Giro d'Italia 2018 stage 19: Venaria Reale – Jafferau 184km

Inquitus

STAGE 19: Venaria Reale – Monte Jafferau 184 km*

May 25th




Technical Overview:
This stage. At the same time, the most intriguing and the most upsetting of this race. It starts in Venaria Reale, at the Royal Palace of Savoy, and heads immediately towards the mountains. The first difficulty of the day comes after just 35 km of ascending false flats. Colle del Lys (GPM2, 13,8 km at 4,3%) from the easy side is not much, but its will still be a key point of the stage, since the composition of the breakaway of the day has an enormous importance with this kind of design. The descent is very technical too, so it might be another important factor to consider. At the bottom the riders will breathe for 30 km of flat, that lead to the town of Susa. Here the peloton will hit the Cima Coppi of this Giro, one of the most famous recent climbs in the cycling world. The mighty Colle delle Finestre (CC, 18.5 km at 9.2%) is the only other monstrous climb of this Giro after the Zoncolan. Everyone knows it's features by now: extremely regular at around 9%, its top 8 km are on gravel. It starts at 91.8 km to go and ends at 73.3. One can hope. In any case, it's one of the prettiest climbs out there, so it's worth to watch it. The descent is quite short but very technical, and brings into the middle of one of the most classic climbs of both Giro and Tour. Sestriere (GPM2, 16.2 km at 3.8%) is full of false flats from this side (well, also from the other) and it will do damage only if something already happened on Finestre. At the top, 45.6 km to go. 23.7 km are descent, albeit very easy, to reach the town of Oulx. From there the riders will have to go 14.7 km of ascending false flat, leading to Bardonecchia, and then the final climb of the day will start, Monte Jafferau (GPM1, 7.2 at 9.1%). It is constant and very steep (without going crazy), always between 8-10%, but it's relatively short, so hopefully it won't be too intimidating to the riders. The last time the Giro came here we barely saw any pictures due to bad weather, so let's hope we are luckier this time. With the weather and with the race attitude. As I mentioned, this is the most intriguing stage, because Finestre is what it is and it's still within range for something to happen, yet this is also the most upsetting, because when you see Finestre you expect it to be the protagonist of the stage, and here it is unlikely that it will be. The worst part is the presence of Jafferau, which is a really hard climb and could very well be the incentive for every GC guy to wait for the last 7 km of the stage. Which would be a huge waste. If the stage ended in Bardonecchia (as, by the way, the official name of the stage would suggest) it would be much better, as Finestre would be the only chance for GC attacks. however, if the choice is between having Jafferau with Finestre-Sestriere vs having Jafferau with Sestriere alone, I gladly choose the former option and hope for the best.

Final km



The Climbs:
Colle del Lys (GPM2, 13,8 km at 4,3%)
A very irregular climb, with only one challenging section of 5.5 km at 7.1%.


Colle delle Finestre (Cima Coppi, 18.5 km at 9.2%)
One of the most beatiful climbs in Italy, and it's also one of the hardest, being long, steep and with 8 km of gravel at the end. The good news for the riders is that it's very regular, just having a steeper ramp at the beginning and afterwards being always between 8-10%, so one can find his own pace and keep it.
It tops at 2178m, making it the highest mountain (thus Cima Coppi) of this edition, by just 43m over the Gran Sasso. It's been ridden in the Giro only 3 times, in 2005, 2011 and 2015, the latter as Cima Coppi, like this year.


Sestriere (GPM2, 16.2 km at 3.8%)
One of the most iconic climbs in cycling, because of the Giro and also the Tour. The riders will climb only the upper half of it.


Monte Jafferau (GPM1, 7.2 at 9.1%)
A short but steep climb, without any respite. Before its revival in 2013, it was raced only once, in 1972, when Merckx won. This will be the third time.


What to Expect:
Let's start with the end: Monte Jafferau is a very good climb and should guarantee meaningful GC action in the last 5 km. The rest of the stage is very hard to predict. I believe an attack on Finestre (or even just on Sestriere) can work only if you have teammates up the road, which is why our chances depend on what happens on the first climb of the day. If the breakaway is irrelevant, we'll just watch the scenery. Still, Finestre should force a selection by itself, so maybe even the worst cas scenario is not that terrible...


Colle delle Finestre

*shamelessly lifted from here

Inquitus

Inquitus wrote: »

Good article and some pictures on the state of the Finestre tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/lafiammarossa/status/999684875794960384

The Top of the Finestre looks in rag order from those photos taken yesterday, this should be an epic stage, hopefully Sky throw the kitchen sink at MS and carnage ensues. Yates will need to hope yesterday was just a blip, Dumoulin and the rest will hope it was the first signs of a week 3 fade.

martyc5674

Haven’t been following this at all but fascinated by those pics of Finestre... what time do ye think they’ll be hitting it?.. would love to see it

neris

was looking last night at a link someone put on twitter to other climbs in that area. some fantastic but mad looking gravel climbs in that area. the roads are tiny and twisty and but great views

Thud

Are Sky going to whip out a gravel bike for the gravel section

Melodeon

martyc5674 wrote: »

Haven’t been following this at all but fascinated by those pics of Finestre... what time do ye think they’ll be hitting it?.. would love to see it

Here's the official stage schedule:


Depending on how hard the stage is raced, they anticipate them arriving at the start of the climb around 2:00-2:20pm local time.
So, 1:00pm or so here in Ireland, give or take.

Kiryienka and Aru out of the race.

Thud

Deleted User wrote: »

Kiryienka and Aru out of the race.

Wonder what that means for Aru's Tour plans

dastardly00

Peloton not really slowing down much during the food stop. The breakaway only have a handful of seconds advantage

neris

on finestre now

Inquitus

Curtains for Yates

irishrover99

oh lord

EC1000

Yates in bother already!

dastardly00

Sh*t hitting the fan!

Inquitus

He is going to ship so much time he won't even be in the Top 10

neris

this is one stage where id actually like to see sky do something

irishrover99

Froome can't win this. It would be disastrous for cycling if he gains back 3 minutes over the next 2 stages.

neris

road surface looks to be turning to irish country lanes

retalivity

Wow

Mefistofelino

irishrover99 wrote: »

Froome can't win this. It would be disastrous for cycling if he gains back 3 minutes over the next 2 stages.

I suspect that Froome, having disposed of Yates, will try to mug TD on the climb to the Bardonecchia - its probably too steep for Dumoulin to keep up with climbers like Froome and Pozzovivo. Tomorrow's climbs look a tiny bit gentler (relatively speaking) so TD can diesel his way along.

Pozzovivo might win this yet - assuming he doesn't disappear into the mud on Finestre

irishrover99

Dumoulin looks comfortable and sky only one rider left

Inquitus

This is insane

Itziger

Just the 80k then for Froomey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EC1000

Is Froome planning an 80km solo???

retalivity

Jesus christ froome attacking off the front woth 80k to go. This is mad

Mefistofelino

Froome looks like a cycling version of the Pixar angle-poise lamp.

Whyner

Those 4 bonus seconds Yates gave away could be the difference between 20th and 21st

Cruel sport. He looked so good up until yesterday. I feel for him, torturous few hours ahead or will he just ease off once he's fallen waaaaay behind

neris

2nd time in a few short years MS have lost the lead of a GT near the end

irishrover99

Sam Oomen needs to earn his stripes today for TD

retalivity

This is so un-sky and un-froome like - properly mental attacking off the fronton your own with 80k to go

Whyner

Yates down 6 mins just like that