Giro d'Italia 2016, May 19, Stage 12: Noale/Bibione *SPOILERS*

Melodeon

Date: Thursday 19th May
Type: Flat
Distance: 182Km
Start/Finish: Noale/Bibione


Stage Map:



Stage Profile:



2 (and a bit) x 8Km lap to the finish:



Given the layout of the finale lap above, I fully expect the race to the finish to look like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ODe9mqoDE

The General Classification after Stage 11:

Cruel reality forces me to not put Roche or Diegnans' positions in this any more


Preview (© www.theroar.com.au):

Stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia is the last flat sprinters’ stage before the riders finish the three-week race in Torino

This stage will be the end for a few of the key sprinters you would feel, including Andre Griepel who will be looking to rest up before he prepares for the Tour de France in six week’s time.

Therefore, a person like Griepel would love to leave the Giro with another stage win to an already successful race so far for his team Lotto-Soudal.
The stage is the least complicated of the tour, with their being pancake flat roads all the way between the starting point in Noale, and 182 kilometres further down the road in the finishing town of Bibione.

There are two intermediate sprint points on today’s route, in Ormelle after 95 kilometres, and Portogruaro after 131 kilometres.

The only real obstacle on today’s course are the final two circuits around the finishing town, with their being long straights, combined with 90 degree corners. Positioning in the bunch will be key as always, but only a fairly technical circuit, may be a little more so than usual.

As mentioned earlier, with him already take two stage wisn so far this race, and with the powerhouse Marcel Kittel already gone from the race, German Andre Griepel looks like the man to beat heading into potentially his final stage of the tour.

His team have been solid for him in the leadout thus far, and he will be looking for them to position him well again in the technical final. Griepel has the outright pace to win over any of the current sprinters in the race, so he must be the head favourite.

Arnaud Demare has twice finished second so far in sprints this tour, and will be looking to get that illusive stage win before also potentially heading home. The Frenchmen will be a key player for FDJ at the Tour de France, so much like Griepel will want to go out with a bang.

Demare must get on the wheel of Griepel in the finale, as his leadout train is less than impressive.

After being in sparkling form at the Tour of Turkey, Sacha Modolo has been consistent, with two third place performances on stages, but will want to crack his first win against the likes of Griepel and Demare before they go home. Modolo has the pace to feature, and a solid leadout train that can potentially challenge Lotto-Soudal.

However, l doubt Modolo has the outright speed to beat Griepel, but you never know.

Other riders to look out for include Kristian Sparagli (Dimension Data), Leigh Howard (IAM Cycling), Caleb Ewan (Orica Orica-GreenEDGE), Alexander Porsev (Katusha), Moreno Hofland (Lotto NL-Jumbo) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo).

LIVE TV:
Eurosport 1 - 1.45pm

HIGHLIGHTS:
Eurosport 1 - 8.30pm

MPFGLB

Well that is flat flat flat

Never mind Melodeon ...next week its nearly all mountain stages

pelevin

I expect Esteban Chaves to attack from the gun and and play the tactic of using the long flat stage to pull out a few minutes from the rest of the gc lads. With the big mountain stages yet to come, the few minutes gained here could prove very useful.

MPFGLB

Yeah...that stage has Chaves written all over it :D


Nico Roche Diary today : http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/nicolas-roche-various-riders-peeled-their-bikes-off-me-34728383.html

Looks like his legs aren't too bad if Boz & Knees were pacing him back to the peloton at different stages yesterday

I expect to see him in the break tomorrow

pelevin

MPFGLB wrote: »

Yeah...that stage has Chaves written all over it :D

Chaves should be able to use his smallness to get in under the wind & drive it home.

Lusk_Doyle

pelevin wrote: »

Chaves should be able to use his smallness to get in under the wind & drive it home.

Plus the others might not see him slipping away!

dastardly00

This stage should be quite boring.... So surely it won't distract me from work!!

JK.BMC

Carlos Betancur is built for this - should take it from Pozzovivo I reckon.
Or in the unlikely event of a big bunch sprint, then Capall OOOOewen, or whatever he's called, might sneak it.
Wake me up at the flamme rouge......

pelevin

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Plus the others might not see him slipping away!

