo Durando (Maino) @ 5 hours 12 minutes 22 seconds
7. Ottavio Pratesi (Alcyon) @ 7 hours 20 minutes 58 seconds
8. Umberto Ripamonti (Aspirant) @ 17 hours 21 minutes 8 seconds

MPFG

Anyone know any place to stay near Belfast


"Mikkel Condé v2.0
‏@mrconde
Now is a bad time to find out there has been a mix-up in the hotel reservations and I'm without a place to sleep in Belfast, right? #**** "

No Pants

Some competitors might end up with tar on their tyres, the council is leaving some of the NCD roadworks quite late.

pab01

No Pants wrote: »

Some competitors might end up with tar on their tyres, the council is leaving some of the NCD roadworks quite late.

Same in Belfast. Minor improvements started on Friday on route of TTT. And it was needed, I was convinced some riders would have found their Giro ruined in first 15 mins without it.

Lusk_Doyle

midonogh wrote: »

Ayone know where I might be able to pick up some Italian flags for my garden display?

Try the Italian place beside the monument? They might know or have some.

rkantos

rkantos wrote: »

Anyone interested in going to see the Giro with a fan? Currently I've got a car with 4 free places, as it is just me going to see it. I'm located in Blanchardstown and would happily take a fan or two to see the Giro. I was thinking B&B, or even driving back to Dublin every night. I'd appreciate if you'd cover fuel costs.

Still three places in the car. I'm planning to head up to Belfast early Friday morning (5-6am), so if anyone still interested send me a PM!

AG2R

anyone set up a velo league yet?

MPFG

AG2R wrote: »

anyone set up a velo league yet?

I have with velogames ...called 'il vincitore'


Dan Martin on his way to Belfast ..must be on the flight from barcelona

Darkglasses

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=90186228

Here's a link to the one I made.