Giro d’Italia Primer

I know a lot of people who read this are not bicycle racing fans, so you probably don’t know why I would dedicate 3 weeks to trying to follow a race all over Italy. Bike racing is not easy to understand at first. The tactics can be pretty complicated and the physical requirements of the race may not be apparent to people who do not ride much. A stage race like the Giro d’Italia takes weeks to complete, covers more than 2,000 miles, crosses the most difficult mountains in Europe and a 2 minute lead at the end would represent a dominating performance. Here is a little background information that may make future posts make more sense.

Types of Races
There are a number of types of road bike races, ranging from the one-day classics, to criteriums and the Grand Tour stage races. The Giro d'Italia is one of the big-daddy stage races. That means it is a multi-day epic event with a number of competitions going on simultaneously. The existence of multiple simultaneous competitions is part of what makes the tactics in racing so interesting. Teams and individual riders all have different goals for the day's race (stage) and the overall outcome. There is a lot more going on that a bunch of guys trying to get to the finish line, although being the first to the line never hurts.

History
This is the 100 year anniversary of the first running of the Giro. That should make this year an even bigger celebration than normal. The race was interrupted for both world wars, but has run every year since WWII. Some of the previous winners over the 100 years are household names in Italy. Just like almost anyone in the U.S. knows about Babe Ruth or Tom Brady, Italians know Fausto Coppi and Ivan Basso. How many cyclists do you think most Americans know other than Lance?


The only American to ever win the Giro was Andy Hampsten in 1988. He clinched the race on an infamous day cresting Passo di Gavia in the snow. It was such an impressive win that it gained the respect of the host country fans, even if an American had no business winning one of the European Grand Tours. That was well before the days of Lance.

Giro’s Place in Bike Racing

The biggest 3 races in cycling every year are (in order) 1) le Tour de France, 2) Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy), and 3) Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain). I have heard that the Tour de France is the biggest spectacle, but the Giro is the “fan’s race”. Apparently tens of thousands of amateur riders line to courses to get a glimpse of the pro riders as they fly past. I plan to be one of those tifosi (fans). Unlike a football game, you don’t buy a ticket and walk to your seat. You earn your vantage point by riding your bike to the top of the biggest mountains in Italy. It’s hard to imagine what that atmosphere will be like, but I’m sure it will be different than anything I have seen before.

Announcing the route this year was pretty big deal. It was done in the Teatro La Fenice in Venice – high drama.

Route
The map at the top of this post shows the 2009 route.

Although the web page is pretty ugly, SteepHill has the best stage maps and elevation profiles I have found. Scroll to the right to see the list of stages.

The race route is different every year, and its selection has a big impact on the tactics used by the teams and racers. This year’s route has only 3 days of flat racing before it heads into the Alps. This route favors riders who arrive at the race in peak condition. Some years, it is preferable to be well rested and ride into peak condition over the first week. This year, the race could be over for anyone who cannot answer every attack on stage 4.

Another peculiarity of the 100th anniversary route is that in ends with a time trial in Rome. This is unusual for 2 reasons. First, the Giro has ended in Milan every year since 1989. Second, a time trial on the last day means that the race could be won or lost on the final stage. Usually tactics allow a team to protect a race leader on the final day of a stage race, but not this year. If the race is close at the end, the last day will be critical.

The cities the tour passes through this year are Venice, Trieste, Padova, Bologna, Florence, Milan, Turin, Bergamo, Rigomaggiore in the Chique Terra, Naples and Rome. Countries covered are Italy, Austria and France.

Weather

Weather is a real wildcard in the Giro. It is entirely possible that there will be snow, rain, hail or sleet on the high passes. Imagine descending a pass on a 15 pound bicycle on tires that are 20 mm wide at 60 miles per hour while sliding on snow or being pelted with hail. Bike racing isn’t for sissies.