That's another tactic he'll probably try to use. Tactics can be very important.

neris

ah feck i thought today was the stage where the road went uphill for the 1st 70km

Pudsy33

I'm backing Ewan and Mezgec to get this one right finally. That said it'll be Grepiel

dastardly00

Greipel has said that today will be his last stage before he leaves the race. So needless to say he'll be going at it hell-for-leather for the stage win.

neris

Lotto Soudal ‏@Lotto_Soudal 4m4 minutes ago
#Giro Daniel Oss is the only leader after 30km, two riders are chasing him (Maestri at 37" & Kolobnev at 1'28"). Peloton at 2'42".

ThisRegard

dastardly00 wrote: »

Greipel has said that today will be his last stage before he leaves the race. So needless to say he'll be going at it hell-for-leather for the stage win.

Not sure I like the attitude of planning on when you're going to bail from a race when you're not sick/injured or crashed.

Peterx

ThisRegard wrote: »

Not sure I like the attitude of planning on when you're going to bail from a race when you're not sick/injured or crashed.

It's unfortunate that he is in the red jersey, apart from that you would have to say the Giro has benefited from his presence up till now and all the remaining stages are hilly until the final day so it's fair enough to bail.
He would be spending the next 8 days in the grupetto carefully managing the time limit. He might as well do some training from the comfort of home.

ThisRegard

Yeah, I understand the stages coming up are far from suited to him, but I dunno, I like him but it seems a bit of a cop out before he even starts them in order to finish and be awarded the jersey. He won't be remembered in the records for having been the holder of the red jersey until he decided to abandon, one of the guys behind him will. Had he nothing to stay for it would be more understandable.

He doesn't get to keep the jersey if there's not enough points left on the road for him to be overtaken does he?

Eamonnator

I seem to remember, that a very prominent XC mountain biker started the Ras one year. A couple of stages in, he signalled his intention not to finish the race, stating that to finish the Ras would interfere with his plans for upcoming MTB races. He wasn't allowed to start the next stage.

pelevin

Esteba n Chaves has a gap of 42 minutes back to the peleton.

godtabh

Melodeon wrote: »

Given the layout of the finale lap above, I fully expect the race to the finish to look like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ODe9mqoDE

More like a game of this

https://twitter.com/Laura_Meseguer/status/733276642479624192

Eamonnator

Eamonnator wrote: »

I seem to remember, that a very prominent XC mountain biker started the Ras one year. A couple of stages in, he signalled his intention not to finish the race, stating that to finish the Ras would interfere with his plans for upcoming MTB races. He wasn't allowed to start the next stage.

I just checked.
It was the 1997 Ras.
Bart Brentjens was the rider involved. At the time, he was the reigning XC Olympic champion.

neris

pelevin wrote: »

Esteba n Chaves has a gap of 42 minutes back to the peleton.

42 minutes?? race over

pelevin

neris wrote: »

42 minutes?? race over

It was a good move all right.

stecleary

neris wrote: »

42 minutes?? race over

Daniel Oss - BMC Racing Team
Mirco Maestri- Bardiani CSF

2'30" with 75km remaining

neris

stage 19 looks like it could interesting, still alot of snow around from that video clip they just showed. proper giro

godtabh

GC time is happening on the last lap now

dastardly00

ThisRegard wrote: »

Yeah, I understand the stages coming up are far from suited to him, but I dunno, I like him but it seems a bit of a cop out before he even starts them in order to finish and be awarded the jersey. He won't be remembered in the records for having been the holder of the red jersey until he decided to abandon, one of the guys behind him will. Had he nothing to stay for it would be more understandable.

Yeah it is disappointing that the leader of a jersey is quitting the race. It devalues the jersey in my opinion. Like it'd be a big addition to Greipel's palmarès to win the points classification in a Grand Tour. He won it in the '09 Vuelta but that's it.

ThisRegard wrote: »

He doesn't get to keep the jersey if there's not enough points left on the road for him to be overtaken does he?

As soon as he abandons, he will be removed from the classification.

Given the amount of climbing and lack of flat stages left in the race, Diego Ulissi might have a good chance if he targets the breakaways and picks up points at the intermediate sprints. Although he is 10th in GC, so he'll have to lose some time first before being let away from the peloton.

