Giro Donne Stage 8: Chiavenna - Livigno
by Monty. on Jul 8, 2010 1:51 PM EDT
in Women's Cycling
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PrintJuly 9th - 93km
And now, at last, the chase is on. And quite appropriately the race today passes through Switzerland and St Moritz, giving us just enough time to answer one of those really crucial questions: was George Lazenby really the best Bond ever. That’s one still up for debate, but it seems fair to point out that you can only ski going downhill, so Bond wouldn’t have had a chance on stage 8. Maybe anyone who finished today should be given an "I’m tougher than James Bond" T-shirt. With rolled up sleeves of course.
There has been some talk in the peloton of how the profiles for the earlier stages didn’t always reflect the reality of the race. Well I don’t think that anyone could claim that they were deceived by today’s. Here’s where the GC begins to be decided, and if you don’t think that you’re a contender then, well, has the grupetto ever formed somewhere between the roll-out and the real start? Tomorrow’s signing on takes place in Piazza Bertacchi in Chiavenna, and thanks to the wonders of webcams you can get to watch it completely live just by clicking on that link any time beween 9:45 and 11:30 CET. Assuming that it is pointing the right way. And if you see any horror-stricken faces, remember that they are just about to start their day with 30km of climbing at an average of 5% right up to the Maloja Pass deep inside Switzerland. Wikipedia has a couple of nice shots of the last few hundred metres, here and here, but the really nasty thing is that the day is only a third done, and there are two more GPM climbs to come.
The next 30km through St Moritz are pretty flat on the map, then there is a small descent before the next climb, 20km up to Passo del Bernina (click for webcam), although at 3% average and 7% maximum it will be the distance that is the killer. Finally there is the last climb of the day, just under 4km up to Forcola di Livigno, before hitting a richly deserved 15km descent into Italy again and the town of Livigno. Salite.ch has profiles for all three of these climbs, Passo del Maloja, Passo del Bernina and Forcola di Livigno if you want more of the bloody details.
Now for the bad news. Italian journalists are all going to be on strike tomorrow, which means that there may be no video coverage. They have scheduled 75 minutes of coverage on Saturday which should include a recap of sorts, but it may not have pictures to go with it. Those webcam shots may be all that we get, so if you happen on a good one, then right click on it, save it to your hard disk, upload it to somewhere like tinypic and post it here. The race departs Chiavenna at 11,45 and is expected to arrive in Livigno between 15,00 and 15,30. The grupetto may be a little behind that schedule.
Images via www.girodonne.it
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Bond reference, ha!
It’s like an ass-backward version of the men’s Giro stage that ended in Chiavenna during the Centenario. The Passo Maloja is that crazy spaghetti road that the men descended in the rain. Wish we could watch this stage live, that’s going to be awesome racing. Silly hard climbing.
Except where the road starts to head slowly downhill to Innsbruck
they do that right turn and climb two more mountains
The closest we've got to live coverage so far
The direct link to the webcam piccies is http://www.comune.chiavenna.so.it/docs/webcam/webcam.jpg
Today is epic
Manel Lacambra says Emma Pooley and Mara Abbott are up 1’45" from their nearest chasers. I’d be VERY happy if they stayed for the rest of the day – ideally with Emma dropping Mara and gaining, say 6’45" on everyone else….
Mara goes
Abbott has dropped Pooley, as Guderzo with Vos.
The situation on Forcola di Livigno:
Mara
some seconds Pooley
2’ Guderzo
3’30" Vos
4’00" Other cyclists (Arndt, Häusler and so on)
by Redazione Cicloweb on Jul 9, 2010 8:34 AM EDT reply actions
Menawhile the grupetto is still on Bernina
(I just missed a view with cyclists in it – as I went to save it updated)
Unofficial results
http://www.cicloweb.it/node/357499
A great Giro!!!
by Redazione Cicloweb on Jul 9, 2010 9:02 AM EDT reply actions
Results
Giro Donne Stage 8 results from Cicloweb
Stage result
1. Mara Abbott, USA
2. Emma Pooley, Cervélo, + 1’27"
3. Judith Arndt, HTC, + 1’40"
4. Tatiana Guderzo, Valdarno, + 1’40"
5. Tatiana Antoshina, Valdarno, + 1’56"
6. Claudia Häusler, Cervélo, + 1’56"
7. Marianne Vos, Netherlands, +3’22"
8. Edwige Pitel, SC Michela Fanini, +3’22"
9. Evgenya Vysotska, Valdarno, + 3’22"
10. Amber Neben, USA, + 4’00"
GC after stage 8
1. Mara Abbott, Team USA
2. Judith Arndt, HTC, + 19"
3. Tatiana Guderzo, Valdarno, + 1’05"
4. Marianne Vos, Netherlands, + 1’38"
5. Claudia Häusler, Cervélo, +1’41"
I love Cicloweb!!
