Giro d'Italia Stage 21 » Cuneo › Torino (163k)

Pudsy33

Route

After 3 weeks of exciting racing and GC action, it's time for the final stage in Turin. As is usually the case with Grand Tours these days, it's one for the sprinters. That said there is a little sting in the tail of his stage, an 8% ramp on the finishing circuit they'll tackle eight times.





Contenders

Peter Sagan Giacomo Nizzolo has been the ever present second place in the Giro ever the years. He'll be desperate to get his win today, with many other sprinters gone home. Sacha Modolo has 2 stage previously,and should be the biggest threat to Nizzolo today. Others that can feature are Nikias Arndt, Porsev,and Colbrelli.

Random Trivia

Turin is home to Juventus FC. Nicknamed The Old Lady, it is the third oldest club in Italian football and one of the most successful. Giovanni Trapattoni led them to 13 trophies between 1976-86. Juventus were kicked out of the Serie A, the first division, in 2006 after being implicated in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal. They've since recovered, and won the league this season gone.



Sorry for the short, and mainly football related, preview! Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the threads during the 3 weeks, particularly Melodeon and MPFGLB for the previews. See you for the Dauphine!

Paddigol

Thanks to one and all for the previews these last few weeks. Really adds to the enjoyment. Roll on July!

pelevin

Great work on the previews lads.

MPFGLB

Great Giro , especially for drama. The kind of race that could have attracted new fans (if they watched it)

BWT any new cycling fans this Giro on here ??

The Giro of personalities as well as riders ...Some disappointed and some rode to the top

My revelation (and there is always one) was SK...Thought he was excellent especially with those big shoulders , even his TT was great and he had no team to speak of in the mountains Chaves of course we saw last year in the Vuelta and he has a great kick on the hills/mountains but can fade as we saw before in the 3rd week.

I don't think the standard was extraordinary ...The Giro climbs are so hard that they favour a rider who may not necessarily go well at the Tour or Vuelta. (but that is great as each GT should have its own narrative with its own characters , not just the top 4 battling it out every time)

Others of note : Bob Jungels was great ,especially on the climbs and for such a big guy. Amasing yesterday when Majka rode to the end of the stage on his wheel...There is much lauding of who is the next big thing in cycling especially the new Indurain. This guy could be it

Happy also to see Joe Dombroski start to show the talent that his numbers have alluded to .Also happy the Darwin Attapuma began to show his climbing ability (Carlton Kirby must have been fit to be tied ...thankfully I didn't hear him)

Those who disappointed include Landa (mysterious illness) Uran (mysterious illness) Pozzovivo (mysterious illness) Valverde (can't handle altitude apparently, though still podiumed,which funnily enough is kinda a disappointment for him ) Dumoulin (started well but had no altitude training apparently) Fuglsang (who said he would podium but turns out he was too heavy).Majka ( who had his best result int he Giro but looked anonymous and never did anything of note)

The Astana team and especially Scarponi won it for Nibali imo

Movistar were ok especially with Amador ( who has a great descent and TT but a little heavy for high mountains) in the first 2 weeks but weren't great in the last week.

SKY except for Nieve were disappointing ...Deignan was sick and Roche too heavy (but in his defence he was pulled into the race just a few weeks before it started and didn't have the proper preparation or base after winter in hospital)

So on to the Tour next.

Maybe some others would like to do some previews ?

Pudsy33

I really enjoy writing the previews so I'll happily do it again for the tour. Obviously some new faces helping out would be great

Darkglasses

Well done on the previews, and thanks for a great read everyone. Havent posted much lately but been reading a lot

isitraining

Chaves is such a class act. Staying with his mate Uran to make sure he was okay! I hope he wins a grand tour soon.

dastardly00

Jeez so many crashes today.

I hope Nizzolo finally wins!!

dastardly00

Thanks to everyone for all the stage threads and previews. It's a lot of work and time consuming. They've been great and very enjoyable

dastardly00

I think that crash was Colbrelli's own fault...

isitraining

Delighted for Nizzolo!

Thanks folks for all the previews, links and chats! Great giro.

dastardly00

Yay Nizzolo finally wins a stage of the Giro!

MPFGLB

No happy for Nizzolo

Modolo complained but he he didn't get the prize

Really awful for Nizzolo ...he was so happy he was crying when he thought he won

pelevin

Didn't see it so no opinion on the rights or wrongs but a real pity obviously either way for Nizzolo. A quick look at the gc results - happy for Atapuma to have got a top 10 for the kind of rides he was putting in.

death1234567

Just saw the highlights and Nizzolo was rightfully demoted, very dangerous side swipe. I was suprised that the commentators didn't see it or comment but it's eurosport after all.