Giro d'Italia Stage 4 – May 13th, Giovinazzo - Bari 112km **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 4 – Tuesday May 13th, Giovinazzo - Bari 112km (*)

Arrivederci Ireland and ciao Italia! After an early rest day to allow for the long transfer to southern Italy, the riders will tackle a short stage that is based around the city of Bari. The stage finishes with eight laps of a street circuit that is 8.3km long, which is littered with tricky, tight corners. Similar to the finish in Dublin, the last corner appears with about 350m to go, and the home straight is slightly uphill. This is guaranteed to end in a bunch sprint. The question is, can anybody beat Marcel Kittel!

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Weather: Partly cloudy. High 25C. Winds S at 15 to 25 kph.

Betting odds: Marcel Kittel 2/5; Nacer Bouhanni 8/1; Elia Viviani 9/1; Ben Swift 12/1.

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm. Highlights on Sky Sports 3 at 8pm and Eurosport1 at midnight.

Live text ticker here.

pelevin

Ah two rival threads. This could end in a deep sense of shame for someone.

Darkglasses

Oops, I did see this thread yesterday and completely forgot! Nevermind

Beasty

pelevin wrote: »

This could end in a deep sense of shame for someone.

It's OK - his team won the league on Sunday so he needs bringing back down to earth ...:pac:

Darkglasses

Beasty wrote: »

It's OK - his team won the league on Sunday so he needs bringing back down to earth ...:pac:

Little premature, Wexford Youths haven't won it yet :cool:

youwhoglue

@marcelkittel

So, the Giro got me earlier then I thought. Absolutely disappointed that I have to leave this beautiful race today because of a fever. ((

Thank you to everyone, incl. my team, the organisers & all the fans next to the road, for your great support! It was short but intensive!

andy69

Ha! Did I just hear Kelly say the F-word talking about the finishing circuit? :-D

"....it'll be f**kin mayhem.... " or something to that effect I'm sure he said. :-)

dastardly00

That's a big disappointment about Kittel

youwhoglue

It rains in Italy too!

check_six

cyclingnews is reporting that the rain is bad enough that the stage is going to be neutralised until the city circuits, and it may even be neutralised there too if the rain keeps up.

It's a shame that Kittel had to pull out (hope he doesn't have what got Molly Malone!).

Peterx

Go slow day in a big way.
cyclingnews now saying The organisers may have to reduce the number of circuits in the town to fit in with tv schedules.
No Kittel is good news for the other sprinters though.
I'd imagine Ben Swift would have preferred Kittel's fever to arrive two daze earlier!

Seve OB

trying to watch it on my sky go app on the phone but reception in work is crap.... so it ain't working!

the giro official website gives basically next to no information....

anyone know why Kittel didn't start?

is the rain that bad????

MPFG

KIttle has fever

Rain is not bad ...its road are very greasy in rain due to olive oil area

De Bhál

stevieob wrote: »

trying to watch it on my sky go app on the phone but reception in work is crap.... so it ain't working!

the giro official website gives basically next to no information....

anyone know why Kittel didn't start?

is the rain that bad????

Rain is heavy enough
They're not going to race till they reach Bari apparently so they're on a go slow.

Marcel Kittel was on the beer in Coppers on Sunday night, celebrating his win big time. He met a camogie player from Kilkenny and has decided to hang around for a while and see how it pans out.

youwhoglue

Kittel got a fever...

http://live.cyclingnews.com/

Circuit map attached but seemingly it's drying

Seve OB

I hope the fever isn't blamed on the inclement Irish weather they had to put up with.

Seve OB

..... edit... nevermind...i googled

is there laps once they get to Bari?

De Bhál

stevieob wrote: »

..... edit... nevermind...i googled

is there laps once they get to Bari?

as per OP

'The stage finishes with eight laps of a street circuit that is 8.3km long, which is littered with tricky, tight corners. Similar to the finish in Dublin, the last corner appears with about 350m to go, and the home straight is slightly uphill'

neris

watching this on eurosport on laptop and screen keeps breaking up but sound is fine. is it just me or anyone else?

DominoDub

Yeah bit it is a patchy on my iPhone in Work :cool:

DominoDub

Is Italian rain ,,so much Different to soft Irish Rain ?:D

blobbie

No time bonuses today.

Seems to be ongoing discussions between riders & organisers as to how the stage is going to finish out

http://live.cyclingnews.com/
16:23:59 CEST
Race radio chief has told Italian television is that due to the risk of adverse weather conditions, the race will be neutralised with one lap to go and times taken for the overall classification. No time bonuses will be awarded.

pelevin

The riders miss the decent honest Irish rain. This snakey Eyetalian rain is a different matter altogether.

dastardly00

So times will be taken with one lap to go, and then the sprinters etc. will race the final lap.

blobbie

Yip - no time bonuses for sprints but points still up for grabs

blobbie

Couple of small crashes on the last lap.

Greasy roads.

alanucc

The scrolling background during the post race interviews was very strange.

Seve OB

dastardly00 wrote: »

So times will be taken with one lap to go, and then the sprinters etc. will race the final lap.

is that not normal enough anyway in that if you crash within the last 5km or so you are given the time of the group you were in?

Darkglasses

stevieob wrote: »

is that not normal enough anyway in that if you crash within the last 5km or so you are given the time of the group you were in?

Yes but in this case you don't have to have a mechanical, you don't even need to keep up with the sprinters. You can just pedal around at a safe speed. Good thing too, for the gc riders it's a big risk with no reward

Darkglasses

In other words, they can allow themselves to split the peloton

Paddigol

Not exactly riveting viewing so far, but probably suits Nico down to the ground given his lack off race time this season. When are the fireworks set to go off - Sat?

Edit: possibly should have posted in general Giro thread - sorry if so!

Darkglasses

Paddigol wrote: »

Not exactly riveting viewing so far, but probably suits Nico down to the ground given his lack off race time this season. When are the fireworks set to go off - Sat?

Edit: possibly should have posted in general Giro thread - sorry if so!

Yeah Saturday is when the real GC fun starts, but the other stages this week should be more tactically interesting than the ones so far.

pelevin

As non-events go, that was up there.

Seve OB

Had it recorded so just stuck it on there

The wet conditions looked like it might cause Fu**in Mayhem!!!!

Oh dear oh dear Sean.... you did not say that did you!!!!

LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6_KAwV8DL8

pelevin

Good man Sean! You can take the man out of Waterford but you can't take the Waterford out of the man.

Dr. Bre

so kittel won 2 stages in the giro without having to ride in Italy ha

dastardly00

Sean Kelly what a legend

nerraw1111

Is there much a precedence for what went on today?

Eurosport showed a bit arguing in the peloton with one rider (BMC?) shouldering another mid row. Suggests everyone wasn't happy with how the stage was raced.