Giro d'Italia 2016 Stage 1 Apeldoorn-Apeldoorn 9.8km

Pudsy33

After an exciting spring classics campaign, the GC boys get their first real chance to play with the season’s first Grand Tour: the Giro d’Italia. Gone are the hills of Belgium and Holland, as the riders make their way to…actually, the first three days in the Netherlands. There is nothing resembling a hill on stage one, however, as the riders tackle a 9.8km time trial around the Dutch city of Apeldoorn. The stage is as flat as a pancake, and the real powerhouse TT riders should come to the fore, battling it out to become the first Maglia Rosa in this year’s edition. The course features a number of 90-degree turns, so those willing to take risks and power through the corners may find themselves rewarded. The weather on Friday looks to be fairly settled in Apeldoorn, meaning we should see some good times on the wide roads around the city.



Contenders

There are two obvious favourites for this stage, the first being Fabian Cancellara. The Swiss has been in imperious form this year in the TTs, winning time trials of a similar distance in Volta ao Algarve and Tirreno-Adriatico. His spring campaign was impressive, albeit disappointing, finishing second to a marauding Sagan in De Ronde. Returning to the Giro for the first time since 2008, he is aiming to secure the only grand tour leader’s jersey missing from his collection. His team’s new Italian sponsor, coffee company Sagefredo, will be desperate for a result and will look for Spartacus to deliver.



The other favourite is the Netherland’s hopeful Tom Dumoulin, who will be hoping for a good showing on home roads. Like Cancellara, he has good form, finishing second in both TT stages in Romandie. Unlike Cancellara, Dumoulin harbours ambitions of wearing the Maglia Rosa in Turin. He burst onto the scene as a GC candidate in the Vuelta last year, showing impressive abilities in the high mountains to go with his time trailing. Although the course is short here, he will be hoping to open up a buffer to the other GC men. He seems the most realistic challenger to Cancellara.



Other worth mentioning include the fantastically named Bob Jungels. The current Luxembourg road race and TT champion, he finished third in the TT in Romandie. He is on good form and could challenge the two boys above. BMC’s Stephan Keung should be known to Irish fans, finishing third behind our own Ryan Mullen and Campbell Flakmore in the U23 World Champiosnhip TT in 2014. He has the class to go well, although hasn’t raced much this year. Former Dutch TT champion Jos Van Emden surprised us all in Le Tour last year, finishing 5th on the opening time trial stage. He will once again be looking to impress on home roads. One last man I’ll mention is Alexandre Geniez. While more noted for his climbing, the Frenchman has 4 TT top ten placings this year, and with FDJ’s renewed focus on the time trial discipline and their shiny new Lapierre bikes, it would be remiss to count him out.


Image courtesy of cyclingnews.com

Prediction.

The top two pick themselves, Cancellara will win followed by TomDom. Home roads will inspire Jos van Emden who will round out the podium.

Random Trivia

Apeldoorn is home to Demy de Zeeuw, a retired Dutch international footballer who once played for the Go Ahead Eagles, the favoured Eredivisie team of Boards.ie

neris

someones eager and given themselves a job for the rest of the summer

Beasty

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Random Trivia

Apeldoorn is home to Demy de Zeeuw, a retired Dutch international footballer who once played for the Go Ahead Eagles, the favoured Eredivisie team of Boards.ie

Alas now defunct (the forum, not the team)

Just to add - Apeldoorn has more indoor velodromes than the whole of the island of Ireland .....

MPFGLB

What is this !!!!¬!

..How am I going to follow that and where am I going to get a picture of Pippo Pozzatto :eek:

Lusk_Doyle

Until now I have always read Sagefredo as Segafredo and thought it was a computer games system related company. A coffee company makes much more sense!

Lusk_Doyle

MPFGLB wrote: »

where am I going to get a picture of Pippo Pozzatto

He's usually found at the back of any breakaway that he gets in waiting to jump his breakaway companions like the dirty dog that he is.

Darkglasses

Very good preview. Almost as good as Pelevin's.

I'm plumping for Dumoulin.

letape

I just realised I need to travel to Amsterdam for work on Monday. Haven't booked flights yet so need to try and get over for the weekend!

Thanks for the preview Pudsy33.

DDC1990

Any Velogames Boards group for this?

Darkglasses

DDC1990 wrote: »

Any Velogames Boards group for this?

