Giro d'Italia Stage 19: Treviso-San Martino 151km

neris

The drudgery is nearly over and the weekend is only a few hours off. Short enough stage today with an uphill finish. Anyone wanting to pick pink of Carapaz would probably want to try something today to eat into his time or more.

It seems Vegni feels obligated to design at least one depressing MTF each year, so this year we get this one. This one is a short MTF ending in the heart of the Dolomites and avoiding most of them. The stage starts in Treviso and presents its first difficulty after 16 km, where the peloton will climb one of the many sides of Montello, S.Maria della Vittoria (4.8 km at 5.5%), which like all sides of Montello has a killer first km and then eases off to a false flat at the top. After the descent the road becomes flat again, but only for a few km: from the town of Valdobbiadene the terrain gets quite tricky, with twisty roads and even some >6% ramps here and there. This section lasts until the foot of the first GPM of the day, Passo di San Boldo (GPM3, 6.3 km at 6.8%), very famous for its tunneled hairpins near the top. There, a very fast descent brings everyone back to some more rolling terrain and two intermediate sprints, after which there will be the second GPM of the day, Lamon (GPM4, 4.8 km at 5.1%), which is also the easiest climb of the day. The descent is very short, and after it a 17 km long ascending false flat starts that brings to Fiera di Primiero, at the foot of the final climb of the day. San Martino di Castrozza (GPM2, 13.6 km at 5.6%) is basically two thirds of Passo Rolle, a very constant and pretty tame climb which is often overshadowed by its neighbours in terms of fame. It is, however, the first Dolomitic climb to have been raced in the Giro, so it has that going for it. Its ramps at a steady 6% will likely decide the winner today. Maybe the organizers had in mind something like the stage to Prato Nevoso of last year: have a straightforward MTF that might show the strength left to each GC contender, and with some luck show some weakness from the leader, encouraging a final full-out battle for tomorrow. Or maybe, they didn't have much in mind and just thought the Giro was already too hard as is, who knows...

Looks fun


CARAPAZ Richard MOVISTAR TEAM 79h 44’ 22” 0’ 00”
NIBALI Vincenzo BAHRAIN - MERIDA 79h 46’ 16” 01’ 54”
ROGLIC Primoz TEAM JUMBO - VISMA 79h 46’ 38” 02’ 16”
LANDA MEANA Mikel MOVISTAR TEAM 79h 47’ 25” 03’ 03”
MOLLEMA Bauke TREK - SEGAFREDO 79h 49’ 29” 05’ 07”
LOPEZ Miguel Angel ASTANA PRO TEAM 79h 50’ 39” 06’ 17”
POL MAJKA Rafal BORA - HANSGROHE 79h 51’ 10” 06’ 48”
GBR YATES Simon Philip MITCHELTON - SCOTT 79h 51’ 35” 07’ 13”
RUS SIVAKOV Pavel TEAM INEOS 79h 52’ 43” 08’ 21”
ITA FORMOLO Davide BORA - HANSGROHE 79h 53’ 21” 08’ 59”

dastardly00

The profile is a bit... meh

There will probably be a handful of seconds between the GC guys at the finish.
Nibali will have to wait until tomorrow to attack properly.

I wonder will Demare try and get into the breakaway so to gain some points??

neris

Here's a look at the hairpins at the top of the climb, as the break make their way up.

c.p.w.g.w

That road in the OP was built in 100 days during WWI:eek:

Also any chance of Nibs making an attack on the final climb

This stage certainly take the prize for best scenery so far. Has it been a poor Giro in that regard? Route hasn't been as pretty as previous years imo.

EDIT: Just spotted Boaro is not riding the usual black Argon 18 bike Astana use. It's more a grey with blue accents on the forks. Very nice indeed.

neris

last nights cycling podcast were saying that the organisers had a totallt different route planned out for this year starting in the south but two weeks before all the agreements with the start and finish tows were to be signed there was some sort of drama involving fraud and money stuff in the start town so they had to redo the route within a few weeks for the whole race.

neris

wonder are orica green edge mitcheton scott tie my kangaroo down sport trying to ride Chaves into form to be GC leader at the touru

neris

should be bonus seconds to any rider who punches a runner and puts them on their arse on an uphill section

neris

dahat

Dunbarr is the group of favourites at the end?

Gutted for Vendrame there, he managed to fight back and finish second after he dropped his chain. Could have had a real chance but for that.

Mefistofelino

dahat wrote: »

Dunbarr is the group of favourites at the end?

Yup - 24th on stage, no change in overall position or young rider classification.

neris

Good day for Mitchelton they won at the Tour of Norway to