Giro d'Italia Stage 16 – May 27th, Ponte di Legno-Val Martello **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 16 – Tuesday May 27th, Ponte di Legno - Val Martello/Martelltal 139km (*****)

It's the Queen stage of this Giro... let's hope the weather doesn't ruin it (like last year)!

The peloton tackles the Passo Gavio after just 5km, and it's 17.6km long with an average gradient of 7.7%. Anybody targeting the KOM jersey will attack on this climb. Plus some of the GC teams will try and get one of their riders in the breakaway to try and help their team leaders later on in the day. So it should be a very frantic start!

Following a technical descent, next up is the infamous Stelvio. The summit of the Stelvio is the highest point of the 2014 Giro, and there are a whopping 40 KOM points on offer. The ascent from the Bormio side is 21.9km in length, at an average gradient of 7.12%, and a maximum of 14%, albeit only for a short section of road. When the riders reach the summit, the descent that follows is 25km long, containing an amazing 48 hairpin bends.

The final climb of the day to Val Martello may only have an average gradient of 6.4%, but there are plenty of sections that ramp up and over 10%. The final couple of kilometres are very steep, so if the GC guys are still together, big time gaps could still emerge between here and the finishing line.

This stage should suit Quintana and Pozzovivo down to the ground. The Colombian has been improving as the race has gone on, but the cold temperatures might prevent him from attacking earlier than he would like. Meanwhile Pozzovivo showed his first sign of weakness on the climb to Montecampione on Sunday, but the climbs today should suit him better. I don't think Uran will lose much time in this stage. He's been super strong so far, and he should have plenty of help from the likes of Wout Poels in the latter part of the stage. The rider that might suffer the most in this stage is Cadel Evans. He can't keep up with the likes of Quintana and Pozzovivo when they attack, but he has immense ability to claw back the gaps that they create. There are so many other questions to be answered... has Fabio Aru recovered from his win on Sunday? Can Rafal Majka keep up his impressive form? How many Orica-GreenEdge riders will finish?


Map:



Profile:


See post #2

Passo di Gavio:



Passo dello Stelvio:



Val Martello Martelltal:



Last kms:



Weather - Ponte di Legno: Rain and perhaps a thunderstorm in the afternoon. High 14C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 kph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around 6mm. Val Martello: Rain, 1.8 - 5mm. Temperature of 3C. Light air.

Stage Betting: Nairo Quintana 7/4; Fabio Aru 7/1; Julian Arredondo 11/1; Domenico Pozzovivo 11/1; Fabio Duarte 11/1.

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm. Highlights on Sky Sports 3 at 8pm and Eurosport2 at 11pm. Note: Eurosport TV schedule is always liable to change without notice.

Live text ticker here.

happytramp

Don't forget the basics Dastardly

bazermc

happytramp wrote: »

Don't forget the basics Dastardly

Looks as tough as the Evil !!!

happytramp

Hopefully the weather doesn't get too bad. Would hate too see them cut the route short.

Keep up to date with the Stelvio weather cam....looks like snow.

http://www.stelvio.net/english/webcam/stelvio---passo-stelvio---webcam_57.html

MPFG

I think its too hard so nothing much will happen till last climb

Its possible the break can stay away again as no one in the leaders group is totally confident hence they may not have their teams chase and will want to keep them till the end. But as usual break will be doomed if missing one or more of the Italian Pro Continental teams who no doubt will be towed by TV motor bikes

As for Julian Arredondo 11/1 ...emmmmmm........all I have seen from him are ill advised attacks that run out of steam ( must have that Danish DS as well )


If I were a betting person I would be inclined to back Pierre Rolland

daramike

Niemiec 50/1 has to do something some where tomorrow could be the day. I like Rabottini 100/1 and Preidler 100/1 as well.

Darkglasses

In non-Giro news, Taylor Phinney had a bad crash today at the US national road race and has broken his leg.

MPFG

Quintans back on ( or still on) antibiotics as has an ear infection and fever

Doesn't look good.....

retalivity

Pirazzi 25/1 boom!!!