Yes: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057592357

Melodeon

Dammit Pudsy, how the hell are the rest of us supposed to follow that???

Anyhow, here's the official map of the stage:


...and here's what the Garibaldi has to say about it:

This individual time trial runs entirely through the city, along wide, straight avenues, with just a few 90-degree bends. Speed bumps, roundabouts and street furniture will be found throughout the route. Split time is taken at km 4.8.

The final kilometres are completely flat, with two right-hand bends and three straight stretches in between. The final bend leads into the 600-m long home straight, on 6.5-m wide asphalt road.

It looks tricky enough in places in my opinion, could reward someone getting brave on some of those corners.

Beasty

Darkglasses wrote: »

Very good preview. Almost as good as Pelevin's.

I'm plumping for Dumoulin.

Wow! You've lined up Dumoulin to do a preview - that's some coup....

dastardly00

Great job Pudsy33. I'm really looking forward to the Giro now!

A mod (i.e. Darkglasses) should add a poll!

All My Stars Aligned

Anyone know if this is on the tellybox?

MPFGLB

All My Stars Aligned wrote: »

Anyone know if this is on the tellybox?

What is tellybox ?

Its on Eurosport and there are streams you can get

All My Stars Aligned

MPFGLB wrote: »

What is tellybox ?

Its on Eurosport and there are streams you can get

TV, sorry.

pelevin

Cancellara apparently very under ze weather with stomach-flu so Dumoulin firm favourite now to win the opening tt.

Taxuser1

pelevin wrote: »

Cancellara apparently very under ze weather with stomach-flu so Dumoulin firm favourite now to win the opening tt.

tweeted early this morning and the bookies seized on it - all but Ladbrokes who kept Dumoulin at 2/1 - SWEET !

That said, wind is apparently set to favour the early starters so be mindful of your pick and where they come on the sheet.

I'm looking at Dumoulin and Van Emden to rouse the home support but the Aussies to kill it earlier in the day - Bobridge, Hepburn and Damian Howson who is flying. The first two are track pursuit training so it's all about the watts for them.

dastardly00

With Spartacus spending the day on the toilet, I can only foresee bad weather stopping Dumoulin from winning the stage.

The start order and times have been released (see attachment).

Start Order (selected riders) - GMT:

1. SABATINI Fabio 12.45
...
4. VOROBYEV Anton 12.48
...
36. BRANDLE Matthias 13.20
...
72. DEIGNAN Philip 13.56
...
83. GENIEZ Alexandre 14.07
...
93. GRETSCH Patrick 14.17
...
103. NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas 14.27
...
109. BOBRIDGE Jack 14.33
...
123. KEIZER Martijn 14.47
...
138. ROCHE Nicholas 15.02
...
155. KITTEL Marcel 15.19
...
163. BOARO Manuele 15.27
...
167. VAN EMDEN Jos 15.31
...
177. JUNGELS Bob 15.41
...
180. ZAKARIN Ilnur 15.44
...
182. LANDA Mikel 15.46
183. DUMOULIN Tom 15.47
184. VALVERDE Alejandro 15.48
185. MAJKA Rafa 15.49
...
191. URAN URAN Rigoberto 15.55
192. NIBALI Vincenzo 15.56
...
194. KUNG Stefan 15.58
...
197. CANCELLARA Fabian 16.01
198. HEPBURN Michael 16.02

Taxuser1

Here is the weather

Should be exactly the same for them all

https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/hourbyhour/l/NLXX0062:1:NL

Taxuser1

50/1 shot Hepburn goes off last - is there something in this ?

dastardly00

Taxuser1 wrote: »

50/1 shot Hepburn goes off last - is there something in this ?

The odds are pretty long for everyone apart from Dumoulin, Cancellara and a few others.

Pudsy33

I like Geniez and Bobridge at those odds. Got JVE longer too prior to the Cancellara thing

Solobally8

Aaahhhh! I'm so excited! Can't wait for this to kick off!

neris

The GCN boys and their Aero bikes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlyIk11wIg

neris

dastardly00 wrote: »

The odds are pretty long for everyone apart from Dumoulin, Cancellara and a few others.

few names there at 500/1 that would be worth a punt

Pudsy33

neris wrote: »

few names there at 500/1 that would be worth a punt

Damien Howson looks a good punt now that you mention it

neris

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Damien Howson looks a good punt now that you mention it

its a short flat TT that would give a long shot a good chance to get into pink. Peraud, Bewley, Boswell, Hesjdel even Greipel & Kittel have big odds but there are a few sprint stages later but TT could be a good chance for them to get the Pink

MPFGLB

What about Amador ??? Movistar always do good TTs..and he will be psyched

Lusk_Doyle

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Until now I have always read Sagefredo as Segafredo and thought it was a computer games system related company. A coffee company makes much more sense!

