Giro 2017: STAGE 14 CASTELLANIA - OROPA 131 km

TheBlaaMan

This could be a very exciting stage - one of those very short stages that is divided into two parts: big ring stuff for a fast and flat 120 km across the Po Valley and then the 11-km climb to the sanctuary at Oropa (a UNESCO World Heritage used for 5 finishes in previous Giri) with an average gradient of around 6% maxing out at 13% a few kms before the finish. The gradient is low in the first part, up to Favaro but is at its steepest gradient (~ 13%) at Favaro and continues at around 9% to the top.

Oropa will be this year's Montagna Pantani with a prize awarded for the first rider home. It celebrates Pantani's many victories, especially his win on stage 15 of the 1999 Giro on this climb, when he was dropped after a mechanical accident requiring a new rear wheel at the foot of the climb, but with his team - which he then burned off at a pace - he chased all the way back to overtake and then drop Jalabert to take an unforgettable, PED-fuelled, victory. Despite all that we now know about his performances, the footage of that ride is still pretty intoxicating and very watchable here, if you are bothered - you can see why the Italians loved him.

In a link to today's Giro, Pantani's DS on that day, Giuseppi Martinelli, is now the DS of Astana in this Giro. Pantani was ejected from the race before the stage 20 start a few days later and thus commenced his fall and his ultimate demise in 2004.

Opopa was last used as a finish in the 2014 Giro, (began in Belfast) when Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani) won from a breakaway that included Nico Roche (5th @ 22sec) who was leading Saxo-Tinkoff at that Giro but in stage-hunting mode after his GC ambitions fell away. More interestingly, Quintana was a further 2 minutes back, albeit at the head of the main group; at that point in the race he was 3 mins off the lead (Uran) of the GC - in subsequent stages, notably the controversial Stelvio stage - he turned this around to a 3 minute GC-winning margin. Jan Polanc, winner of this years Etna stage, also featured in the finale that day.

The short stage means a late start, so it kicks off at 12:40 and is due to finish just after 4pm (Irish time). Live TV coverage of the full stage is on Eurosport 1.

With the initial shake-up that the ITT caused, the recent days have seen things stabilise and perhaps the gradients today aren't steep enough nor the climb long enough for any one of the top 5 to really blast the others off their back, so it may not result in significant change at the top of the GC heading into the last week. Then again - maybe it will ! Dumoulin was very confident in the post stage 13 interview that this climb suits him, so we'll see.

The betting odds are ..who cares, I've no time for that crap ..I reckon a good climber not in the top 10 is going to grab this and no change on the GC


PROFILE



PROFILE OF OPOPA CLIMB




General classification after stage 13

Rider Name (Country) Team Result
1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 56:28:53
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:02:23
3 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:38
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:02:40
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:02:47
6 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team 0:03:05
7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 0:03:56
8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:59
9 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team
10 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:04:17

Lusk_Doyle

Predict TD to attack and take some more time from his rivals.

dastardly00

From looking at the profile, the road seems to go uphill from the 24km mark :pac:

I don't expect too much fireworks to be honest. Dumoulin to lose 30 seconds at the very most to Quintana.

retalivity

Id imagine some of thr other lads in the top ten may try something...pozzovivo or zakarin

dastardly00

Dan is in the breakaway! Go Dan! :cool:

Eamonnator

dastardly00 wrote: »

Dan is in the breakaway! Go Dan! :cool:

Go Dan Go
I reckon, todays his day

dastardly00

Who's co-commentating alongside Rob Hatch at the moment?

EDIT: It's British National RR champion and Aqua Blue Sport rider Adam Blythe

MPFGLB

Adam Blythe

Doc07

dastardly00 wrote: »

Who's co-commentating alongside Rob Hatch at the moment?

I'm watching it on Rai wth Italian commentary. No joke, they can't go two minutes without a mention of Pantani.

dastardly00

MPFGLB wrote: »

Adam Blythe

Thanks, just heard Rob Hatch say it

dastardly00

Bora were setting a high pace and leading the peloton just there a minute ago... Sam must fancy his chances :pac:

Inquitus

Jaysus, charging into the bottom of the climb at warp speed!

Eamonnator

Doc07 wrote: »

I'm watching it on Rai wth Italian commentary. No joke, they can't go two minutes without a mention of Pantani.

Is it any more exciting in Italian?

Doc07

Eamonnator wrote: »

Is it any more exciting in Italian?

Yes, lots of unecessary enthusiasm when nothing is happening and just the correct amount when something happens up front.
And did I mention that they can't stop talking about Pantani.

