Tag: Giro d’Italia

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Three Days in Denmark

This year’s Giro d’Italia couldn’t have gone off to a more dramatic three days of racing as it wound its way through Denmark. The technically demanding ITT Stage One (8.7km) was defined by a 3km stretch of power-sapping head wind that finally saw victory for BMC Racing’s Taylor Phinney in a time of 10’26”, with Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) nine seconds adrift for second place and Garmin-Barracuda’s Alex Rasmussen on +13″ for third. Thomas commented afterwards: ‘I definitely tried to keep a bit back for the last 3k and that headwind and then I emptied the tank all the way to the line.’

 

Day Two – flat 206km, Herning to Herning – was all about the bunch sprint finish that saw an utterly convincing win in a time of 4:53’12 from Team Sky’s Mark Cavendish: ‘Everybody handled it well and we stayed together as a team. I was really looked after at the finish and kept sheltered. Geraint took me perfect and went exactly when he was supposed to. I was able to come off him and win the stage so I’m very, very happy.’

 

But what a difference 24 hours makes: Day Three proved disastrous for Cav when a chaotic finish saw the World Champion involved in a high-speed pile up with race leader Taylor Phinney. Just as Cavendish was looking likely to make it two wins in a row at the end of the 190km stage Roberto Ferrari moved out sharply and took Cav’s front wheel out from under him. Although hurt, Cavendish was able to carry his bike across the line and is expected to continue his participation in the Giro; Team Sky Doctor, Richard Freeman, said: ‘Mark’s had a bad crash and is very uncomfortable but we’re taking care of him. We’re travelling as a team to Verona.’ The Stage Three win went to Australia’s Matt Goss (GreenEDGE) in 4:20’53” with today – Tuesday May 8 – being a rest day as proceedings shift to Italian soil ready for tomorrow’s Team Time Trials in Verona.

 

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Swift Exit

Team Sky’s Ben Swift has been forced to withdraw from the 95th edition of the Giro d’Italia, which starts tomorrow (May 5), after sustaining a fractured right shoulder whilst on a training ride. Swift, who has devoted much of the season start to track cycling, winning a world title in the scratch race and two further silver medals in the recent World Championships, will now concentrate on making a full recovery before committing to further competition. He will be replaced on the Giro by 38-year-old Brit Jeremy Hunt, an exceptionally experienced rider now in his 16th season as a pro who joined Team Sky after spending the 2009-10 season on the Cervélo Test Team; he has already ridden in all three of cycling’s Grand Tours and looks to make a strong contribution over the eight Giro stages.

 

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Giro d’Italia 2012

Well, the last 12 months certainly went by in a flash of a be-spoked wheel; which means it’s time for this year’s Cyclo preview of the Giro d’Italia. Running from May 5 to 21 and celebrating its 95th edition, the Giro, like its French cousin the Tour de France, has its roots in newspaper circulation wars. In August 1908 the Italian sports paper Gazetta dello Sport announced the inaugural staging of the Giro which it planned to organise along similar lines to the car rally supported by their rivals Corriere della Sera; nine months later, May 13, 1909, and the Gazetta’s founder Eugenio Camillo Costamagna, along with director Armando Cougnet and its editor Tullio Morgagni unleashed the first edition with 127 riders set to race from Loreto Place in Milan. Eight stages and 2448 kilometres later Italy’s Luigi Ganna claimed the 5,300 Lira prize and his place in history as the first ever Giro d’Italia winner.

 

Now part of the three Grand Tours (along with TdF and the much younger Vuelta a España, which was first held in 1935 but only became an annual event from 1955) the Giro d’Italia continues to amaze and delight. For the first time in its history this year’s edition will enjoy a Scandinavian start with the opening 8.7km Time Trial taking place in Herning, Denmark with days two and three (206km and 190km) also enjoying spectacular and challenging Danish hospitality before the move on day four to Verona, Italy, for the 33.2km Team Time Trial. In total the Giro will comprise 21 stages with a total ride distance of 3,503,9 km (an average, fact checkers, of 166.9 km per stage) and conclude with the 30.1km Team Time Trial in Milan on Sunday, May 27.

 

With seven flat stages, six medium and five high mountain stages, 2 Team Time Trials and the opening Individual Time Trial the full 2012 Giro d’Italia looks like this:

 

Stage 1 May 5 Herning – Herning 8.7km (ITT)

Stage 2 May 6 Herning – Herning 206km

Stage 3 May 7 Horsens – Horsens 190km

Stage 4 May 9 Verona – Verona 33.2km (TTT)

Stage 5 May 10 Modena – Fano 209km

Stage 6 May 11 Urbino – Porto Sant’Elpidio 210km

Stage 7 May 12 Recanati – Rocca di Cambio 205km

Stage 8 May 13 Sulmona – Lago Laceno 229km

Stage 9 May 14 San Giorgio del Sannio – Frosinone 166km

Stage 10 May 15 Civitavecchia – Assisi 186km

Stage 11 May 16 Assisi – Montecatini Terme 255km

Stage 12 May 17 Seravezza – Sestri Levante 155km

Stage 13 May 18 Savona – Cervere 121km

Stage 14 May 19 Cherasco – Cervinia 209km

Stage 15 May 20 Busto Arsizio – Lecco/Pian dei Resinelli 169km

Stage 16 May 22 Limone sul Garda – Falzes/Pfalzen 173km

Stage 17 May 23 Falzes/Pfalzen – Cortina d’Ampezzo 186km

Stage 18 May 24 San Vito di Cadore – Vedelago 149km

Stage 19 May 25 Treviso – Alpe di Pampeago/Val di Fiemme 198km

Stage 20 May 26 Caldes/Val di Sole – Passo dello Stelvio 219km

Stage 21 May 27 Milano – Milano 30.1km (TTT)

 

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Sky Gears Up for Giro

Team Sky’s squad for the Gito d’Italia has been finalised and formally announced. The 95th Giro, which runs from May 5 to 27, starting in the Danish town of Herning and ending in Milan, will see  Mark Cavendish making his fourth appearance at the Italian classic and heading up a formidable looking nine-man Sky line-up. The 26-year-old will be joined by Bernhard Eisel, Juan Antonio Flecha, Sergio Henao, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift, Geraint Thomas and Rigoberto Urán. Eisel and Flecha alone have already notched up 27 Grand Tours between them and look set to add considerable experience to the team.