It is Segafredo. I knew that I wasn't that bad at reading.

pajor

Myself and my gf were going to take her younger sister to Apeldoorn earlier to buy some mountain biking gear. We then remembered that the Giro started today, right beside the shop we were going to. So we then scrapped that idea.

Apeldoorn is about 35 mins from where we live. They have brilliant weather for it. About 22 degrees here atm.

As mentioned above a lot of talk in media here about Dumoulin getting today's short TT and having a real chance for the maglia rosa. Would really like to see some Dutch success myself over the next couple of days. Forza Olanda!

dastardly00

Oh t*ts I presumed Stage 1 was starting tomorrow, not today!

isitraining

https://twitter.com/ozDanJones/status/728562913158561792

This is quite disappointing - no backstage pass for the Giro.

pelevin

Feels like summer has burst out all over Europe.

neris

isitraining wrote: »

https://twitter.com/ozDanJones/status/728562913158561792

This is quite disappointing - no backstage pass for the Giro.

Thats **** really enjoy bsp

pelevin

Van Emden hits the ground after going too fast into a corner. Shows how not to be too confident in predictions for riders even in races like a tt like this. One error like that & chances of victory out the window.

retalivity

Decent time by deignan and roche earlier.

Dumoulin is flying round.

DDC1990

Edit: Are spoilers ok in this thread by the way. Don't want to piss anyone off.

pelevin

DDC1990 wrote: »

Edit: Are spoilers ok in this thread by the way. Don't want to piss anyone off.

Any individual stage threads of a race don't need camouflage, I believe.

pajor

DDC1990 wrote: »

Edit: Are spoilers ok in this thread by the way. Don't want to piss anyone off.

Spoliers are okay in specific stage threads.

Dumoulin in provisional P1 by 0.02 seconds.

pelevin

Cycling gods haven't been too kind to Cancellara in his final season. Given Dumoulin only just beat Roglic(? - never heard of him!), that should presumably have been fairly straightforward for a fit Cancellara.
On the other side of that kind of coin though impossible to quibble with a bit of good fortune coming Giant Alpecin team's way this season.

Dodge

Any live updates on the giro site or am missing that?

Looking for the times for each rider

DDC1990

A close one for people with a few quid on Doumoulin. Happy he finished the right side of the fractions of seconds.

isitraining

Dumoulin takes the win and the pink jersey. Spartacus well back, 14 seconds behind - obviously hadn't recovered from yesterday's illness.

Dodge

Dodge wrote: »

Any live updates on the giro site or am missing that?

Looking for the times for each rider

Never mind. Found the "follow the tour" link

crosstownk

Dodge wrote: »

Any live updates on the giro site or am missing that?

Looking for the times for each rider

It's well hidden - it took me ages to find it.

Click on 'Follow the Tour' on the right hand side of the pink bar near the top of the page.

EDIT: I see you've already found it!

I'm also having issues with the iPhone Giro app - I'm getting a language error (as my phone is set to Irish) and the app just hangs

pelevin

Actually the big surprise of the day is the quiet, almost anonymous performances by some of the big names. People like Darkglasses, dastardly, MPFGLB . . . they've hardly performed at all.

Pudsy33

Roglic is a former ski jumper turned pro cyclist. Not noted for his time trialing apparently so that's a fairly amazing result.

Darkglasses

Apologies for not adding a poll everyone - internet was completely down last night. Should be able to do it most days.

Darkglasses

isitraining wrote: »

https://twitter.com/ozDanJones/status/728562913158561792

This is quite disappointing - no backstage pass for the Giro.

That is so disappointing and frustrating. Their content production is absolutely top class - they do so much for promoting the sport on social media.

Velon does well to get 10% of the views that OGE do on Youtube.

fat bloke

So Rob Hatch is doing the commentary for the Giro.

Great.

Motogp it is then.