Lusk_Doyle

Doc07 wrote: »

Pantani.

Who?

dastardly00

Impressive so far from Tommy D

nilhg

Savage racing, Quintana doesn't seem to be able to extend the gap, at least yet

dastardly00

Surprised that Pinot cracked

Doc07

dastardly00 wrote: »

Impressive so far from Tommy D

Domoulin is a beast

dastardly00

Zakarin to win the stage

De Bhál

Dumoulin you legend

Lusk_Doyle

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Predict TD to attack and take some more time from his rivals.

My man Tom!!!

Doc07

De Bhál wrote: »

Dumoulin you legend

Must be soul destroying for Quintana to attack, look behind and see Big Mig, sorry I mean Big Tom, cruising behind him

De Bhál

fantastic

Inquitus

22 seconds to Tom, awesome!

irishrover99

Get the feck in there

dastardly00

Holy Moses! :eek:

Eamonnator

Jaysus, Tom is really taking it to them

Dcully

Holy hell wow

Miklos

Shades of Merckx!

Lusk_Doyle

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Predict TD to attack and take some more time from his rivals.

Warning: Man crush overload approaching critical mass!

dragratchet

Sensational from Dumoulin. great finale.

dastardly00

Mollema losing big time

Boscoirl

Cracking finish to the stage today!

Subpopulus

Still no stage win for Italy....

Lusk_Doyle

How to win a bike race as told by TD. Single handedly dealt with the attack and then finished it himself.

24 seconds up today. Not 22.

Daroxtar

TD is wrecking my Velogames but that was great to watch. He crushed Quintana there.

velo.2010

Dave B in the Team Sky bus, pulling himself silly at the though of signing up Dumoulin in the next couple of years.

Subpopulus

Amazed at how toothless Quintana was in attack...

Subpopulus

Wild american accent on Dumoulin.

Lusk_Doyle

velo.2010 wrote: »

Dave B in the Team Sky bus, pulling himself silly at the though of signing up Dumoulin in the next couple of years.

Think of the domination. Real shades of Miguel in the rain.

TheBlaaMan

Subpopulus wrote: »

Amazed at how toothless Quintana was in attack...

The thing that impresses me about Dumoulin is how confident he feels. Long may it continue, I'd love to see him take the Giro, that was an impressive performance from him. Assuming.he has a good final time trial, he is building up a nice lead...

velo.2010

Does Quintana go for it in the final week, knowing Dumoulin doesn't have strong team, or does he settle for a podium with an eye on keeping something for the Tour?

Inquitus

velo.2010 wrote: »

Does Quintana go for it in the final week, knowing Dumoulin doesn't have strong team, or does he settle for a podium with an eye on keeping something for the Tour?

We have seen in a good few Grand Tours of recent times the damage that can be done if you have a weak team and get dropped prior to the final climb. Quintana can still win this, and Tom's team is weak enough, especially with the loss of Kelderman. I wish Tom all the best, but this is still a contest, especially with the multi-mountain stages to come.

Makes for an exciting final week

lissard

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Makes for an exciting final week

Tuesday will reveal all.

Lusk_Doyle

Surely only stages 16 and 18 are the risky ones for TD to lose it? The others don't look like anything he would be too perturbed by.

Inquitus

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Surely only stages 16 and 18 are the risky ones for TD to lose it? The others don't look like anything he would be too perturbed by.

Here's what we have left. I would agree 16 and 18 are the only ones where Tom could ship really serious time, but should he drop some time here and there then the others could come into play. Conventional wisdom says the final TT is worth at least 2 minutes for him over Quintana. You'd think Stage 16 with the double Stelvio which is also at very high altitude will be the crunch, but as a Multi-Mountain Stage, 18 could also be somewhere a lot of damage could be done. Fingers crossed for Tommy D, I for one, would love to see him win,

Stage 15


Stage 16


Stage 17


Stage 18


Stage 19


Stage 20


Stage 21

irishrover99

velo.2010 wrote: »

Does Quintana go for it in the final week, knowing Dumoulin doesn't have strong team, or does he settle for a podium with an eye on keeping something for the Tour?

I think if Quintana cant win this while his team are bossing the peloton against a pretty much a one man team in douimolan, what hope does he have against froome and sky if they are on form. The mortirollo climb will be critical in this race. Movistar have to light it up from the beginning.

irishrover99

And I don't think that climb was steep enough for Quintana. TD was in time trial position in the last k and in the big chain ring for most of the last few k's