Giro Donne – Stage 5

by Monty. on Jul 7, 2009 12:57 PM EDT

The next stage from Fossacesia on the coast up to Cerro al Volturno looks like a hard one to call. They set off from the church/monastery of San Giovanni in Venere and after only 2k hit a downhill ramp averaging 7-8% for 1.5k. Enjoy it while you can because that will be the last chance to freewheel for about 90k. Rather like stage 7 of the men’s Giro, todays route rises gently uphill for a very long time, before suddenly dropping away for a roller-coaster like descent into the valley. But in a cruel finale, the last km is uphill again, this time cobbled with sections up to 16%. The photo above doesn’t show the road, but it gives a pretty clear idea what to expect. There’s bound to be a scrap between the leaders for the odd second here and there, but who knows what places they will be racing for.

There’s not much incentive for someone to make a GPM dash today, since all that climbing only leads to a cat 3 summit. On top of that, the next three days have a lot more, nastier, and higher scoring climbs to come. So perhaps we can expect a handful of stage hunters to try and get away, a couple of the eighty or so girls who are more than 20 minutes down.

We’ve had no live coverage so far, but today that is a genuine possibility. OK not the motobike, sweat dripping off the tip of the nose type shot, but there is a webcam at the top of the climb in Rionero Sannitico. Just click here. The race is scheduled to pass there between 13:15 and 13:37, so if you feel lucky, start clicking. Otherwise the organisers have been putting up short videos every day on YouTube. The paint job on th Fenixs car is worth watching out for.

Rai Sport Piu will have half an hour of coverage at 19:00 local time. RAI 2 also seem to be interrupting their daily Tour coverage for a fifteen minute daily summary. Untimetabled, so it’s the luck of the draw if you get it or not.

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The Profile

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Wow

usually profiles are misleadingly sharp… this one, who’d guess that the final KM tops out at 16%? Should be a great finish. Is RAI leaving video clips around someplace on the webs?

Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on Columbia, Roll on!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 7, 2009 4:38 PM EDT reply actions

I've not seen any

view on demand clips. The best I can offer is here which seems to be a web version of RAI Sports, minus all the bits the lawyers won’t let them show. You just have to tune in at the right time, and now the Mediterranean games have finished they are better at keeping to the published timetable. That link opens in Windows Media Player for me; I’ve no idea what it does on a Mac.

by Monty. on Jul 7, 2009 6:07 PM EDT up reply actions

Link gives audio but black screen on my Mac

with latest Flip4Mac and Perian installed. However, it does play flawlessly in VLC Player (copy-paste link into Cmd-O dialog).

by tedvdw on Jul 7, 2009 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Sorry, I meant: copy Monty’s link and paste it into the Open dialog of VLC Player.

by tedvdw on Jul 7, 2009 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions

D'oh!

Dammit. Just checked, it’s not the Cmd-O dialog but Cmd-N (“open network address”).

by tedvdw on Jul 7, 2009 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Even better then

because VLC also lets you record the stream.

by Monty. on Jul 7, 2009 7:08 PM EDT up reply actions

Good job following this for us...

… it’s appreciated.

That photo looks like they’re climbing to Chichen Itza, not San Giovanni in Venere!

Respect the Shit List; it respects you.

by crashdan on Jul 7, 2009 5:48 PM EDT reply actions

But then according to the profile

there’s a little tram waiting halfway up, should they get too tired. I haven’t got a clue what the other icon shows, let alone what it means. Wipe the chocolate off your helmet?

by Monty. on Jul 7, 2009 6:10 PM EDT up reply actions

Tunnel?

by tedvdw on Jul 7, 2009 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Dan, you'll be pleased to know that I have just purchased a copy of your favourite film.

It cost me the princely sum of £3.

Adrenalina Italiana!

by Albertina on Jul 7, 2009 6:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Geez...

which one is it? Big Lebowski? Big Trouble in Little China? Killing Fields? Fargo? Maltese Falcon? Thunderball? The Prestige?

Respect the Shit List; it respects you.

by crashdan on Jul 7, 2009 7:10 PM EDT up reply actions

Collective unicorn count zero

keep guessing

by Monty. on Jul 7, 2009 7:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Il Buono, il Bruto, il Cattivo? (re: avatar)

by tedvdw on Jul 7, 2009 7:14 PM EDT up reply actions

The first one ;-)

Adrenalina Italiana!

by Albertina on Jul 8, 2009 4:01 AM EDT up reply actions

Wow, what a great day's racing

and I’ve been knocking RAI a bit for their coverage, but today they got it spot on; you sometimes wished they had a couple more bikes, maybe a helicopter too, but they did a great job with what they had and you always knew who was where on the road.

The start was open, relaxed and very serene, in the courtyard of the abbey overlooking the Adriatic

Bigla were aggressive from the moment the road started to go uphill, and they managed to get two of their team into a break of six, Noemi Cantele and Swiss champion Jennifer Hohl. The others in the break were pretty decent riders too, Teutenberg (not much chance of a real bunch sprint until Sunday, so why not), Giorgia Bronzini, Sigrid Corneo and Julia Martisova. Here they pass the tree opposite the webcam:

Behind them was a large chasing group containing all “le big”. Sadly at one point Amber Neben and Marta Vilajosana skidded and crashed. The Spanish champion managed to remount and catch up, but Neben was taken away in an ambulance. It doesn’t sound like her injuries were life-threatening, just race-ending (I’ll try to find more later). That cut the chasers down to 16. Cervelo had three there to protect Emma Pooley, and they covered the front most of the day.

Then something very odd happened. Pooley had a mechanical of some sort, maybe a puncture and dropped back. No problem, that’s what teammates are for, to pace you back when stuff like this happens. OK you don’’t send Hausler back, but maybe one of the other girls?

I said “MAYBE ONE OF THE OTHER GIRLS”

Up ahead Arndt tried to get away, and Teutenberg slowed down to wait for her. Were Cervelo losing it? Sadly she too had a mechanical, and in the time it took to fix she found herself back with Pooley, and they worked their way together back to the chasing group.

In the meantime Teutenberg had caught back up with the rest of the break

by Monty. on Jul 8, 2009 2:45 PM EDT reply actions

Then at 500m to go the road suddenly turned up

and kept going up and up. Cantele was pretty rested because her teammate Hohl had been doing much of the work that day, so she just took off. The sprinters Bronzini and Teutenberg were the only ones who could manage to hold on to her wheel.

But even they finally fell away as the road just kept going up

and up

Those last 25m are always the toughest

Behind them a familiar figure led the main bunch. She should sleep well tonight, or do they just switch her off.

Maya Abbott lost 22s to Pooley and Hausler on the final climb and is now in 4th place behind teammate Judith Arndt who rode the last few km with some sort of brake problem. Kristin Armstrong lost roughly a minute . Lizzie Armistead rode in beside her closest rival for the white jersey, Elena Berlato, and they gained time on everyone else. No change in the jersey holders. You can download full results and standings from Cicloweb. These timings clearly come from the organisers, but they seem to post it early to proper journalists then put it up on the website the next day.

by Monty. on Jul 8, 2009 3:07 PM EDT reply actions