The general rule of bicycle racing is that the race goes on regardless of weather. With such an early schedule through high mountains, the Giro organizers are occasionally forced to re-routes the race on short notice. As a spectator, it is already a nearly impossible logistical exercise to follow a race that moves over a hundred miles every day. Booking hotels, trains, rental cars, navigating around closed roads with thousands of fans camped out along the roads and timing your bike ride on unfamiliar roads to arrive at the desired location at the desired time is difficult enough. Add the possibility of the course changing on the night before a stage, and the life of a spectator gets complicated. Type A personalities need not apply. Planning on the fly and going with the flow seems to go with the territory if you want to watch this race.

Stage Types
Each day's event at a multi-day race is called a "stage". A big race like the Giro has a number of different types of stages. The tactics and objectives are different for each type of stage. These definitions may help:

Prologue - Some races start with a very short stage on the first day. It establishes the initial general classification for the first stage, but rarely has much impact on the overall race. This year's Giro does not have a Prologue.

Flat Road Stage – "Flat" is a relative term. A flat road stage is typically more than 100 miles, and does not contain many climbs that contribute to the King of the Mountains competition. They are usually a showcase for the sprinters who put on a chaotic show at the finish.

Mountain Road Stage – This year’s race has six mountain top finishes. Stages 4, 5, 14, 16, 17, and 19. Tour organizers are sick people. No climb is too long or too steep. Many times, a single stage will have multiple climbs that make your legs go weak just to look at them.

Individual Time Trial (ITT) - A time trial is a race where each rider goes against the clock. No drafting, no break-aways, not team tactics. Just an all-out effort to be faster than anyone else. Stage races are often won on time trials.
Riders start the race 1-3 minutes apart in the reverse order of their race position. This gives the race leader that advantage of knowing what he needs to beat at every checkpoint along the course. This year’s Giro has 2 ITT’s (stages 12 and 21), and both are unusual. Stage 12 is a 38.2 mile course. Although that is very short compared to the road stages, Lance Armstrong says it is the longest ITT course he has ever ridden. It is so hilly and curvy that most riders will need to ride their road bikes rather than their more aerodynamic, but less nimble, time trial bikes. The second time trial is unusual in that it is through downtown Rome snaking through the iconic ruins.

Riders use different bikes for time trials than they do for road races. Here is an example of Lance Armstrong's TT bike followed by a Alejandro Valverde's road bike (both exceptional examples of their breed).







Team Time Trail (TTT) – I think the Team Time Trial is the prettiest event to watch in cycling. Not all stage races include a TTT, and when they do, I have never seen more than one in a race. In this year's Giro, it is the first stage in Venice.

Team members take turns leading to be as efficient as they can breaking through the air. No one rider could possibly ride as fast as the team. Riders tuck in within a few inches of the wheel in front of them while riding 30-35+ mph on the flats. The leader stays on the front for a short amount of time (10-15 seconds) then hands-off the lead by peeling to the back. The line looks a bit like a living organism, and the spinning gears sound like a swarm of angry bees. Rules vary from race to race, but typically, the team's time is the last rider to cross the line, so dropping the weakest rider does nothing to help the team.



Circuit race - Circuit races are rarely included in stage races. Although it is the most popular race format in the U.S., they are not normally included in European races. A circuit is a loop course that racers navigate multiple times. They tend to get a little "busy" with racers jockeying for position. It wouldn't be surprising to see a crash or two.

As a spectator, it should be interesting because you get to see the racers multiple times. The organizers included a circuit race through downtown Milan in this year's Giro.

Race Stats
Dates: 5/9/09 - 5/31/09 - 21 days of racing with 2 rest days
Distance: 3,330 km / 2,105 miles
Shortest Day: Stage 21 – Individual Time Trial in Rome – 15.3km / 9.5 miles
Longest Day: Stage 7 – Innsbruck to Chiavenna – 244km / 151.6 miles.

As hard as it may be to believe, the difference in time between the first place finisher and the 20th place finisher is likely to be greater on stage 21 (the shortest day) than it will be on stage 7 (the longest). Time trials tend to be decisive days, even though their mileage does not represent a very large percentage of the total race.