1 André Greipel 119 pts
2 Arnaud Demare 103
3 Diego Ulissi 100
4 Giacomo Nizzolo 97
5 Maarten Tjallingii 82
6 Sacha Modolo 66
7 Matteo Trentin 64
8 Andrey Amador 57
9 Bob Jungels 52
10 Giulio Ciccone 47

neris

dastardly00 wrote: »

Yeah it is disappointing that the leader of a jersey is quitting the race. It devalues the jersey in my opinion. Like it'd be a big addition to Greipel's palmarès to win the points classification in a Grand Tour. He won it in the '09 Vuelta but that's it.

devalues the jersey and the race I think. Its getting far to common now for sprinters to turn up to giro and pull out when things go up hill, if lads like greipel and kittel cant handle the race then the teams shouldnt put them in. If theyre injured or break bones fair enough but pulling out of this and turning up at the TDF is an insult to the Giro

neris

why have they neutralised the finish for gc?

isitraining

neris wrote: »

why have they neutralised the finish for gc?

Because of anticipated bad weather. However now it's dry and sunny!

neris

man down

neris

lampre setting up ulisi?

godtabh

Greipel boxing in Ewan for the win.

isitraining

Poor SK has a mental block with Aussie riders. First Ronan Dennis now Cabel Ewan!

neris

thought ewan was going to get it, if he,d gone to greipels left he could have got it

velo.2010

Hmm... Ewan was quicker than Griepel there from the overhead shot.

Ewan was continuously bullied for position in the final few kms. Fair play to him for hanging onto Griepel's wheel but his lack of size is a problem as other riders will look to muscle him out of the way. Its his first GT so he'll learn a lot for the future.

godtabh

neris wrote: »

thought ewan was going to get it, if he,d gone to greipels left he could have got it

At one stage I thought he was going to change paths but not enough road for him

Brian?

velo.2010 wrote: »

Hmm... Ewan was quicker than Griepel there from the overhead shot.

Ewan was continuously bullied for position in the final few kms. Fair play to him for hanging onto Griepel's wheel but his lack of size is a problem as other riders will look to muscle him out of the way. Its his first GT so he'll learn a lot for the future.

It just shows that there's far more to sprinting than speed. Greipel held the ideal line and boxed Ewan out perfectly legally.

I actually think it's a terrible he's abandoning for no reason . Although Super Mario did it plenty of times and he's a sprinting legend.

neris

podium girl looks like she might have been a bit enthusiastic with the kisses for Jungles

Leroy42

Should GT organisers move the sprinters stages to later in the race? Have some of the punchy climbs, descents early on, followed by a few mountain tops and then a few sprinters stages?

It would mean the GC guys could light it up the first few days then rest a bit for the sprinters stages (relatively speaking)?

Or maybe perhaps give better incentives to sprinters who finish mountain stages?

dastardly00

Leroy42 wrote: »

Should GT organisers move the sprinters stages to later in the race? Have some of the punchy climbs, descents early on, followed by a few mountain tops and then a few sprinters stages?

It would mean the GC guys could light it up the first few days then rest a bit for the sprinters stages (relatively speaking)?

Or maybe perhaps give better incentives to sprinters who finish mountain stages?

From my cloudy recollection, back in the late 90's when I first started watching the TDF, there used to be quite a few flat stages in the third week of the race (before the traditional ITT on the penultimate). I don't know if that was the case with the Giro and Vuelta.

But in more recent years I think Grand Tour organisers have stacked the last week with mountains aplenty, I suppose to keep interest in the GC classification going until the end.

What makes the best GT race, I'm not sure.

Leroy42

I think the last few years where they have mixed it up a bit makes sense. A sprinters stage, ITT, TTT, cobbles, uphill finishes (not mountain), downhill, on the weekend have the Moutain top finishes, then repeat. IMO it would allow the GC riders to attack each mountain stage whereas now they might have 4 days in a row so in effect each day is about conserving energy to avoid burnout.

Or maybe introduce a rule that only medical factors (or personal issues) can be used to exit a race and much like international football, you then have to sit out the next X number of weeks.

buffalo

Leroy42 wrote: »

Or maybe introduce a rule that only medical factors (or personal issues) can be used to exit a race and much like international football, you then have to sit out the next X number of weeks.

