Giro 2010 route

[Andrija]

Next year's route was presented today. Like in several previous editions organizers wanted to please spectators more than cyclists. It's extremely hard again, and for climbers. Team time trial comes early, it's not long, it should be attractive, but it won't affect the race much, I think. Last week will be very hard, but I don't think time trial in Verona will change anything (to be honest, I think the winner will be known already after Plan de Corones).
I think it's too hard for some riders who have TDF in their plans for next year, so Italians should be main protagonists, Liquigas for example. How exciting the race will be, mostly depends on who (and how many of them) is going to target it for next season. With Californian tour in the same time, the field maybe won't be that strong.

Edit:
And it has everything. Dead flat stages in Netherlands, stages with short uphill finishes, medium mountain stages which can provoke some escapes. It can attract lots of stage hunters.

 

[guncha]

I don't share your excitement due to a few reasons:
1. Giro has only 24km of flat/small climb ITT. It is misbalance between ITT and mountains.
2. The distance of TTT is longer than of flat/small climb ITTs. TTT goes slightly uphill which will make it very specific and therefore someone of GC guys might be eliminated. It can ruin Giro in a perfect TDF style.
3. There is only one GC stage in mountains during first 13 days of racing. I guess a lot fans were ****** off when we had the same picture in this year's TDF.

I could agree that mountain stages are hard and riders of Giro will climb some of the hardest mountains in the World. But, Zoncolan is the only H.C. mountaintop finish of the Giro of a road stage (H.C. Corones comes in an ITT). Aprica and Tonale are quite gentle climbs in a stage with brutal climbs (brutal climbs are located quite far from the finish, though). Those four stages should be crucial but only two of final climbs are H.C.
Terminillo is very solid 1st cat climb in a single col stage.
Mountaintop finish of Terme shouldn’t make big gaps.

I think it is normal GT route but not exceptional. Just like this year's TDF.

 

[Andrija]

I don't share your excitement due to a few reasons:
1. Giro has only 24km of flat/small climb ITT. It is misbalance between ITT and mountains.
2. The distance of TTT is longer than of flat/small climb ITTs. TTT goes slightly uphill which will make it very specific and therefore someone of GC guys might be eliminated. It can ruin Giro in a perfect TDF style.
3. There is only one GC stage in mountains during first 13 days of racing. I guess a lot fans were ****** off when we had the same picture in this year's TDF.

I could agree that mountain stages are hard and riders of Giro will climb some of the hardest mountains in the World. But, Zoncolan is the only H.C. mountaintop finish of the Giro of a road stage (H.C. Corones comes in an ITT). Aprica and Tonale are quite gentle climbs in a stage with brutal climbs (brutal climbs are located quite far from the finish, though). Those four stages should be crucial but only two of final climbs are H.C.
Terminillo is very solid 1st cat climb in a single col stage.
Mountaintop finish of Terme shouldn’t make big gaps.

I think it is normal GT route but not exceptional. Just like this year's TDF.

Where have you seen excitement in my post? It's summary of the route.
Mountains in Giro usually come in last 10 days 'cause of weather.
Have you tried to calculate incline in TTT? It's negligible. Bigger obstacle will be long straight road (especially near the end when even that negligible incline could affect speed of lighter riders). Who ever of small climbers loses some time in TTT will have enough opportunities to make it up in the mountains and especially on Corones. Last TT favors climbers and that was point of my post - Giro for climbers, despite your suggestion that climbs aren't that hard. Maybe they aren't but their succession gives more opportunities to pure climbers than others.
I think your comparison with TdF is inappropriate. Just count mountain top finishes and their arrangement. Not to mention uphill TT.
When you talk about measure of TT kilometers and mountains, it's more TdF's obsession to make right proportion than it's Giro's. Just take a look at some previous editions. Two different kinds and approaches to GT are Giro and Tour. Position in racing calendar plays big role in Giro design.

 

[guncha]

Where have you seen excitement in my post? It's summary of the route.
Mountains in Giro usually come in last 10 days 'cause of weather.
Have you tried to calculate incline in TTT? It's negligible. Bigger obstacle will be long straight road (especially near the end when even that negligible incline could affect speed of lighter riders). Who ever of small climbers loses some time in TTT will have enough opportunities to make it up in the mountains and especially on Corones. Last TT favors climbers and that was point of my post - Giro for climbers, despite your suggestion that climbs aren't that hard. Maybe they aren't but their succession gives more opportunities to pure climbers than others.
I think your comparison with TdF is inappropriate. Just count mountain top finishes and their arrangement. Not to mention uphill TT.
When you talk about measure of TT kilometers and mountains, it's more TdF's obsession to make right proportion than it's Giro's. Just take a look at some previous editions. Two different kinds and approaches to GT are Giro and Tour. Position in racing calendar plays big role in Giro design.

I misspelled the last sentence in my post because I meant TDF 2010 not 2009. Apart from TDF 2009 (one of the worst GT routes ever) ASO managed to put great routes in 2007, 2008 and 2010. And as always despite decent efforts fans underestimated their efforts.
My point was very simple - to have hard mountains are OK but it also should be balanced with ITT. Some of GC guys might be better in ITT than others and they simply won't have a chance to show themselves. I guess that each GT has provided at least 50km of ITT recently. ITT has always been a significant part of GT.
I could do TDF 2010 vs Giro 2010 stage by stage analysis but it is certain that TDF 2010 has some 5 MTF (Rousses, Morzine climb, Mende, Ax3, Tourmalet) and two stages with decent (St Jean and Luchon) for GC.
You can talk about the place in the calendar but it is true that Giro has never been criticized when it lacks GC action in the first two weeks.