Who is Competing?
This is obviously an Italian race, but the field is decidedly international. Only the top teams in the world are invited to compete. There will be 17 teams with 10 riders per team at the beginning of the race (170 mutants). There is always substantial attrition during the race due to crashes, injuries, illness, equipment failures, time elimination, etc. Some of the big names in this year’s race are:

- Lance Armstrong (US) – 7 time Tour de France winner. This will be his first Giro. He was considered a leading contender until his crash in Spain last month. It is still likely that he will ride, but his training will be interrupted enough that he will probably only be able to use the race to ride himself into shape for the Tour.
- Ivan Basso (Italy) – "Ivan the Terrible". Former Giro winner and Armstrong nemesis in the Tour de France. He is Armstrong’s pick to win the 2009 Giro.
- Damiano Cunego (Italy) – former Giro winner
- Danlio Di Luca (Italy) –“the killer”. Former Giro winner
- Stefano Garzelli (Italy) – former Giro winner
- Gilberto Simoni (Italy) – 2-time Giro winner
- Carlos Sastra (Spain) – 2008 Tour de France winner
- Levi Liepheimer (USA) – 2009 Tour of California winner
- Christian Vande Velde (USA) – rising star
- Denis Menchov (Russia) – 2005 and 2007 Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain) winner
- Fabian Cancellara () Olympic time trial champion, Winner 2009 Milan-San Remo.
- Alberto Contador (Spain) – Lance’s teammate will not compete, presumably in an effort to peak his training for the Tour. He is the 2008 Giro winner, 2008 Tour of Spain winner, and 2007 Tour de France winner. Too bad I won’t get to see him race.

Spectators
The Grand Tour bike races draw bigger crowds than the Super Bowl every day for 3 weeks. Spread out millions of people over thousands of miles, and you can see how logistically challenging it is going to be to watch this race. Every day is a new location to figure out. Transportation, lodging, weather. Wow. I see why most people use tour companies when they want to watch more than one stage.

Simultaneous Competitions

General Classification (GC) - This is the headline competition in a stage race. When people said that Lance Armstrong "won" the Tour de France, they were referring to the General Classification competition. GC is calculated as the cumulative time for all of the stages. You can win the GC competition without winning a single daily stage as long as your cumulative time is lower than all other riders. GC is stated as minutes and seconds behind the leader. The leader's time might be 55:30:27 (55 hours, 30 minutes, 27 seconds). The second place rider's time would be stated as +0:48, meaning he is 48 seconds behind the leader.

The leader of this competition wears the Pink Jersey each day. This is the equivalent of the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France.

An interesting point about the GC calculation is that all riders who finish in a group at the end of the stage are awarded the exact same time. That is why it is so common during flat stages where the riders cannot create gaps between themselves for GC to remain completely unchanged in the top positions from one day to the next. This is one of the reasons why time trials are so pivotal where there is no such thing as a "group finish".

Stage Winner - Although the ultimate glory is to win the GC, there is a lot of status in winning a daily stage. Interesting tactics can develop when a rider who is contending for the GC takes advantage of the efforts of a rider who is out of contention, but wants to compete for a stage win. By offering up a stage win as incentive, the GC rider can utilize the services of a non-team member as if he were an ally. It gets pretty interesting.

Team Standings - Cycling is a team sport, but the team rarely gets recognized. This competition goes to the team with the best combined result of its surviving members.

King of the Mountains - Climbs are assigned points based on their difficulty. The first rider over a climb gets the most points, second less, third less, etc. The rider with the most mountain points at the end of the race wins this competition.

The leader of this competition wears the Green Jersey each day.

Best Young Rider - This competition goes to the lowest GC rider under the age of 25.

The leader of this competition wears the White Jersey each day.

Points / Sprint - Points are awarded for the first several riders to cross mid-stage sprint lines and the finish line of each stage. The rider with the most sprint points at the end of the race wins this competition. This competition rewards consistency and sprinting ability.

The leader of this competition wears the Mauve Jersey each day.

Is That Enough?
Well... This turned into another long post, but I hope this helps you understand future editions more clearly. Congratulations, you now know more about bike racing than most Americans!

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