il Giro d'Italia 2014
9th May to 1st June 2014

a more humane race?

(to Giro d'Italia web site)

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the italian giro

The Giro d’Italia, the Tour of Italy, is the first of the major three-week tours - The Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France, the Vuelta d’Espagna - in the annual repertoire of international cycle races.

This year, the Corsa Rosa (Pink race), the Giro d’Italia, takes place from the 9th May to 1st June 2014, starting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, before transferring to Italy and racing from the 'heel' of the Sicilian 'boot' northwards to traverse the Italian Alps, before finishing in Trieste. This year’s race includes just over 73 km of individual time trials, as well as a 21.7 km team time trial on the first day.

The 2014 Giro extends over 3450 km., including 427 km in Northern and southern Ireland.

Giro d'Italia 2014 - race map
Click for a large version of the Giro race map

“a more humane Giro”

The 2014 Giro is presented as “a more humane Giro”, with fewer long transfers. Each day’s stage finish is only a short journey from the next day’s stage start, while the stages are shorter. A typical mountain stage this year is a mere 170km, instead of say 240Km. Note that the organisers have received permission to start this year's Giro on a Friday, and so can include three rest days. This year's Giro may be less gruelling in some senses, but at the same time the are sill multiple hard climbs. The race will probably be more energetic, with faster finishes.

• Nine uphill finishes, of which five are “summit” finishes in the high mountains
• Seven “sprint” stages
• One team time trial, one classic time trial, one mountain time trial
• Three rest days.

Italy went to war in 1915, so this could be a theme for next year, just as 1914 is being for the 2014 Tour de France. That said, Stage 6 climbs to Montecassino, scene of a large battle in 1944 where the monastery that was destroyed in fierce fighting.

Ironically, the organisers have also dedicated this year’s Giro to Marco Pantani, il Pirata, winner of the 1998 Giro. A spectacular climber may be, but also a spectacular cycling cheat and general drug taker. Interesting, perhaps, to see the more mute response by cycling officialdom to Pantani's doping. But then he didn't win the Tour de France numerous times, and he was European.

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this year’s stages

21 stages are planned, with five high mountain stages, five medium mountain stages, two individual time trials (stages 12 and 20), a team time trial (stage 1) and supposedly seven sprint finish stages. There will be two rest days. All other days are flat stages. The total distance ridden will be 3,405.3 km, kilometres, or roughly 2,116 miles.

mountain stages - summit and uphill finishes

To some, repeated summit finishes after a long slog may become repetitious, boring, but the scenery is second to none, and the skill to retain sufficient energy for climbs that can be 13% or more makes for exciting watching.

Here, we show the profiles for the summit and uphill finishes, together with some information on the gradients.

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Stage 5		Stage 6
Stage 8 Monte Carpegna 7.8 km at 8.3% Montecopiolo 18 km at 6.3% average Finish at 13%		Stage 9 Finish: Passo del Lupo 10.7 km at 6% with steeper sections
Stage 14 Alpe Noveis is 8.9 km at 7.9% Bielmonte 18.3 km at 6.3% Finish: Oropa 11 km at 6.2%		Stage 15 Montecampione 18.6 km at 7.8% Finish: a solid 10%
Stage 16 Identical to last year's stage 19, cancelled because of snow. Gavia. 5.5 km at max. 16%. Passo dello Stelvio 21.7 km at av. 7.2%, max. 12%	Val Martello: 22.3 km at av. 6.4%, max. 14% near top	Stage 18 Passo San Pelegrino Passo del Redebus Finish: Rifugio Panarotta 16 km at 8%, rising to 16%
Stage 19 Individual time trial 26.9 km at av. 8%, max. 14%		Stage 20 Passo del Pura 11.2 km at 7.7% Sella Razzo 15.8 km at 5.2 %, 15% near summit Monte Zoncolan 10.1 km at av. 11.1%, max. 22%

this year’s favourites

Favourites for 2014 include Cadel Evans (BMC), Nairo Quintana (MOV), Joaquim Rodríguez (KAT), Rigoberto Urán (OPQ).
Other possible contenders are Ivan Basso (CAN), Rafał Majka (TCS), Dan Martin (GRS), Przemysław Niemiec (LAM), Domenico Pozzovivo (ALM) and Michele Scarponi (AST).

first ten riders in the 2013 giro

1.  Vincenzo Nibali | ITA | AST | 84h 53' 28"
2.  Rigoberto Urán | COL | SKY
3. Cadel Evans | AUS | BMC
4.  Michele Scarponi | ITA | LAM
5.  Carlos Betancur | COL | ALM
6.  Przemysław Niemiec | POL | LAM
7.  Rafał Majka | POL | TST
8. Beñat Intxausti  | ESP | MOV
9. Mauro Santambrogio | ITA | VIN
10. Domenico Pozzovivo | ITA | ALM

the classification jerseys

Here are the four classification jerseys for the 2014 Giro.

