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il Giro d'Italia 2011Italian unity Tour |
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The Giro d’Italia, the Tour of Italy, is the first major tour in the annual cycle of international cycle races. In 2011, the Giro takes place from the 5th to 29th May. Watching the Giro in Italy is very similar to watching the Tour in France. abelard.org has several pages giving general advice on how to be a effective road-side spectator.
The Giro will be broadcast on Gazzetta.it (the website for the organisers of the Giro), Rai3 (installation of MS Silverlight needed), as well as Eurosport.
the italian giroThis year, the Giro d’Italia celebrates 150 years of Italian unity, visiting 17 of Italy’s 20 regions. The common denominator of this year’s Giro and many of the cities being visited is il Risorgimento, or “the Resurgence”. The Kingdom of a United Italy was declared in 1861, its temporary capital being in Florence. Rome was only captured and became the capital city ten years later. In honour of the 150th anniversary of the unificatiion of Italy, the Italian road cycling champion, Giovanni Visconti, will be wearing the number 150. Each stage has some connection with the history of the unification of Italy, or the nation state of Italy. Piemonte, Reggio Emilia, Quarto dei Mille, Belluno, Castelfidardo, Ravenna, Messina, Orvieto, the Austrian border, Turin and Milan. In the north of Italy, this year’s Giro will visit a dozen places that were all traversed by the army of Giuseppe Garibaldi in the 1850s and 60s. His decisive campaign led to the unification of Italy. In 1861, Turin (stage 1) became the first capital of Italy. The Italian national flag was first flown in Reggio Emilia (stage 3). Messina (stage 9) was the site of one of Italy’s worst earthquakes in 1908, when about 70,000 people died. On the trail of Garibaldi, the 94th edition of the Giro will go through through Sicily (stage 8 and 9), as did the war chief. Garibaldi had sailed from Quarto with a thousand Piedmonte volunteers, whence the name of the starting point for the fourth stage - Quarto dei Mille, a district of Genoa. At Quarto, there is commemorative statue and a pillar, 200 metres away by the sea. Garibaldi’s campaign leading to the unification of Italy started with the taking of Sicily.
The seventh stage passes by Teano (now called Vairano Patenora) where Garibaldi met the future king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II. The eleventh stage stage ends at Castelfidardo, where Garibaldi’s Red Shirts won a crucial victory over the troops of the Pope. The last day’s stage, the individual time trial at Milan, recalls Garibaldi’s assistance in 1849 to Milan’s provisional government, formed during its rebellion against Austrian (Hapsburg) occupation. |
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a hard rideThis year’s race will be the toughest one for several years with
The official presentation of the course took place at
the Carignano theatre in the first capital of the Kingdom
of Italy. The frequently mountainous route could provide
the setting for a duel between Vincenzo Nibali and Riccardo
Ricco. |
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this year’s stages21 stages are planned , with six mountain stages, four medium mountain stages, a individual time trial (stage 1), an uphill individual time trial (stage 16) and a team time trial (stage 21). There will be 2 rest days. All other days are ‘flat stages’ - relatively flat days, almost touring through France. The total distance ridden will be 3,496 kilometres, or roughly 2,172 miles. There will be a short foray into the Austrian alps on the 13th and 14th stages.
the teamsupdated The UCI (International Cycling Union) has made a concession to this year’s Giro dItalia, as it celebrates 150 years of Italian unity. The UCI has waived the 200-rider limit to entrants in this year’s Giro. As a result, there will be 23 teams participating. There will be 18 professional teams: AG2R La Mondiale (France) There will also be five teams in the UCI Professional Continental category: Acqua & Sapone (Italy) Each team is allow to choose 9 riders from their teams of 12 riders, making a total of 207 cyclists at the start line. All the teams are members of the Biological Passports programme.
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email email_abelard [at] abelard.org © abelard, 2011, 1 february the address for this document is https://www.abelard.org/italy/giro_italia_2011.php
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