 

Commenting on the squad’s announcement Mark Cavendish said, ‘The Giro is one of my favourite races of the season and I’m very happy to be riding it. We’ve got a good squad to go and win stages. Geraint, Pete and Swifty have just come off the track so they should have that explosive power which will be important in the first week, and the rest of the team have all done well in the Classics. We want to win the team time trial as well and hopefully that will get us the pink jersey. If we could achieve that it would be a massive honour for the team. It should be a really good three weeks because we’re all friends and have a good understanding on the road. The Tour de Romandie has allowed me to get some miles in the legs so come the start in Denmark I’ll be raring to go.’  With Ben Swift adding: ‘The Giro will always be a special race for me because it was the first Grand Tour I rode back in 2009 and I lived in Italy whilst on the British Academy…’

 

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Giro Goes Wild

RCS Sport, organisers of the Giro d’Italia, have announced the four wild-card squads invited to attend the 2012 edition. They are: Androni Giocattoli, Colnago-CSF Inox, Farnese Vini-Selle Italia and, something of a surprise, Team NetApp. The decision means that there will be no place for former winners Danilo Di Luca and Stefano Garzelli as their squad,  Acqua e Sapone, are left in the cold. The wild-cards were announced after consideration by the RCS commission which includes RCS Sport CEO Giacomo Catano, general manager Michele Acquarone and Pier Bergonzi of Gazzetta dello Sport.

 

The 2012 Giro d’Italia (the 95th edition) begins in Herning, Denmark, on May 5 and ends in Milan on May 27. For the first time in five years the race will not include the infamous climbing time trial.

 

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Giro Wild Cards

Michele Acquarone, director of the Giro d’Italia has announced via his blog that the wild card teams for the 2012 will be announced considerably earlier than usual next year. Usually the selection for wild cards is made once the UCI WorldTour season has begun but next year the announcement will be made on January 10, five days before even the Santos Tour Down Under begins. Acquarone posted: “Traditionally, attempts were made to postpone the selection in order to take indicators from the first races of the season…We forgo this privilege to give everyone the possibility to plan and prepare as best as possible for the season; both the teams that are going to participate and in our races in 2012 and, with regret, those that won’t.”

 

The 2012 Giro runs May 5 to 27, beginning for the first time ever in Scandinavia with Herning and Horsens hosting the opening stages.

 

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Giro 2012

Giro d'ItaliaThe route for the 2012 Giro d’Italia has been officially presented at a ceremony in Milan. The 95th edition of the classic, set to run from May 5 to 27, will stage the first three days in Denmark, the first ever Scandinavian start, with around 200 riders initially tackling an 8.7 kilometres Team Time Trial in the City of Herning before two further days of what looks to be some pretty spectacular and challenging Danish scenery. In another first for the race May 26, the penultimate challenge, will involve an altitude finish of 2757m at the Passo della Stelvio – the highest ever Giro finish line.

 

This year’s Giro winner, Saxo Bank-SunGard Alberto Contador, has already all-but ruled himself out of next year’s event (preferring, apparently to concentrate on the Tour de France) but has welcomed details of the 2012 route. Commenting on next year’s Giro he says, “If I should let my heart decide, I’d go to Herning in May next year to take on the Giro but I have other objectives next summer. I know the Danes have put in a great effort to create a good start of the race and I think everyone will be surprised to experience the passion for cycling there. I think the route is less extreme than this year but the stage finishes might cause problems for some riders as it might get nervous. The final week of the race will be very tough in the mountains. I’m sorry that I won’t be there but I feel right at home in Italy and I’m looking forward to be doing the Tirreno-Adriatico next year.”

 

The 2012 Giro will conclude on May 27 with a 31.5-km Individual Time Trial in Milan, the third against the clock race of the route after the first stage in Herning and a second scheduled Team Time Trial in Verona.

 

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Giro Victory for Contador

The 2011 Giro d’Italia has drawn to dramatic conclusion in Milan (Sunday, May 29) with Alberto Contador (Team Saxo Bank) pulling in a third place win on the final stage Individual Time Trial to secure overall victory with a time of  84:05:14. The Spaniard had, in all honesty, looked relatively unchallenged (even unchallengeable) since taking the lead way back on the ninth stage Mount Etna run.  Adding to his 2008 Giro title, the 2011 edition win now brings his Grand Tour victories to six. In a warm and sunny Milan it was Britain’s David Millar of Garmin who won the 26 kilometre ITT, taking a comfortable looking stage victory in just 30:13, seven seconds up on second place Alex Rasmussen (HTC-Highroad) and some 36 seconds ahead of Contador.

 

Although this year’s edition of the Italian classic delivered all of the expected action and some truly memorable stages of racing it will, of course, be most remembered for the tragic death of Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt of Leopard-Trek who died after crashing on the Giro’s third stage on May 9.

 

For full Giro d’Italia results see: www.uciprotour.com