The overall winner’s jersey is pink, like the paper on which the sponsoring newspaper is printed.
The points jersey is red to illustrate the fiery passion of the fight for points.
The best climber’s jersey is the blue of the sky to which they are climbing.
The best young rider’s jersey is white like the innocence of youth.

the teams

There are 22 teams this year, 18 professional teams and four wildcard teams: Colombia (COL), Yellow Fluo (ITA).

team	country	code	strip	lead rider
ASTANA PRO TEAM	KAS	AST		1 Michele Scarponi (Ita)
AG2R LA MONDIALE	FRA	ALM		11 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita)
ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI	ITA	AND		21 Franco Pellizotti (Ita)
BARDIANI CSF	ITA	BAR		31 Stefano Pirazzi (Ita) 32 Enrico Battaglin (Ita)
BELKIN PRO CYCLING TEAM	NED	BEL		41 Wilco Kelderman (Ned)
BMC RACING TEAM	USA	BMC		51 Cadel Evans (Aus)
CANNONDALE	ITA	CAN		61 Ivan Basso (Ita)
COLOMBIA	COL	COL		71 Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo (Col)
FDJ	FRA	FDJ		81 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra)
GARMIN SHARP	USA	GRS		91 Ryder Hesjedal (Can)
LAMPRE-MERIDA	ITA	LAM		106 Przemyslaw Niemiec
LOTTO BELISOL	BEL	LTB		111 Sander Armee (Bel)
MOVISTAR TEAM	ESP	MOV		121 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col)
NERI SOLLOTI-YELLOW FLUO	ITA	YEL		131 Matteo Rabottini (Ita)
OMEGA PHARMA - QUICK-STEP CYCLING TEAM	BEL	OPQ		141 Rigoberto Uran (Col)
ORICA-GREENEDGE	AUS	OGE		151 Ivan Santaromita (Ita
TEAM EUROCAR	FRA	EUC		161 Pierre Rolland (Fra)
TEAM GIANT-SHIMANO	NED	GIA		171 Marcel Kittel (Ger)
TEAM KATUSHA	RUS	KAT		181 Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver (Spa)
TEAM SKY	GBR	SKY		191 Dario Cataldo (Ita)
TINKOFF SAXO	RUS	TCS		201 Nicolas Roche (Irl)
TREK FACTORY RACING	USA	TFR		211 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro)

Watching the Giro - on the roadside, on TV

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.

• Le Tour 2: preparing to watch the Tour
• Le Tour 3: the Great Day arrives
• le Tour 4: preparing to watch a mountain stage

Daily live TV coverage will be available from British Eurosport, who will provide daily live coverage from all stages of this year’s Giro d'Italia.
One or other of Sky Sports channels is showing highlights during the evening.

using the il Giro web site

1. This web site is created by La Gazzetta dello Sport, an Italian sports newspaper, that has been the organisers of Le Giro cycle race since 1909.
   
   
2. To find details of a stage [tappa], use the navigation bar, that’s the circles and dots, near the top of the page
   
   Note the response time will probably be very slow, this site appears to be regularly overloaded at the moment.
   The navigation pop-up at the bottom of the window just gives basic details of a stage - date, distance and difficulty, start and end towns.
   
   
   While a stage is is actually taking place, this pop-up bar changes and includes the word LIVE!, here indicated with an arrow:
   
   
   Clicking on LIVE! changes the page to a display like below (for a rainy stage 9):
   
   
   Clicking on the time splits changes the road to show the cyclists on the road (the display reverts to just the road when the site is not keeping up):
   
   
   Clicking on the road gives a close-up of the cyclists, with the Maglia Rosa group highlighted:
   
   
   
   
3. For classification information, you must first choose Classifiche from Giro 2013 dropdown menu on the pink navigation bar.
   
   Then when the page updates, there is a new array of navigation choices a bit further down the page:
   
   Tappa - stage, Generali - general, Retrati - retired; tapa golosa - feeding station

Some reference keywords/tags:

Il Giro d'Italia,Tour d'Italie, France, Belfast,Ireland,cycling, riders, teams, stages,

email email_abelard [at] abelard.org

© abelard, 2014, 19 January


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the address for this document is https://www.abelard.org/italy/giro_italia_2014.php