Darkglasses

Moneyback if an Italian wins a stage is pretty great, that covers a lot of riders. I'm not a betting man, but that means it doesn't make much sense to bet on an Italian then?

vektarman

I've backed Aru each way at 100/1 for the Giro, hopefully he can maintain his impressive form, less impressive is Paddypower only paying on the first 3 E/W.

MPFG

Darkglasses wrote: »

Moneyback if an Italian wins a stage is pretty great, that covers a lot of riders. I'm not a betting man, but that means it doesn't make much sense to bet on an Italian then?

I know nothing about betting but is that just a ploy to ensure people don't bet on Italians ....

dastardly00

Well Rafal Majka is sorted for this stage ...... Oleg and Bjarne have done the recce of the route...

MPFG

And don't forget Basso ...he rode up with Bjarne ....(though not in picture)
Looks very highly he is going to Saxo

In Froome's bip he said he was talking to Saxo at end of 2011 and they were interested

But they had Contador at the time on his 5 year contract ....imagine that 2 in the one team

Darkglasses

MPFG wrote: »

And don't forget Basso ...he rode up with Bjarne ....(though not in picture)
Looks very highly he is going to Saxo

In Froome's bip he said he was talking to Saxo at end of 2011 and they were interested

But they had Contador at the time on his 5 year contract ....imagine that 2 in the one team

He'd want to be really bloody cheap IMO, he looks well past it. 400/1 for a stage win tomorrow. Even Nico's only 100/1!

dastardly00

If Basso was on a Ducati, he still wouldn't win. I don't understand really why Tinkoff is supposedly interested in him. He's gone too old.

Brian?

dastardly00 wrote: »

If Basso was on a Ducati, he still wouldn't win. I don't understand really why Tinkoff is supposedly interested in him. He's gone too old.

He has the perfect engine for a super domestique.

MPFG

Basso is younger than Cadel Evans & years younger than Chris Horner

I don't think it is necessarily age that curtails his performance ....

He was in great form at last years Vuelta but abandoned on the very cold day because of hypothermia

I think he might be still capable of one or 2 very good results....maybe he thinks Bjarne can help him ......I imagine he would be a very expensive domestique...

Morrisseeee

What an easy stage, look at ALL that descending.......... :cool:

:pac:

bazermc

Morrisseeee wrote: »

What an easy stage, look at ALL that descending.......... :cool:

:pac:

What goes down must go up!!!!!

retalivity

EBH is a DNS today, and cyclingnews seem to think that Uran is not happy about something already...

dastardly00

The peloton are nearly at the summit of the Gavia but there doesn't seem to be any attacks yet. Plenty of riders getting shelled out the back I think though.

Paddigol

Basso one of those out the back it seems... Along with Scarponi...

dastardly00

Photo from Katusha team car going up the Gavio



:eek:

Paddigol

Not Nico's kind of weather. Will be interesting to see how Deignan goes - Sunday should have given him a good injection of confidence. Another miserable Giro for Team Sky really. Deignan should have a free rein.

Darkglasses

Tennis :rolleyes:

Come on ES, it's the queen stage!

Stroon

Darkglasses wrote: »

Tennis :rolleyes:

Come on ES, it's the queen stage!

Do Eurosport choose to only start the coverage at 1.30 or is there some kind of rights issue?

blobbie

Stroon wrote: »

Do Eurosport choose to only start the coverage at 1.30 or is there some kind of rights issue?

And that will entail 10 minutes of waffle @ the start before any coverage.

Chips Lovell

It'll depend on when the live feed is available from host broadcasters. Sometimes it comes right from the gun, others it starts later in the stage.

Then its up to Eurosport. They'd generally wait till whatever tennis match is underway to finish before switching.

Darkglasses

The coverage has started on eurosport player, but without commentary.

89km to go, everyone has their rain jackets on so I've no idea who anyone is

Darkglasses

Vuillermoz, Pelizotti, and Cataldo are alone at the head of the race.