Giro Stage 18 Preview: Levico Terme - Brescia

Stage 18 :: Thursday May 27, 2010
151km :: Levico Terme - Brescia

The riders must get from one mountain to the other, and why not have them do it on a bike... on a transition stage... riding by a pretty lake...

Yep, not much gonna happen on this stage tomorrow.  Breakaway's will flourish, the tempo will be tranquilo and the gradient will average out to being negative from start to finish. It's a snoozer... but a snoozer with a lake.  So it has that going for it.

PS: Ivan Basso must narfle the Garthok.

Gav's baffled by this bizarre wind driven NW swell mixing with the onshore flow:

Yes, it's quite odd weather here for May. Generally, it doesn't rain this late in the year. Anyway, tomorrow will be a sprinty stage. Watch for the general classification riders to slack the day away. For they have the Mortirolo to ride on Friday. Also, there's the small matter of the Passo di Gavia, where the weather is reportedly poor with rain and snow. As of now, the pass remains open. So there will be bike racing. There is a webcam for the Gavia, but it is sadly not working. Alrighty, tomorrow they will sprint.

Frinkington Bear is less than enthusiastic:

YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH We've got it.. We've got it! Come and join the klompendans! Take a beer and velebrate with us.. It was already written and than...

So close but still soooo far away. The 22 year old Kruijwijk is beaten by an unknow Frenchman.. Life is hard.. Especially after such a doll stage. Who did expect that? Nothing happened. Which does put up the question.. Why does the Giro hates me? Missing all the terrific stages..

But Maybe it's tomorrow? Because Liqui sacrificed the local plumber, who also turned out to be Polish, but didn't work. Everyone was there. The answer on the last question is NO. Nothing is going to happen.. We are going to see attacks who are again sticks? With looooooooooong and Dutch flat roads it's the road to hell for watching people. Whatever you do tomorrow. Don't turn on the tv..

Chris is traveling today, apparently:

Action: Transitional stage. Like riding in long breakaways? Not dead yet? Today's your day.

Pageantry: Plenty of time to kill. And by stage 18 the crew from RAI could be getting a bit punchy.

The Plan: Under less trying circumstances I would probably tune in, but with travel involved it's almost a sure miss.

Look! A lake!

Here are the official materials from La Gazetta:

1. Stage Map
2. Stage Profile
3. Timetable

Here's PodiumCafe's Google Earth map file for the stage.