Now maybe she'll do the sensible thing and come back to race in Europe full time
instead of piddling around in those US city crits.
PB2012
Did say that their plan was to get riders over to Europe, so they can challenge at the olympics….
Imagine, if Mara, Shelley and Coryn get to challenge in more races!
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 9, 2010 2:21 PM EDT up reply actions
For anyone who understands Garmin data
Amanda Miller has uploaded her stats to the web
Live TV stream for tomorrow
Does anyone know if there’s a way to watch the race tomorrow live? Is it going to be on any of the Rai stations? Is there any better way to watch the race? Please let me know!
There's no coverage of today (sorry)
All Italian journalists have been on strike. I don’t know if they have been filming to show tomorrow. The RAI TV guide is here and they have 20 minutes of coverage timetabled for 17:40 CET on RAI3, although they have been changing their timetables quite a lot this week, adn something may be on Rai Sport 1 or Rai Sport 2. The big problem for you is that that RAI3 programme follows immediately their coverage of the Tour de France, and Universal have been cracking down on any streams they find with Tour coverage. If you can find a RAI3 stream showing the Tour and it holds out to the end then it should stay for the Giro. Otherwise coverage to date is on You Tube here if all else fails.
And congratulations to Mara, and tell her that Gavia here would love to do an interview with her. Please.
You can see RAI 1 live on their website
You can access RAI 3 and watch other channels again, if you can make them think you’re in Italy (… me I’ve never worked out proxies, bah!)
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 9, 2010 2:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Your sister Mara?
OoooooOOOOoooooH!
Please can you tell her we love her?
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 9, 2010 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Things you never hear Lance say:
unfortunately, I had to leave after the third stage since I couldn’t get more time off work
I wonder if the Fenixs annual budget would be enough to buy one of those fancy Sky buses?z
As far as I know
Lance also never had to share a bed with his team-mates – it’s been interesting watching twitter for who in the USA team has to sleep with who!
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 9, 2010 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions
It's not actual coverage
Cervelo's view
In the final de[s]cent to the finish Mara Abbott attacked and Emma couldn’t follow I had hope that Emma’s poor descending and Mara’s poor timetrialling would balance each other out a bit better and it would all be decided on the Stelvio.
I guess Emma's puncture
yesterday didn’t help – she lost SO much time (although did better than most of the peloton!)
Cervélo have had bad luck this race – losing Sharon Laws is a huge blow, I think. Plus I think it was you who said Emma’s had a big race calendar, compared to others (although noone does as much as Vos!)
And – I have come to the conclusion that the only way I could have picked Zabelinskaya for my team is from your recommendation – thank you so much!
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 9, 2010 2:44 PM EDT up reply actions
I should have followed my own recommendations
I found out that I didn’t miss a day, I was just particularly crap that day.
The game is hard
Because everyone shares about 10 riders – and it’s hard not to put all today’s top 12 into my team for the stage comp tomorrow.
Still, any smugness of mine is all down to Olga, therefore all down to you!
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 9, 2010 3:32 PM EDT up reply actions
There was one day when I only scored with Vos
I thought it was going to end in a sprint
I know the one
I thought it would be sprinty as well, but lost my nerve the night before and swopped in all my climbers – and won the stage! That was the stage the riders were all talking about how the profiles were very misleading….
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 9, 2010 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions
Alison Starnes
Description of the climbing, from her blog
The first part of the climb started relatively gradual, and the whole team needed to stay in the group as long as possible to help our climbers. It was brutal. The race started from the gun, and we were off. Up, up, up. At 20k of climbing, you are no longer thinking clearly, and you feel the burning in your legs and lungs as you begin to climb above 2300m. You are surrounded by jagged peaks covered in snow, pine tress, Swiss lodges, and then you look up. It looks like a game of chutes and ladders. Yes. The last part of the climg and its switchbacks. The groans are uttered loudly. Surely we don’t have to go up that!? Yes. Mara takes off, with Pooley on her wheel. Never to be seen again.
We take the fast road along the lake, blink through St. Moritz, then up the second climb, past the gondolas, past the tree line and feel the lack of oxygen. Then back down again, welcomed back into Italy, by another climb. This last climb was the shorter one, and the steeper one. This climb was not my favorite to say the least. It went up through the moon rocks. No trees. No life. No oxygen. Up up up. Before I could calm myself with the jingling cowbells and alpine meadows, but into the abyss of this climb, no life was present. There was nothing to do but grind up the beast. Finally to the top of that, we descended down into Livigno, to hear the greatest news, Mara had won, and was now in the Maglia Rosa! Woo hoo! USA is leading the Giro Donne!
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