The latter is somewhat covered by UCI rule 2.6.026 - if you drop out of a stage race normally you can’t resume racing elsewhere until that stage race is over:

A rider dropping out of the race may not compete in any other cycling events for the duration of the stage race that he abandoned, on pain of a 15 day suspension and a fine of CHF 200 to 1,000.

After consulting the event directors and the president of the commissaires panel, the UCI may, however, grant exceptions at the request of a rider and with the agreement of his sports director.

Credit: http://inrng.com/2016/03/the-rules-of-the-road-race/

neris

Leroy42 wrote: »

Should GT organisers move the sprinters stages to later in the race? Have some of the punchy climbs, descents early on, followed by a few mountain tops and then a few sprinters stages?

It would mean the GC guys could light it up the first few days then rest a bit for the sprinters stages (relatively speaking)?

Or maybe perhaps give better incentives to sprinters who finish mountain stages?

I dont think incentives are really going to do any thing to get the sprinters going but I do think the GT organsiers need to look at changing things around. All 3 now GTs end in the high mountains and makes it very much a climbers race, Dumoulin at the veulta been a good example. However I,d say TV have a bit of a say in what happens in week 3 of any GT and 6 days of sprints followed by a procession probably doesnt do anything for TV coverage

MPFGLB

Its a bleeding disgrace ..riders pulling from the Giro if not injured

Meanwhile at the Italian studio they are laying into SKY because of the team they brought to the Giro ....bloody hell would Thomas or Poles be any more prestigious than Landa ??

As for support they didn't not have Henao , Inxtausti or Konig at their disposal so brought Nieve & Roche instead who were supposed to ride the Tour but will probably not ride it now

So really its only Froome than could have made them happy but he could ride the Giro but not if riding the Tour to win ...so find the criticism ridiculous

While the same people don't criticize BMC with no GC men or Greipel /KIttel pulling out

stecleary

MPFGLB wrote: »

Its a bleeding disgrace ..riders pulling from the Giro if not injured

Agreed, Imagine working all wither to get a place on the team, not be selected and see a team mate pull out because the road starts going up.:mad:

Sprinters should just stay away and go to California for whats basically a week of sprinting.

dastardly00

stecleary wrote: »

Sprinters should just stay away and go to California for whats basically a week of sprinting.

Eh....
I'd suggest checking out the stage profiles for the ToC.

Today for example starts at sea level and finishes at Lake Tahoe which is 2,000 m above sea level.

And Tuesday's stage finished with a climb that was 12 km at 8% gradient. And yesterday wasn't exactly flat either. I could go on...

ThisRegard

Greipel has actually said that the decision to abandon was made before the Giro even started.

godtabh

dastardly00 wrote: »

Eh....
I'd suggest checking out the stage profiles for the ToC.

Today for example starts at sea level and finishes at Lake Tahoe which is 2,000 m above sea level.

And Tuesday's stage finished with a climb that was 12 km at 8% gradient. And yesterday wasn't exactly flat either. I could go on...

I've done a lap of Lake Tahoe. At that altitude nothing is easy

Brian?

dastardly00 wrote: »

stecleary wrote: »

Sprinters should just stay away and go to California for whats basically a week of sprinting.

Eh....
I'd suggest checking out the stage profiles for the ToC.

Today for example starts at sea level and finishes at Lake Tahoe which is 2,000 m above sea level.

And Tuesday's stage finished with a climb that was 12 km at 8% gradient. And yesterday wasn't exactly flat either. I could go on...

And yet it's an abysmal race to watch. The wide open roads really kill the rave atmosphere for me. The fans seem to be copying the worst excesses we see in the Tour/Giro?Vuelta as well.

neris

[QUOTE=Brian?;99781087 The fans seem to be copying the worst excesses we see in the Tour/Giro?Vuelta as well.[/QUOTE]

Antler man??

dastardly00

Brian? wrote: »

And yet it's an abysmal race to watch. The wide open roads really kill the rave atmosphere for me. The fans seem to be copying the worst excesses we see in the Tour/Giro?Vuelta as well.

I was arguing the point that the ToC isn't a holiday camp for sprinters... I didn't mention anything about how good the race was to watch on TV